Steve Ontiveros

Steve Ontiveros is one of those quietly fascinating careers that gets more interesting the deeper you dig. A switch-hitting third baseman from Bakersfield, California, of Mexican American descent, he carved out eight solid seasons in Major League Baseball — splitting time between the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs from 1973 to 1980 — without ever becoming a household name stateside. What really sets him apart, though, is what came next: six years in Japan with the Seibu Lions, which puts him in a pretty select club of American players who genuinely committed to the Nippon Professional Baseball experience rather than just passing through. That cross-Pacific chapter alone makes his baseball life more adventurous than most. A journeyman in the best sense — the kind of guy who kept finding ways to play the game he loved.

Name (English)

Steve Ontiveros

Name (Japanese)

スティーブ・オンティベロス (内野手)

Reading

すてぃーぶ・おんてぃべろす (内野手)

Born

October 26, 1951 (age 74)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Scorpio / Rabbit

Origin

Bakersfield, California, United States

Height

183 cm

Occupation

baseball player

High school

Bakersfield High School

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%BC%E3%83%96%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%99%E3%83%AD%E3%82%B9%20(%E5%86%85%E9%87%8E%E6%89%8B)

Tags

• California
• baseball player

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.