David Skinner sent me the handout from his SABR presentation on the Long Branch Cubans, which includes statistics on the team from 1913-15. From this I see that our man Muñoz pitched for the 1914 team in the Class D Atlantic League (when they lost the pennant by 3 ½ games to Poughkeepsie). Muñoz went 10-6 in 19 games; the team’s most successful pitchers were Luis Padrón (14-5) and José Acosta (13-5).
As David points out, José Muñoz would surely have appeared “black” to Americans in the 1910s. As such, even in the unlikely event that he were allowed to appear in organized baseball, there would certainly have at least been some commentary, some notice taken. The fact that there wasn’t any would seem to be very persuasive evidence that José was not the Long Branch Cubans’ Muñoz (if Severo Nieto’s word weren’t already enough).
There remains the possibility that the Muñoz of 1914 and the Muñoz of 1916 were two different people, thus preserving a slim chance for the 1916 guy to be José; but for now I prefer the simpler explanation.
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