Player Profile: Israel Alcantara

I have one card of Israel Alcantara, from 2000 Fleer Tradition Update.

Playing Career: Israel Alcantara put up good numbers in 51 major league games for Boston and Milwaukee, hitting .270 with 6 HR and 51 RBI.

Interesting stories: Most famous for karate kicking a catcher after being hit by a pitch in a minor league game in 2001. Sons of Sam Horn, a Red Sox wiki, has a good writeup about the incident, his Red Sox tenure, and a gif of the kicking incident. More recently, he and several other Dominican former major leaguers (including Felix Jose and Abraham Nunez) had money and passports stolen by a Dominican recruiter promising them jobs in the Netherlands.

My memories: I certainly remember that kicking incident, although I had forgotten that it was Alcantara. It’s a shame that’s what he’s remembered for.

Where he is now: Coaching baseball in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Google Autocomplete results: Israel Alcantara is ninth when you type Israel Al, between Israel Alert, a daily digest of news on Israel, and Israel Alternative Energy, a reference to renewable energy in Israel.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Scott Aldred.