Former Dominican player Julio Lugo, who died this Monday, November 15 at the age of 45, played in the Major Leagues for 12 seasons, in which he wore the shirts of seven different franchises.
He was promoted to the majors at age 24 with the Houston Astros (2000), where he was for four years. He subsequently went to the Tampa Bay Stripes between the 2003-2006 seasons, when he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In 2007 he joined the Boston Red Sox, a team with which he was champion of the World Series. He played three years in Boston and in 2009 went on to the St. Louis Cardinals instead. His last years he played in Baltimore (2010) and Atlanta Braves (2011).
In the 2007 World Series Lugo hit five hits in 13 at-bats in a series that went to a minimum of four games when Boston swept the Colorado Rockies.
In his career in the majors, Lugo hit an undeniable 1,279, 80 homers, 475 RBIs with a .269 batting average, always playing with infield at middle and shortstop.
In 2012 Julio Lugo became champion in Dominican ball for the first time participating with the Leonel del Escogido in a final that went to nine games against the Águilas Cibaeñas.
Lugo was a star figure on the field and on the bench of the Lions squad that was the last Dominican ball dynasty by winning four championships in seven years.
At the end of his career in Dominican ball, he was appointed special assistant to the team’s operations in 2017. He was also a baseball commentator on the program La Hora del Deporte, by Héctor J Cruz.
According to Baseball Reference, for 12 years it would have achieved income of 48 million dollars in salaries.
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