08-08-2025
Ángel Macías, 1957 Little League World Series Star, Dies at 80
Ángel Macías, a dazzling, ambidextrous 12-year-old pitcher from Mexico who threw a perfect game in the 1957 Little League World Series to win the championship, a feat no other player has repeated, died on July 27 in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. He was 80.
Little League International announced the death.
Playing for a factory-sponsored team from Monterrey, the 12-year-old Macías (pronounced ma-SEE-yas) was the tournament's unicorn. He could pitch with either arm and was a switch-hitter. He played first base as a left-hander and the rest of the infield (and outfield) as a right-hander.
He also threw one-hitters in two of the regulation six-inning games that the Monterrey Industrial Little League team won in district, state and regional tournaments to qualify for the World Series. In another game, he struck out 15 batters.
'There is a 12-year-old Mexican baseball player whose name is Angel but who is a diamond devil to his opponents,' The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., wrote before Macías's team played a regional game in that city. 'Some jest that Angel Macías of Monterrey must, indeed, be bewitched.'
His manager, César Faz, told the newspaper: 'He's quite a good pitcher — our best. As a matter of fact, he is the best boy we have at every position.'
Despite rumors that he might pitch left-handed in the final game of the World Series, the 5-foot-3, 88-pound Macías faced a team of much bigger boys from La Mesa, Calif., as a right-hander.
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