Candelaria was born on November 6, 1953 to Puerto Rican parents. He is the second of four children born to John and Felicia Candelaria. He grew up in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York. He frequently attended New York Yankees' games at Yankee Stadium.
Career
At the age of 15, Candelaria attended a baseball tryout where a Los Angeles Dodgers scout called him the best he had ever seen. The tryout catcher had to be replaced with a major league catcher for fear of injuring the stand-in. Candelaria played as a center in the Baloncesto Superior Nacional, the top tier basketball league in the Puerto Rico, for 2 seasons with the Piratas de Quebradillas in 1971 and 1972. When he announced he was leaving the Quebradillas basketball "Pirates" for the Pittsburgh Pirates, many were skeptical. The local newspaper featured him pitching a basketball on the front page of the sports section. He had attended La Salle Academy in lower Manhattan and gained fame as a basketball center, including leading his team to a championship in 1971. Candelaria had his best season in 1977, when he was 20–5 with a 2.34 ERA in 230⅔ innings pitched. He was also a member of the 1979 World Series champion Pirates team. On August 9, 1976, Candelaria no-hit the Los Angeles Dodgers 2–0 at Three Rivers Stadium; it was the first no-hitter pitched by a Pirate in Pittsburgh since Nick Maddox at Exposition Park in 1907. Candelaria's second post-season appearance with the Pirates came in their 1979 World Series championship season. Candelaria started Game 1 of the 1979 NLCS and pitched seven innings of two-run ball against the Reds with a painful shoulder. The Pirates won 5–2 in 11 innings. In the 1979 World Series, Candelaria had a rough Game 3, giving up five runs in 4 innings as the Pirates lost 8–4 to the Orioles. He redeemed himself in a crucial Game 6 by combining with Kent Tekulve to pitch a 4–0 shutout. Candelaria, who stood and wielded a mid- to upper-90s fastball with natural movement, remained an effective starter for the Pirates through the 1984 season. He suffered personal tragedy on Christmas morning 1984, when his 18-month-old son John Jr. fell into the family's swimming pool at their home in Sarasota, Florida. John Jr. spent five weeks in intensive care and was then transitioned to home, where he received nursing care 24 hours per day. He was readmitted to the hospital multiple times and spent 11 months in a coma. John Jr. died in a Pittsburgh hospital on November 14, 1985. Candelaria was moved to the bullpen in 1985. In response to the change, Candelaria called general managerHarding Peterson "a bozo"; he said that the team's ownership valued its racehorses more than its baseball players. He posted nine saves out of the Pittsburgh bullpen, which ended up being a team high on a 57-win team. In early August, the team traded Candelaria to the California Angels. At the time, he was one of only two Pirates that remained from the 1979 championship team, the other being Don Robinson. The Angels immediately made him a starter again and he went 7–3 down the stretch in 1985 and helped the Angels into the 1986 ALCS with a 10–2 record. Candelaria later said that the trade to a contending team had been a positive change for him. Candelaria played for both New York teams, both Los Angeles teams and both Canadian teams. He finished his career back where it started in Pittsburgh in 1993, making him the only Pirates player from the 1979 team to play for the Pirates during their twenty consecutive losing seasons.
Personal life
Candelaria currently lives in North Carolina, and is an avid world traveler. John has a nephew, Zac Candelaria, who played catcher at the Division One program of Fairfield University.
