Portal:Puerto Rico/Did you know entries/21

Sports topics

... that José Juan Barea made history, by becoming the first Puerto Rican to play in the "Finals" for a winning NBA Championship team, when the Dallas Mavericks were crowned the 2011 NBA Finals Champions?
... that in 1942, Hirám Bithorn became the first Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues?
... that in 1980 Alberto Mercado was the only Puerto Rican ("American" citizen) to actually participate in the Moscow Olympics?
... that Herbert Lewis Hardwick a.k.a. "Cocoa Kid" was the only Puerto Rican member of boxings "Black Murderers' Row" and that he was the only Hispanic to win the World Colored Championships in both the welterweight and middleweight divisions? On June 10, 2012 Hardwick was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame^[1]
... that Leon Day, a pitcher in the Negro Leagues who played for "Los Tiburones de Aguadilla" (the "Aguadilla Sharks") loved Puerto Rico so much that when he was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 1995 he was enshrined with a cap on his plaque that depicts him as an "Aguadilla Shark"? He is the only Hall of Famer to be enshrined with a cap of a team outside the mainland United States.^[2]
... that Orlando Fernández, a.k.a. "The Puerto Rican Aquaman" is the first Puerto Rican swimmer to cross the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco?^[3]^[4]
... that the first time that a Puerto Rican Ski Team was sent to represent the island in an Olympic Winter ski competition was the 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the "XV Olympic Winter Games", celebrated in Calgary, Alberta, Canada?^[5]
... that Mary Pat Wilson, who participated in the 1988 Olympics Games, is Puerto Rico's first and only female Olympic skier?^[5]
... that On August 13, 2016, Monica Puig won Puerto Rico's first Gold Medal in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, exactly 68 years to the day when Juan Evangelista Venegas won the first Olympic Medal (Bronze) for Puerto Rico in the 1948 Olympics celebrated in London, United Kingdom?
... that On October 28, 2018, Alex Cora, became the first Puerto Rican to manage a World Series winning team when the Boston Red Sox defeated the LA Dodgers?^[6]

^ International Boxing Hall of Fame
^ Leon Day
^ Inspirador el "Aquaman" Metro International. 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2013.
^ "El Aquaman Boricua"
^ ^a ^b The Washington Post, "In ’88 Games, two Virginians skied for Puerto Rico"
^ David Price, Steve Pearce lead Red Sox to World Series title

[BR-1] International Boxing Hall of Fame

[2] Leon Day

[AM-3] Inspirador el "Aquaman" Metro International. 2012. Retrieved 6 September 2013.

[AMB-4] "El Aquaman Boricua"

[WO-5] The Washington Post, "In ’88 Games, two Virginians skied for Puerto Rico"

[6] David Price, Steve Pearce lead Red Sox to World Series title

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