Victor Felipe Pellot Pové (November 1, 1927November 29, 2005), known professionally as Vic Power, was a Puerto Rican professional baseball first baseman. He played twelve seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles / California Angels, and Philadelphia Phillies, from 1954 through 1965. Pellot was the second Puerto Rican of African descent to play in the majors post-integration and the second Puerto Rican to play in the American League (AL), following Hiram Bithorn.
Pellot used the name Vic Power during his major league career, but played as Victor Pellot when he played winter baseball in Puerto Rico. He was an AL All-Star for four seasons playing in five of the six All-Star games that were played, and won seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards. In 1955, Power and Luis Arroyo became the first Puerto Ricans to be selected to the MLB All-Star Game.
In 1946 Pellot started to practice with a local baseball team called the Senadores de San Juan (San Juan Senators) and learned many of his baseball skills. Vic Power joined Caguas-Guayama in 1946. He established a LBPPR record by stealing second, third and home twice.
Minor leagues
Pellot was signed by the Yankees in 1951, and sent to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Class AAA International League. In 1952, Pellot played for the Kansas City Blues of the Class AAA American Association, where he led the league in doubles and triples, while posting a .331 batting average. The next season, Pellot led the league with a .349 batting average. Power dated light-skinned women, leading George Weiss, the general manager of the Yankees, to say that Pellot was "not the Yankee type". When the Yankees had a need at the major league level, they promoted Gus Triandos, a Caucasian player from Class AA, instead of Pellot. The Yankees decided on Elston Howard to become the first black player in club history. Many blacks and Puerto Ricans protested in front of Yankee Stadium in response to what they believed to have been a racially motivated decision.
MLB career
On December 16, 1953, Pellot was traded by the Yankees, along with Don Bollweg, Jim Finigan, Johnny Gray, Bill Renna, Jim Robertson, and $25,000 to the Philadelphia Athletics for Loren Babe, Harry Byrd, Tom Hamilton, Carmen Mauro and Eddie Robinson, thus becoming the first Puerto Rican to play for that team. Suffering from the racial discrimination which was rampant in the nation during that time, Pellot could neither stay with the rest of the team at the same hotels nor be allowed to eat at the same restaurants as his white teammates. The Athletics moved to Kansas City in 1955, where he finished in second place in the batting race.
Pellot is one of only six batters, as of August 7, 2010, to have hit both a leadoff and walk-off home run in the same game (having done so in 1957), the others being Billy Hamilton (1893), Darin Erstad (2000), Reed Johnson (2003), Ian Kinsler (2009), and Chris Young (2010).
In 1958, Pellot was sent to the Cleveland Indians. During his 12-year career, he played with the Philadelphia / Kansas City Athletics (1954–58), Cleveland Indians (1958–61), Minnesota Twins (1962–64), Los Angeles Angels (1964), Philadelphia Phillies (1964), and California Angels (1965).
Before retiring, Pellot won seven consecutive Gold Glove Awards from when the award was first introduced in 1958 to 1964. He made the American League All-Star team with the Kansas City Athletics in 1955 and 1956 and the Cleveland Indians in 1959 and 1960 (two games were played both seasons). Pellot was also voted the Minnesota Twins Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 1962. He has the record of having made one or more assists in 16 consecutive game as a first baseman. At the age of 36, he won his final Gold Glove Award to be the oldest player to win the award at first base; this record was not surpassed until Yuli Gurriel won the first base Gold Glove at 37 in 2021.
He shares the record of making two unassisted double plays in one game, and he is one of 11 players to steal home plate twice in one game, and he also shares the record of being assists leader for six years in a row and of double plays in a single game. Among his career totals are the following: 1,716 hits and 126 home runs, and he was only struck out 247 times out of 6,046 at bats.
Name history
In a letter to historian Bill Haber in 1993, Pellot gave his real, full name as Victor Felipe Pellot Pove; Pove being his mother's maiden name and Pellot his father's surname (as is traditional in Hispanic culture; see Roberto Enrique Clemente Walker). However, when his mother, Maximina Pove, was in the first grade, her teacher changed her last name, changing the "v" to a "w" and adding an "r" at the end. In response, he played under the name of "Vic Power." He kept the name after getting promoted to the majors in United States, but retained "Pellot" when playing winter ball in Puerto Rico.
Legacy
Pellot has been considered by many Puerto Ricans to be one of the island's greatest baseball players, a legend only surpassed by Roberto Clemente. directed by Alan Swyer and narrated by Esai Morales, which covers the early influences and contributions of Hispanics to baseball. In 2000, the Cleveland Indians honored him by declaring him to be among its 100 all-time greatest players. He was named the 81st greatest first baseman in Major League history by historian Bill James in his book "The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract".