First Black manager above Single-A, former Bisons skipper Hector Lopez passes away at 93

Former Bisons outfielder and manager, Hector Lopez, has passed away at the age of 93.

Lopez played for the Herd in 1968, hitting .258 with 13 home runs and 53 RBI at the age of 39 years. The following season, Lopez made history by becoming the first Black manager above the Single-A level in baseball.

It was in Spring Training of 1969 when another baseball legend had an idea for who would manage the Buffalo Bisons. Recently named the skipper of the Herd’s Major League parent club Washington Senators, Ted Williams remembered Lopez from days of playing against the former Yankee. When ‘The Splendid Splinter’ picked current Bisons manager Wayne Terwilliger to be his big league third base coach in D.C., he offered the top spot in Buffalo to Lopez.

To that point, there had only been two Black managers in all of minor league baseball, at the lower levels of the Pittsburgh Pirates system. Lopez’s one year on the bench came six years before Frank Robinson became the first Black manager in the Major Leagues.

The Bisons went 58-78 under Lopez in his lone season as manager with the Herd.

Lopez played 12 seasons in the Major Leagues from 1955-1966 and hit .269 with 136 home runs and 591 RBI in 1,450 games. He played 5 seasons with the Royals to begin his career before moving to the Yankees where he won World Series titles in 1961 and 1962.