Related Research Articles
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues".
Orestes "Minnie" Miñoso, nicknamed "The Cuban Comet" and "Mr. White Sox", was a Cuban professional baseball player. He began his baseball career in the Negro leagues in 1946 and became an All-Star third baseman with the New York Cubans. He was signed by the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball (MLB) after the 1948 season as baseball's color line fell. Miñoso went on to become an All-Star left fielder with the Indians and Chicago White Sox. The first Afro-Latino in the major leagues and the first black player in White Sox history, as a 1951 rookie he was one of the first Latin Americans to play in an MLB All-Star Game.
Martín Magdaleno Dihigo Llanos, called The Immortal and The Maestro, was a Cuban professional baseball player. He played in the Negro leagues and Latin American leagues from 1923 to 1936 as a two-way player, both as a pitcher and a second baseman, although he excelled at all nine positions and later as a manager.
Adolfo Domingo De Guzmán "Dolf" Luque was a Cuban starting pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1914 to 1935. Luque was enshrined in the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957 and the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1967, as well as in the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985. Luque was not only the first Latino pitcher in MLB, but also the first to win a World Series victory, and the first to lead the Leagues in wins and shutouts.
Miguel Angel González Cordero was a Cuban catcher, coach and interim manager in American Major League Baseball during the first half of the 20th century. Along with Adolfo Luque, González was one of the first Cubans or Latin Americans to have a long off-field career in the U.S. Major Leagues.
Ariel Prieto is a Cuban former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1995 to 2001 for the Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He is currently the pitching coach for the GCL Mets.
Alejandro "Alex" Pompez was an American executive in Negro league baseball who owned the Cuban Stars (East) and New York Cubans franchises from 1916 to 1950. His family had emigrated from Cuba, where his father was a lawyer. Outside baseball and numbers, he owned and operated a cigar shop in downtown Manhattan. He later served as a scout and director of international scouting for the Giants franchise in Major League Baseball. He was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006.
The United States national baseball team, also known as Team USA represents the United States in international-level baseball competitions. The team is currently ranked 2nd in the world by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The United States has won many international tournaments, many of which are now discontinued. Most notably the team won the Olympic baseball tournament in 2000, and the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in 2017.
Yulieski Gourriel Castillo, commonly known as Yuli Gurriel and nicknamed "La Piña", is a Cuban professional baseball first baseman for the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for Sancti Spiritus in the Cuban National Series (CNS), the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), and the Houston Astros of MLB. Gurriel is a former member of Cuba's national team, and an Olympic Games gold medalist in 2004. A versatile infielder, he has also played shortstop, second base, and third base in the major leagues.
The Cuban League was one of the earliest and longest lasting professional baseball leagues outside the United States, operating in Cuba from 1878 to 1961. The schedule usually operated during the winter months, so the league was sometimes known as the "Cuban Winter League." It was always a small league, generally 3 to 5 teams, and was centered in Havana, though it sometimes included teams from outlying cities such as Matanzas or Santa Clara. The league became racially integrated in 1900, and during the first half of the 20th century the Cuban League was a premier venue for black and white players to meet. Many great black Northern American players competed in Cuba alongside native black and white Cuban stars such as José Méndez, Cristóbal Torriente, Adolfo Luque, and Martín Dihigo. After 1947, the Cuban League entered into an agreement with Major League Baseball and was used for player development. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, however, tensions rose with the new Communist government, and in March 1961 the government decreed the abolition of professional baseball.
The Habana B.B.C. also known as the Habana Reds or, later, the Leones del Habana was one of the oldest and most distinguished baseball teams in the old Cuban League, which existed from 1878 to 1961. Habana, representing the city of Havana, was the only team to play in the league every season of its existence and was one of its most successful franchises. In their early history they were known by their colors as the Reds; later they adopted the names of Leones or Lions. Throughout their existence they had a famous rivalry with Almendares.
Baseball was popularized in Cuba by Nemesio Guillot, who founded the first major baseball club in the country. It became the most played sport in the country in the 1870s, before the period of American intervention.
Conrado Eugenio Marrero Ramos, nicknamed "Connie", was a Cuban professional baseball pitcher. The right-handed Marrero pitched in Major League Baseball from 1950 to 1954 for the Washington Senators. Marrero made his major league debut when he was 38 years old, and was one of the oldest players in the league throughout the duration of his time in the major leagues. He was a popular star in his native Cuba, where he had a long and successful career in amateur baseball, pitching for Cuba in several Amateur World Series competitions, and playing several excellent seasons with the professional Cuban League and the minor league Havana Cubans. His nicknames in Cuba were "El Guajiro de Laberinto", reflecting his rural origins, "El Premier", and "El Curvo."
The All Cubans were a team of Cuban professional baseball players that toured the United States during 1899 and 1902–05, playing against white semiprofessional and Negro league teams. The team was the first Latin American professional baseball team to tour the United States. As a racially integrated team, future major league players Armando Marsans and Rafael Almeida got their start in the United States on the team. The team was also a forerunner for later Negro league teams staffed by Latin American players, such as the Cuban Stars (West), the Cuban Stars (East), and the New York Cubans. Negro league stars Luis Bustamante and Carlos Morán started their American careers with the All Cubans.
Armando Marsans Mendiondo was a Cuban professional baseball player who played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1918. He played in three different major leagues in his career: with the Cincinnati Reds in the National League (1911–1914), with the St. Louis Terriers in the Federal League (1914–1915), and with the St. Louis Browns and New York Yankees (1916–1918).
Rafael D. Almeida was a Major League Baseball third baseman from 1911 to 1913 with the Cincinnati Reds.
The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame is a hall of fame that honors eminent baseball players from Cuban baseball. Established in 1939 to honor players, managers, and umpires in the pre-revolution Cuban League, by 1961 it had honored 68 players, managers, and umpires whose names are shown on a marble plaque at Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano. After the revolution, however, the Hall of Fame languished for more than 50 years, seldom mentioned or acknowledged and with no new inductees. Following a campaign led by Cuban filmmaker Ian Padrón, a meeting was held on November 7–8, 2014 to reformulate the Hall of Fame and to propose a museum in which it would be housed. The reformulated Hall recognized the original 68 members, and a jury of 25 people selected 10 new inductees—five from the pre-revolution period and five representing for the first time the post-revolution Cuban National Series. The planned site for the new museum is in the José Antonio Echeverría Workers' Social Club.
José Dariel Abreu Correa is a Cuban-born professional baseball first baseman for the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Chicago White Sox.
José "Joseíto" Muñoz was a Cuban baseball pitcher in the Cuban League and the Negro leagues. He played from 1900 to 1914, mostly for Almendares in the Cuban League and the Cuban Stars (West) in the United States. His 82 wins are fifth on the all-time Cuban League list. In 1940 he was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame.
Lourdes Yunielki Gurriel Castillo Jr. is a Cuban-American professional baseball left fielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB). He played for Sancti Spíritus and the Industriales of the Cuban National Series before defecting from Cuba.
References
- Figueredo, Jorge S. (2003), Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878–1961, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, ISBN 078641250X