Former Major League Baseball pitcher Ed Acosta, who made his MLB debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1970, has died. He was 81 years old.

Aurelio Ortiz, a sports journalist from Panama, revealed the news on X.

Acosta had an interesting journey to Major League Baseball as he didn’t even put a baseball glove on his hand until he was 21 years old, according to the Philadelphia Daily News .

The Panama native explained to the Philadelphia Daily News back in his playing days that he didn’t grow up around baseball because his father didn’t want him to play the sport.

“We didn’t have baseball in my town. I didn’t even know how to catch when some guys started tossing a ball to me in 1965,” said Ed Acosta, who was 21 years old that year. “My father told me not to play the game. He said I’d

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