The Boston Red Sox lost a member of their extended family Saturday when Felix Maldonado, a long-time fixture within the organization, passed away at the age of 73 at his home in Fort Myers, Fla., after a long battle with cancer.
Maldonado spent 47 years with the Red Sox. He joined the organization as a minor league outfielder in 1963 and served as an instructor and minor league manager following his retirement. In 1995, the Red Sox named Maldonado coordinator of Latin American instruction before naming him player development consultant in 2003.
“Everyone in the Red Sox organization is better for having known and worked with Felix,” Red Sox executive vice president/general manager Theo Epstein said. “He was a great baseball man and an even better person. For all of Felix’s accomplishments over many decades, perhaps his longest lasting achievement will be turning the Red Sox from an organization into a family. He will be dearly missed by all of us.”
In March 2007, the Red Sox named one of the practice fields at their player development complex in Fort Myers “Felix Maldonado Field.” In 2009, the Puerto-Rico-born Maldonado was inducted into the Puerto Rican Baseball Hall of Fame.
