Inside The Padres

Former Padres Pitcher Passes Away

J.P. Hoornstra|
A detail view of a San Diego Padres hat on a glove in the dugout in the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on June 17, 2022.
A detail view of a San Diego Padres hat on a glove in the dugout in the ninth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on June 17, 2022. | Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images

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San Diego Padres

Eduardo "Coca Cola" Acosta, who pitched for the San Diego Padres from 1971-72, died Thursday in his native Panama. He was 81.

News of Acosta's death was first reported on Instagram by Ronald Acosta Flores, Ed Acosta's nephew, of Radio Boquete in Panama.

The second Panamanian-born player in franchise history played parts of two seasons in San Diego, and two others with the Padres' top farm team (which was then located in Honolulu).

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Acosta played parts of three major league seasons (1970-72), going 6-9 with a 4.05 ERA in 57 games for the Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates. He also spent time in the Houston Astros' minor league system, and pitched in the Mexican Summer League before retiring as a player.

Acosta was pitching for the Pirates' top farm team when the Padres traded relief pitcher Bob Miller to acquire him and minor league outfielder John Jeter on Aug. 20, 1971. A right-hander who stood 6-foot-5, Acosta had only pitched three games out of the Pirates' bullpen to that point in the career.

But Acosta was leading the International League in ERA (2.72) with the Triple-A Charleston (W.V.) Charlies at the time of the trade. The Padres saw his potential, and immediately plugged him into their starting rotation.

In his first game as a Padre, on Aug. 24, 1971, Acosta tossed a complete game shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies for his first MLB victory.

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Acosta tossed two more complete games before the season ended, finishing 3-3 with an excellent 2.74 ERA in eight games.

Despite the strong debut, Acosta was ticketed for the Padres' bullpen to begin the 1972 campaign. He went 3-6 with a 4.45 ERA in 46 games (two starts), and did not record a save. It was Acosta's first full season in the majors — and it also proved to be his last.

Acosta spent the entire 1973 and 1974 seasons with the Hawaii Islanders, the Padres' top minor league affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. After two seasons in the Mexican League, Acosta retired from baseball as a player and returned to private life in Panama.

It was a remarkable career arc for a player who, by his own admission, didn't pick up a glove until he was 21 and was pitching for the Pirates at 27.

"My father told me not to play the game," Acosta said in a 1971 interview with the Philadelphia Daily News. "He said I'd get hurt. So the first time I went to bat I got hit in the face with a pitch and came away with a black eye. When I got home I told my father I had been stung by a bee."

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J.P. Hoornstra
J.P. HOORNSTRA

J.P. Hoornstra is an On SI Contributor. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.

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