A nine-time All-Star player, Concepción earned five Gold Glove Awards as he teamed with Joe Morgan for one of the best middle-infield combinations of their era.

[1][2] Concepción was born in Ocumare de la Costa, Aragua State, Venezuela, the son of a truck driver[3] and his wife, Ernestina.

After high school, he worked as a bank teller[5] and played part-time for the local Tigres de Aragua baseball team.

[3] Following the steps of his childhood heroes Chico Carrasquel and Luis Aparicio, Jr., Concepción, originally drafted as a pitcher, came out of Venezuela to become one of the Reds' and the National League's greatest all-time shortstops.

[7] In his first three seasons, Reds manager Sparky Anderson played him part-time, sharing duties with Woody Woodward and Darrel Chaney.

In one of those appearances, in 1971, he was the only team member to reach base safely when the Reds were no-hit by the Philadelphia Phillies' Rick Wise; a sixth-inning walk spoiled what would have been a perfect game.

Even after Concepción had established himself in the major leagues as a star shortstop, he continued to play winter ball in Venezuela, helping to improve his batting.

Concepción was the first shortstop to use this method to take advantage of the smooth artificial turf at Riverfront Stadium and other parks in the National League.

In 1988, which would be his 19th and final season with the Reds, manager Pete Rose sent Concepción in to pitch 1.1 innings in Dodger Stadium late in a blow-out game.

Concepción resides with his wife, Delia, in Urbanizacion El Castaño, a community in Maracay, Venezuela[9] at the base of the mountains near Henri Pittier National Park.