Baseball in Puerto Rico
By the 1949-50 season, several new ballparks were built, each containing 6,000 or more seats. The largest new stadium was Ponce's Estadio Francisco Montaner with 9,718 seats. Montaner has the distinction of being the first stadium in Puerto Rico that installed an artificial surface field. The installation of lights, which allowed for night games, further boosted stadium attendances. The Stadium was named to honor Francisco "Paquito" Montaner, one of the greatest Puerto Rican pitchers of all times.
Francisco &quot;Paquito&quot; Montaner
Francisco ("Paquito") Montaner García (August 16, 1894 – April 5, 1945) was a Puerto Rican pitcher from Ponce. He was the first baseball player to throw a "no-hitter" in Puerto Rican baseball, an event that took place on 10 December 1911. He is honored with the name of one of the largest stadiums in Puerto Rico, the professional baseball league's Francisco Montaner Stadium in Ponce. In 1955, he was inducted into the Puerto Rico Sports Hall of Fame and, in 1983, into the "Galeria de los Inmortales del Deporte Ponceño" (Ponce's Gallery of the Inmortals of Ponce Sports).