ROMAN MEJIAS
Home Run King of the 1962 Houston Colt .45s

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF ROMAN MEJIAS

(compiled from the Colts player booklet, playing cards, Internet pages and Ron Briley's essay in "Class at Bat")


1962 PLAYER BOOKLET ABOUT ROMAN MEJIAS:

Front Cover (.jpg format)
Booklet - Part 1 (in .PDF Adobe Acrobat format)
Booklet - Part 2 (in .PDF Adobe Acrobat format)
Booklet - Part 3 (in .PDF Adobe Acrobat format)
Booklet - Part 4 (in .PDF Adobe Acrobat format)
Booklet - Part 5 (in .PDF Adobe Acrobat format)
Booklet - Part 6 (in .PDF Adobe Acrobat format)
Booklet - Part 7 (in .PDF Adobe Acrobat format)
Back Cover (.jpg format)


1962 COLTS YEARBOOK - PAGE ABOUT ROMAN MEJIAS:   Regular size scan         Large size scan


ROMAN MEJIAS PICTURE FILES:{short description of image}


With the Waco Pirates (1954)    

       #25 of 100 Top Minor League teams of all time



With the Pittsburgh Pirates (1955-1961):

1955: Roman Mejias with Roberto Clemente & Felipe Montemayor
1955: Autographed photo

1957 photo (Pirates)

1957 AP Wirephoto - with Frank Torre

1958 Portrait Photo:     Small       Large     

1958 AP Wirephoto (Havana, Cuba)

1958 photo with Frank Thomas
Same photo, with AP crop marks and masking
Cropped photo         Cropped photo as published in paper

6-19-58 - Going after ball in left field (AP Wirephoto)      Cropped

1961 UPI photo with Elroy Face           Back of photo

Post card (published by George Brace), autographed by Roman Mejias

          Click here for larger image                

With the Columbus Jets farm team (1961):

Photo and background information from Colt .45s 1961 draft file:

Portrait Photo:     Small       Medium      Large

Player information:  
Page 1 (Biography)
Page 2 (Seasonal stats)
Page 3 (Lifetime stats)

Autographed ball

With the Houston Colt .45s (1962):

Portrait Photo        Autographed Portrait Photo 
Alternate Portrait Photo         
Batting Photo

UPI photo 5-5-62 - sliding into 3rd base in Milwaukee       Back of photo (description)

With Dick Farrell after multiple home run games in Milwaukee
(5-6-62)

Roman speaks during pre-game ceremonies

"Roman Holidays" - Roman runs the bases on an inside-the-park home run

1962 Topps Card - FRONT
1962 Topps Card - BACK

Autographed program

Info card on Roman Mejias bat

Autographed color photo - 1962

Roman Mejias & Bob Aspromonte Louisville Slugger bats
Info card on the two bats

Colts 1962 facsimile autograph baseball with Mejias signature

With the Boston Red Sox (1963):

Reunited with his wife at Phoenix airport (AP wirephoto 3-16-63)          Larger photo

With family at Phoenix airport (AP photo 3-16-63)

1963 Portrait with Red Sox uniform           Autographed portrait

Mejias slides into 2nd base, breaking up a double play


The Spalding "Roman Mejias" 3-Finger Baseball Glove (1959) 

This is a Roman Mejias glove that is very rare and unlisted in the glove collector book. It is a three finger glove, a Spalding 1247, "triple play" in great condition. It has a spot on the pinkie finger and the owners name on the strap. This glove was made in 1959.    

Closeup of Roman Mejias name    
View 1    View 2     View 3     View 4

2nd copy of glove:   View 1     View 2      View 3






"Roman Mejias" 5-Finger Baseball Glove         Photo of glove        Various views of glove

Other:
Scans from Athletic Laboratories (Chicago) 1962 assessment files on Roman Mejias: 
Scan 1    Scan 2



Picture Pal license agreement signed in 1963 by Roman Mejias       Page 1       Page 2

Autographed sheet
Autographed index card with 1955 rookie note
Autographed index card
Another autographed card
Another autographed card

Click here for larger image
The Houston Chronicle newspaper published six pairs of "Houston Colt 45's Scrapbook" player bios in the spring of 1962. The weekly "scrapbook" featurette, presented in the paper's Sunday color comics section, was part of an area-wide effort to promote the city's new Major League Baseball team. It featured pen-and-ink drawings and short biographies of the new team's most promising players, and offered a coloring contest for children age 6 to 14. The prize for that contest was a "Colt Sixshooter Membership," which included a Colt T-shirt, tickets to four games and a souvenir "Six Gun."

Among the players in this set was Roman Mejias, the Colt .45s' first star slugger.  (Click on image for larger view)


Roman Mejias - Japan 1966 - as a player for the Sankei Atoms (from souvenir postcards):


ROMAN MEJIAS BASEBALL CARDS{short description of image}
(These are all the known Roman Mejias baseball cards)

1957 Topps #362 (Pittsburgh Pirates)
1958 Topps #452 (Pittsburgh Pirates)
1959 Topps #218 (Pittsburgh Pirates)       BACK
1959 Dell Magazine card (Pittsburgh Pirates)

1960 Topps #2 (Pittsburgh Pirates)
1960 Dell Magazine card (Pittsburgh Pirates)

1961 Dell Magazine card (Pittsburgh Pirates)

1962 Topps #354 (Houston Colt .45s)     FRONT    BACK

1963 Jello #186 (Houston Colt .45s)
1963 Post Cereal #186 (Houston Colt .45s)
1963 Topps #432 (Boston Red Sox)    AUTOGRAPHED CARD  Back of card
1963 Dell Magazine card
1963 Whitestone panel

1964 Topps #186 (Boston Red Sox)        FRONT    BACK


SOUND FILES:

Roman Mejias: 9th Inning Winning Home Run
Roman Mejias: Home Run for 15 game hitting streak
Roman Mejias: First Inside-the-Park Home Run in Colt Stadium


ROMAN MEJIAS LINKS:

STATISTICS: Pre-1962 (including farm clubs)
STATISTICS: American & National League (from Baseball-Almanac.com)
STATISTICS: MLB (from Baseball-Reference.com)
STATISTICS: from Retrosheet.org (includes links for top performances, pitcher matchups, etc.)
STATISTICS: Japan League   (Thanks to Gary Garland for this info from his website JAPAN BASEBALL DAILY)
Player Profile - Roman Mejias
Astroland webpage about Roman Mejias

A VISIT WITH ROMAN MEJIAS by Jack Heyde (from "Pop Flies and Line Drives" (1999)


Cubans in Baseball Cards

Book: CLASS AT BAT by Ron Briley (contains an essay on Mejias' career)

Roman Mejias' baseball uniforms through the years (from Baseball-Reference & The Baseball Hall of Fame)

NOTE:  Since 1962 (47 years and counting),
Roman Mejias has held the record for starting
his Houston career with an eight-game hitting streak.
In April 2009, Jeff Keppinger tied the record, but did not break it.

Per the AP newswire 4/22/09:
"Astros 3B Jeff Keppinger had a single in the seventh inning to extend his hitting streak to eight games.
He is the second player in franchise history to start his Houston career with an eight-game hitting streak.
The other player to do it was Roman Mejias, who did it for the Colt 45s in 1962,
according to the Elias Sports Bureau."



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