DaytonDailyNews.com

The smile revealed perfect white teeth and the eyes flashed the way they did when a ground ball tried unsuccessfully to evade him, and Dave Concepcion said, "Pete Rose isn't the only Big Red Machine player with a street named after him."

There is Dave Concepcion Avenue in Maracay, Venezuela. There is a statue of Concepcion in front of the Maracay baseball park. He owns a farm in Venezuela with 400 cattle and a trucking company, Mague Trucking, with 22 18-wheelers.

His daughter, Daneska, is enrolling at Xavier University in January and his son, Alejandro, is a business consultant in Venezuela.

Alejandro, a second baseman, played Little League on the same team with new Cincinnati Reds shortstop Alex Gonzalez, and Concepcion says: "Fans are going to love him. He'll make plays they won't believe."

Concepcion, who made plays Reds fans couldn't believe at shortstop for 19 years, has it all, everything any former baseball player could want, everything but something he deserves — a plaque in Cooperstown.

Despite numbers better than or comparable to Hall of Fame shortstops Pee Wee Reese, Phil Rizzuto and Ozzie Smith, Concepcion hardly raises discussion when Hall of Fame ballots are marked.

Concepcion and a consultant, Tim Gay, are on a whistle-stop campaign to generate votes. The pair are in Cincinnati this weekend, and Gay plans to stop in Orlando, Fla., next week to talk to writers gathering at the baseball winter meetings.

Concepcion is a victim of two things: He didn't play in a major market and he played on a team stuffed with Hall of Famers.

"Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan were great talkers," Concepcion said. "If they went 0-for-4, the writers would ask them, 'Why did you go 0-for-4?' But they wouldn't ask me about my three hits."

He isn't bitter about it. That's just the way it was.

It was easier for writers to talk to Rose, Morgan and Bench than to struggle with Concepcion's broken English — completely unfair but true.

Manager Sparky Anderson thought enough of his contributions to put an additional 'C' on his uniform, signifying him as captain. Despite all the superheroes on the roster, Anderson often said, "Davey may have been the best clutch hitter on the team."

Said Concepcion: "I had 950 RBIs, which was hard on that team because I was usually batting behind Bench, Perez and George Foster and they didn't leave many. Plus I had to hit a triple to get those guys home."

One of Concepcion's claims to fame was that he invented the one-hop throw to first base on the AstroTurf, but he smiled when asked about it and said: "A lot of people think I invented it. I just copied it and worked on it."

Concepcion saw Baltimore Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson throw out Lee May with a one-hop throw in the 1970 World Series and saw how true the bounce was and how it sped up when it hit the AstroTurf.

"It made it easier on the first basemen, and Tony Perez and Dan Driessen needed that help," he said with a laugh.

What most people don't know is that Concepcion came within 56 games of playing more contests at shortstop than any in National League history, "But I broke my hand my last year and they gave my job to Kurt Stillwell and I never played shortstop again."

Ozzie Smith is a Concepcion supporter for the Hall of Fame, and as Concepcion said, "I hit .300 three times. Luis Aparicio never hit .300 and neither did Bill Mazeroski, not even close. Reese, Rizzuto and Smith each did it once."

Truly, Concepcion is a natural-born Hall of Famer.

Contact this reporter by e-mail at hmccoy@DaytonDailyNews.com.