López was the second Panamanian-born major league baseball player and continued to be one of the country's most revered world champion athletes.

López held a part-time job at an American military base bowling alley and was a high school track star.

After he graduated from high school, he signed to play with the St. Hyacinthe Saints of the Class-C Provincial League along with Clifford "Connie" Johnson.

[5] Prior to the 1952 season, López was acquired by the Philadelphia Athletics from the Drummondville Cubs of the Provincial League for $1,500 ($17,211 today).

[7] López developed in the A's farm system, and when the team relocated to Kansas City in 1955 he was called up to the major league club.

During his rookie season, he finished third on the team in home runs, trailing only Gus Zernial (30) and Vic Power (19).

[10] In 1957, he had a 22-game hitting streak, which is the all-time Kansas City Athletics team record for the thirteen seasons the franchise played there.

On May 26, 1959, he was traded with Ralph Terry to the New York Yankees for Johnny Kucks, Tom Sturdivant, and Jerry Lumpe.

[1] For all his offensive skills, López led American League third basemen in errors in each of his four full seasons in Kansas City.

[13] Baseball writer and Kansas City Athletics fan Bill James wrote that López was as bad a defensive player as you would ever want to see.

[14] The authors of The Great American Baseball Card Flipping, Trading and Bubble Gum Book declared López "the all-time worst fielding major league ballplayer".

In his 33 games with Kansas City at the start of the 1959 Major League Baseball season, he had played exclusively at second base.

[1] In 1967, López played for the Washington Senators' Triple-A Pacific Coast League affiliate Hawaii Islanders.

[23] López was one of three black men (along with Sam Bankhead and Gene Baker) to manage in the minor leagues in the twenty-five years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947.