Tony Solaita
Nu’uuli, American Samoa is a picturesque village of 6,300 residents and home to the spectacular Nu’uuli waterfalls. Nu’uuli is 6,118 miles from Kaufman Stadium and as of this writing; Tony Solaita is the only person from American Samoa to play major league baseball.
Tolia "Tony" Solaita was born January 15th, 1947 in Nu’uuli. He later attended and played baseball for Mira Costa College, in Oceanside, California where he came to the attention of New York Yankee scout, Dolph Camilli, who signed Tony to a minor league contract.
Tony played minor league ball for future Royals manager, Jack McKeon, and in 1968 hit 51 home runs for High Point-Thomasville, which earned him the Topps Minor League Player of the Year award and a late season call up to the Yankee’s. During this call up, Tony was entered into, and won, a home run contest at Yankee Stadium against renown sluggers Carl Yastrzemski, Ken Harrelson and Reggie Smith of the Red Sox and Mickey Mantle and Rocky Colavito of the Yankees.
Tony languished in the minors until McKeon was named skipper of the Royals in 1973. McKeon convinced Royals brass to acquire Solaita, which they did in the December, 1973, rule 5 draft, selecting him from the Pirates. Solaita was a first baseman with a decent glove, but with John Mayberry firmly entrenched at first, Solaita primarily saw duty as a designated hitter and in occasional relief of Mayberry. He appeared in 96 games for Kansas City in 1974 and another 93 games in 1975, which was his best year as a pro. In 1975 Tony hit 16 home runs in only 231 at bats, which was the second best home run to at bat ratio in the major leagues. His claim to fame happened on Sunday, September 7th, 1975 in Anaheim, which was essentially a homecoming game for Solaita. There were only 7,029 people in attendance for a game the Royals won 8-7 in 11 innings. Tony started the game at first base, where he proceeded to go 4 for 4 with a walk and four RBI’s. It wasn’t that he got four hits in a game. That in itself is a notable feat. What made this game special was Tony Solaita hitting three consecutive home runs to dead centerfield. The game started quietly. In the second, Mayberry, who started the game at DH, and Al Cowens, led off with consecutive singles. Soliata then drew a walk to load the bases for left fielder Jim Wohlford, who promptly hit into a 4-6-3 double play, scoring Mayberry and giving Kansas City a 1-0 lead.
The score stayed 1-0 until the 4th, when Mayberry hit a one out home run. Cowens hit a line out to third to bring up Solaita, who parked a pitch from Angel starter Dick Lange, over the center field wall. The Angels scored two in the fifth off of Royal starter Al Fitzmorris to tighten the score.
In the Royals 6th, George Brett led off with a single to right, which brought Mayberry to the plate. Big John blasted his second home run of the evening, his 33rd of the year, into the right field stands. The Angels brought in Mickey Scott, in relief of Lange. It made no difference to Tony, as he crushed his second home run of the game, giving the Royals a comfortable 6-2 lead. Solaita faced Scott once more, leading off the 9th, and he didn’t disappoint, blasting his third home run of the evening, and giving the Royals a seemingly insurmountable 7 to 3 lead.
But alas, even in the "good old days" the Royals bullpen had the ability to blow a lead and they did. Veteran Lindy McDaniel, who the Royals acquired from the Yankees in a stinker of a trade for Lou Piniella, gave up a single and two doubles while only recording one out. The last double came off the bat of Jerry Remy. Who remembers Remy coming up with the Angels? McKeon called on Ray Sadecki, who had no better success than McDaniel. Sadecki was victimized by an error and another double to tie the score at seven, before McKeon had seen enough. McKeon brought in Nellie Briles, normally a starter, to put out the fire. Briles worked around a two out walk, to record the final out of the inning. The score stayed tied at 7 until the Royals 11th. Cowens led off with a single, then stole second. Solaita hit a single to right, bringing home the speedy Cowens with what turned out to be the winning run. McKeon called on lefty Steve Mingori to close out the game, but Mingori seemed intent on gascanning it away, giving up a single to Remy, getting Mickey Rivers to pop up to first, throwing a wild pitch to advance Remy to third base, before walking Bruce Bochte. I’m sure McKeon was losing his mind as he made the walk to the mound to pull Mingori. McKeon called on George Throop, the eight Royals pitcher of the night, who got Bobby Valentine on a popup to Brett and struck out George Stanton to end the game.
The real story though was Tony Solaita, with three home runs, four RBI’s and 13 total bases. Tony got off to a slow start in 1976 and after 31 games, the Royals waived him. The Angels claimed him and he actually had a solid year for California in 1977, hitting 14 home runs in 324 at bats. Solaita closed out his career in 1979, splitting time between Montreal and Toronto. When no other offers came, he elected to play in Japan, where he became something of a folk hero. Playing for the Nippon Ham-Fighters, from 1980 to 1983, Tony averaged almost 40 home runs a year. During his short major league career, Solaita hit .255 with 50 home runs and 203 RBI. He also was only the 4th person to hit a home run out of Tiger Stadium.
Solaita retired at the age of 37 and moved back to his Native American Samoa, where he started a baseball program with his brother Ben. The program had stated to take hold, with over 600 children registered, when on February 10th, 1990, Tony was shot and killed by a local villager, angry over land granted to Solaita by the village Matai, to use for his baseball academy.
Jack McKeon said of Solaita, "Tony ranks among the top 2-3 players I have managed when it comes to on and off field considerations." Tony Solaita was 43.