Lubbock Christian University Athletics

Velarde had a stellar four-year career as a middle infielder, including playing for the Chaps' first-ever NAIA National Championship team in 1983. 

The Midland native came to LCU as a freshman in 1982 and got into the action right away, playing in 80 games with a .331 batting average and leading the team with 32 stolen bases in 35 attempts.  

In 1983, he earned his first All-District selection while playing short stop for the National Champion Chaps. In 1984 and '85 he again moved to second base, where he earned All-District, All-Area and All-America in both seasons. 

For his career, Velarde batted .358 in 1,027 at-bats with 65 doubles, 25 triples (2nd-most in school history) and 39 home runs. He is the all-time LCU leader in runs scored with 294 and ranks third in school history with 246 RBI. He is also the school's record-holder in walks with 177 and ranks fifth all-time with 105 career stolen bases. 

Velarde also holds the Chap single-season records for at-bats (314 in 1983) and triples (11 in 1985. 

Velarde was drafted in the 19th round of the 1985 MLB Draft by the Chicago White Sox and traded to the New York Yankees in 1986.  He began the 1987 season at AA Albany, but was promoted to AAA Columbus in July.  He was called up on August 20, 1987 and spent ten days with the big club before going back down to the minors until Opening Day 1990, when he began the season in New York.  In the winter of 1995, Velarde was traded to the California Angels where he played until 1999 when he was traded to Oakland, where he had his best season in the majors.  In 2000, Velarde was traded to the Rangers where he played through most of 2001 before he was traded back to New York late in August and helped the Yankees win the World Series.  He spent 2002 with the American League West Champion Oakland A’s before retiring from the major leagues.

In his 16 seasons at the big league level, Velarde had a .276 batting average in more than 2,000 at-bats. He blasted exactly 100 home runs with 23 triples and 214 doubles. He was worth 24.9 Wins Above Replacement during his career.