Baudilio José Díaz Seijas (March 23, 1953 – November 23, 1990) was a Venezuelan professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher from 1977 to 1989, most prominently with the Cleveland Indians where he rose to prominence as an American League (AL) All-Star player in 1981 and, later with the Philadelphia Phillies where he was a member of the 1983 National League pennant winning team. He earned his second All-Star game berth with the Cincinnati Reds in 1987. Diaz began his career with the Boston Red Sox. In 2006, Díaz was posthumously inducted into the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame.
Baseball career
Minor Leagues and Boston Red Sox
Díaz was born in Cúa, Miranda, Venezuela. At the age of 14, he played on a national champion Little League team that missed a trip to the 1967 Little League World Series, when a strong earthquake devastated the city of Caracas.
In December 1970, Díaz was signed by Boston Red Sox as an amateur free agent. While playing for the Pawtucket Red Sox in 1977, he posted a .263 batting average, with 14 doubles, 7 home runs, and 54 runs batted in (RBI). This earned Díaz his big league call-up on September 6, 1977, versus the Blue Jays, at Toronto. He entered the game as a late-inning defensive replacement for Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk.
Cleveland Indians
On March 30, 1978, Díaz was traded along with Ted Cox, Mike Paxton and Rick Wise to the Cleveland Indians for Dennis Eckersley and Fred Kendall. He played as the Indians' backup catcher, working behind Gary Alexander in 1978. He lost his job to Ron Hassey the following season, and played most of the year in the minor leagues with the Tacoma Tugs in the Pacific Coast League, before returning to play for the Indians in September 1979. By June, he was hitting for a .356 batting average with 4 home runs and 25 runs batted in to earn a place as a reserve player for the American League team in the 1981 All-Star Game. He ended the season with a .313 batting average in 63 games. He became the Phillies starting catcher in 1982, replacing Bob Boone, who had been traded to the California Angels. Díaz set career highs in batting average (.288), home runs (18), and runs batted in (85). Carlton also led the league in strikeouts and shutouts and, was named the 1982 National League Cy Young Award winner. In a 1982 computer ranking of major league players that used offensive and defensive statistics, Díaz was ranked second among National League catchers behind only Gary Carter.
Díaz was a member of the 1983 Phillies team that became known as The Wheeze Kids, due to the average age of the team being over thirty. The moniker was a whimsical reference to the Whiz Kids Phillies team that won the National League pennant in 1950. In a game against the New York Mets on April 13, 1983, Díaz performed a feat that has only been accomplished by 11 other players in the history of Major League Baseball. The Phillies were trailing by a score of 9–6 and with two outs in the ninth inning, when Díaz hit a grand slam home run off Neil Allen to win the game for the Phillies by a score of 10–9. On September 23, Díaz was the Phillies catcher when Steve Carlton won the 300th game of his career. With the Phillies leading the game by a score of 3–2 in the fifth inning, Díaz sealed the victory with a two-run single.
The Phillies won 12 out of the final 14 games of the 1983 season to win the National League Eastern Division title. Díaz contributed by hitting .360 in the final week of the season, including a game on September 28 against the Chicago Cubs in which he had 5 hits in 5 at-bats including 2 home runs. Although he led National League catchers in errors, he led the league in range factor and finished second in putouts, assists and in baserunners caught stealing. After defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1983 National League Championship Series, the Phillies lost the 1983 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles in five games. In the only World Series appearance of his career, Díaz was the leading hitter for the Phillies with a .333 batting average. During Game One of the Series (the only game of the Series that the Phillies won, by a 2–1 score), Díaz almost hit a home-run, but he was robbed of it by John Lowenstein with a spectacular, beyond the wall catch.
In 1984, Díaz went on the disabled list twice due to knee problems and played in only 27 games. Díaz broke his right wrist at the beginning of the 1985 season and was on the disabled list for a month and a half. During his absence, his replacement, Ozzie Virgil hit above the .300 mark, relegating Díaz to the backup catcher's role upon his return. On August 8, 1985, the Phillies traded Díaz to the Cincinnati Reds.
On June 27, 1986, Díaz was part of an unusual occurrence when San Francisco Giants second baseman, Robby Thompson, became the first player in major league history to be caught stealing four times in one game. Thompson was thrown out at second base by Díaz in the 4th, 6th and 9th innings and was picked off by pitcher John Franco in the 11th inning. He was named Player of the Month for the month of July during which he produced a .351 batting average with 5 home runs and 23 runs batted in, including a game on July 7 when he had 6 runs batted in. His heavy workload continued as he played in 140 games, ending the season with a respectable .270 average with 15 home runs and 82 runs batted in.
Reds' manager Pete Rose continued to play Díaz almost every day in the 1988 season. Díaz was the Reds catcher on June 6, 1988, when pitcher Tom Browning almost threw a no-hitter against the San Diego Padres. Browning held the Padres hitless through eight innings before Tony Gwynn hit a single with one out in the ninth inning (however, Browning would go on to throw a perfect game two months later on September 16 against the Dodgers). Eventually, the heavy workload began to catch up with Díaz. In mid-June, a shoulder injury put him on the disabled list and then in September, Díaz had to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, which ended his season. He shared catching duties with Jeff Reed in 1989 but, in July Díaz had to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee for a second time, which ended his season. Díaz decided to retire, having played in his final major league game on July 9, 1989, at the age of 36. Díaz was the leading hitter in the 1982 Caribbean Series with a .412 batting average and 2 home runs, earning him the Series’ Most Valuable Player award.
Díaz was part of an extremely unlikely event spanning thirteen years. On January 6, 1973, he caught for minor league pitcher Urbano Lugo, who threw a no-hitter as the Leones del Caracas defeated the Tiburones de La Guaira, 6–0. Thirteen years later, on January 24, 1986, Díaz was the catcher for another no-hitter in a 4–0 Caracas's victory over La Guaira. This time, the pitcher was major leaguer Urbano Lugo Jr., son of the elder Lugo.
Death
On November 23, 1990, Díaz was killed, aged 37, when a satellite dish he was trying to install on the roof of his Caracas home fell on him and crushed his neck and head. Díaz was survived by his wife, Maria, and their two sons.