The first Major League Baseball player to come from the City of Tampa was catcher Al Lopez, the son of Spanish immigrants.  

“They called my father El Señor,” Lopez Jr. said. “But no matter how big his career got, he never forgot where he came from.”
Lopez was born in Tampa in 1908 and grew up in Ybor City.  At the time, it was a bustling immigrant town with a thriving cigar industry, and Lopez's 12th Avenue home in the center of it all.

“Ybor City was kind of like a melting pot,” Lopez Jr. said. “My grandfather worked in the cigar factory. But my father was never in for that, and he was lucky that he was a ball player.”

Lopez learned from his older brothers, and the sandlots of Ybor were his stomping grounds.

“They played ball all the time. In Ybor city, wherever there was a vacant lot, they played ball, and he was lucky enough to be seen by some people,” Lopez Jr. said. “And they asked him if he was interested in being a ball player, and he said ‘of course.’ So he signed and started playing.”
First, for the Tampa Smokers at just 16-years-old. Then, up to the big leagues. Over nearly two decades, Lopez played for Brooklyn, Boston, Pittsburg and Cleveland and even held a record for games caught that stood for 40 years. 

But it was Lopez’s second act as a coach that would solidify him as a baseball legend.

Lopez led the Cleveland Indians to the American League pennant in 1954 and was at the helm when the Go-Go White Sox did it in 1959. Lopez finished out his career with the Sox as one of the winningest managers of all time and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.

In retirement, Lopez moved back to the Tampa Bay Area for good.
“He wanted to be here. He loved this place,” Lopez Jr. said. “It was his family and friends and he loved it here.”
And the city loved him right back. There was an Al Lopez Field and an Al Lopez Day. And, years later, his likeness was enshrined in Bronze at Al Lopez Park.

“He was celebrated here,” said Lopez Jr.  “When he was playing and even when he was managing, he always came back to 12th avenue.”
Lopez’s childhood home was moved to 19th Street and is now home to the Tampa Baseball Museum.