Julian Javier

Julian became a well known baseball phenomenon in his home town of San Francisco de Macoris. As an amateur, he was a third baseman as well as a power hitter. It is legend that he has hit the longest home runs in the high school stadiums of San Francisco de Macoris to this date. He went on to represent the Dominican Republic in the 1955 Pan American Games, although he did not see much playing time, the team went on to win the first gold medal for the Dominican Republic at a Pan American Games. That team also had another future all-star major leaguer Felipe Alou.\n', '

The right-handed batting Javier signed as an amateur free agent with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1956. Coming up through the minor leagues, Javier became known as "the fastest man in baseball." He batted .250 with twenty home runs in five years in their farm system, and had emerged as one of their top prospects when he was de…