Fuentes, along with Bert Campaneris, was playing with the Cuba national baseball team at the 1961 Amateur World Series.

Four days later, he was involved in one of the most famous baseball fights in history, a 14-minute brawl between the Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers in which Juan Marichal bloodied John Roseboro with a bat; Fuentes, the on-deck hitter when the fight broke out, brandished his own bat as he rushed to join the fray, though he did not hit anyone with it.

Fuentes returned to the Giants in 1969 and spent the next two seasons as a utility infielder before re-gaining his starting spot at second base in 1971.

He appeared in the postseason during the 1971 season as his Giants won the NL West title; his two-run home run in Game 1 of the 1971 NLCS helped San Francisco take an early series lead against the Pittsburgh Pirates,[5] but that would turn out to be the Giants' only win of the best-of-five series.

[6] Ironically, Fuentes had led all National League second basemen in errors during the previous two seasons before setting the new record for excellence.

He was called "one of the most renowned hot dogs in baseball history" in Sparky Lyle's 1979 book The Bronx Zoo.

[12] Tito Fuentes was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame on February 23, 2002 in San Francisco, California.