Former Major League Baseball pitcher Narciso Elvira Delgado was murdered along with his son in Veracruz on Tuesday.
Elvira, 52, and his son Gustavo, 20, were shot dead by armed men traveling in two vehicles in the municipality of Medellín de Bravo.
Elvira began his career in the Mexican leagues and pitched for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1990 before playing in the professional leagues of Japan and South Korea.
He threw a no-hitter for the Osaka Buffaloes in June 2000, the only Mexican player ever to do so in the Japanese league. With the Samsung Lions in South Korea he won a championship game and led the league in earned run average.
Nicknamed the “Whip from Cocuite” during his time in the Mexican leagues, he was one of only two pitchers to throw two no-hitters in a single season when he played for the Campeche Pirates in 1999.
After his retirement from baseball, Elvira returned to his hometown of Cocuite, Veracruz, where he raised cattle and produced sugar cane. His quiet life there was interrupted in June 2015 when he was kidnapped. His captors returned him more than two weeks later after a ransom was paid.
Both Mexican leagues and the Hermosillo Naranjeros lamented the ex-pitcher’s murder on Twitter.
“The sport is in mourning, we regret the terrible departure of an excellent pitcher,” the Mexican Pacific League said in a tweet.
Sources: Publimetro (sp), Proceso (sp)
