Minnie Minoso, the hugely popular All-Star outfielder from Cuba who was the major leagues’ first black player out of Latin America and a treasured figure in the history of the Chicago White Sox, died on Sunday in Chicago. His true age was never entirely clear, but by an account in his autobiography, he would have been 89 when he died.

His death was announced by the White Sox. He was found dead in his parked car. His son Charlie Rice-Minoso told The Chicago Tribune that his father had a pacemaker and that the cause of death was believed to be a heart ailment. Minoso was returning from a friend’s birthday party when he evidently became ill and pulled over, The Tribune said.

Minoso, known as Mr. White Sox, died some five weeks after the Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, another of baseball’s early black stars, died at 83.

President Obama said in a statement that “Minnie may have been passed over by the Baseball Hall of Fame during his lifetime, but for me and for generations of black and Latino young people, Minnie’s quintessentially American story embodies far more than a plaque ever could.”