The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Hall of Honor
- Induction:
- 2024
A two-time All-American and three-time All-Big 12 selection, Omar Quintanilla is one of the best middle infielders to ever play at The University of Texas. He helped lead Texas to two College World Series appearances in three years, winning the title in 2002 and advancing to the semifinals in 2003. After starring for the Longhorns, he enjoyed a nine-year Major League Baseball career with four different clubs. A first-round pick of the Oakland Athletics in 2003 (33rd overall), Quintanilla played for the Colorado Rockies (2005-09), Texas Rangers (2011), Baltimore Orioles (2012) and New York Mets (2012, 2013-14) during his professional career. At Texas, Quintanilla was an integral part of the Longhorns’ 2002 National Championship team, as well as the team that finished in a third-place tie after dropping a 5-4 heartbreaker to Rice in the semifinals of the 2003 CWS. The 2001 team MVP, Quintanilla hit .367 as a freshman and earned first-team Freshman All-America and first-team All-Big 12 honors that year. He also led the Longhorns with 22 doubles en route to being named Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year. The following season, Quintanilla batted .329 as the starting shortstop of the 2002 National Championship team, earning second-team All-Big 12 accolades and landing a spot on the College World Series All-Tournament team. He had four hits in the Longhorns’ 12-6 title game win over South Carolina that year. His final season as a Longhorn came in 2003, as he batted .348 with a team-high 29 doubles, the second-most in a season in UT history. His 76 RBI that season still stand as UT’s ninth-most all-time in a season. He had a .347 career batting average and .518 career slugging percentage during his time at Texas and ranks among the Longhorns’ all-time career top 10 in 66 doubles (third), 87 extra base hits (seventh), 361 total bases (10th) and 488 assists (10th). Quintanilla began his professional career at Single-A Vancouver in 2003 and was named to the Northwest League postseason All-Star team as the shortstop and finished that year with a .358 batting average. He batted a combined .321 with 13 home runs and 92 RBI in 131 games with Single-A Modesto and Double-A Midland in 2004 and was tied for sixth among all minor leaguers in hits (175). After a trade from Oakland to Colorado during the 2005 season, he made his MLB debut with the Rockies and was their starting shortstop in 30 games that year. After sharing time in the minors and majors in 2006 and 2007, he played in 81 games for the Rockies in 2008 and posted 50 hits, including a career-high 17 doubles. He spent the entire 2009 season on the Rockies roster. After a couple more seasons in the minors in 2010 and 2011, he had a short 11-game stint back in the majors with the Rangers in 2011. He returned to the big leagues as moves to the Mets, then Orioles, then back to the Mets resulted in 65 more MLB games in 2012. It was back full-time to the majors in 2013 with the Mets where he posted career highs for games played (95), at bats (315) and hits (70) before his professional baseball career concluded during the 2015 season with 402 major league games and 228 hits to his credit. Quintanilla was selected as a member of the 2024 class of the El Paso Baseball Hall of Fame and inducted in August. He was a standout during his prep days at Socorro High School in El Paso, had his jersey number 24 retired there and was one of the first two players inducted into Bulldogs’ Wall of Honor in 2016.
