I finally found Juan Padrón on the passenger manifests on Ancestry.com. He pitched for Almendares in the 1915/16 Cuban League, which ended on March 26, 1916, and for Molina’s Cuban Stars in the United States in the summer of 1916 (the first appearance I have for him is on May 7, against the ABCs). So at some point between March 26 and May 7 he had to have traveled from Cuba to the United States.
Actually, I wasn’t altogether sure I would find him. After a certain point (1912 or so), the passenger manifests for ships from Cuba seem to contain mostly (or only) lists of alien passengers; I haven’t been able to find many traces, for example, of Negro League players returning from Cuba after about 1911. Since some sources maintain that Juan Padrón was born in Key West, it seemed like a good bet he wouldn’t be listed among the non-citizens entering the country.
Most of the 1916 Cuban Stars arrived in Tampa aboard the S.S. Olivette on April 9, 1916:
(Note the inclusion of the players’ matronyms.) No Padrón among them. However, I had seen a “Juan Padrón Acosta” arriving in Tampa a few days earlier, on April 5. This seemed a red herring, as someone by the same name had also arrived in Tampa several months earlier, on January 12—which was squarely in the middle of the Cuban League season. Surely this meant Padrón Acosta could not be “our” Juan.
Then it occurred to me to check the 1915/16 box scores, which I haven’t yet studied or compiled. Juan Padrón started against San Francisco on January 9. He was knocked out in the second inning and replaced by Dolf Luque (Almendares went on to win, 9 to 5). Going through every box score through the season’s end on March 26, Padrón never appeared again. Meanwhile, Juan Padrón Acosta embarked on January 11—so it was not impossible that he was in fact the baseball player. Here are parts of the record for Padrón Acosta’s January trip to Tampa:
His “Race or People” and last permanent residence:
His height, complexion, eye and hair color, and birthplace:
Although the entries are a bit hard to read, the last two columns read: “U.S.” and “K[ey]West.” (Ancestry.com’s digitization concurs with this reading.)
Here’s the April 5 entry for Padrón Acosta, again arriving at Tampa:
His birthplace:
Clearly the same person as the January 12 traveller (same matronym, also born in Key West). Again, it’s a little faint, but his occupation is listed here as “B. Player”—which, I think, makes the case very strong that this is our guy. Padrón’s “last permanent residence” is listed on both manifests as Tampa. Apparently, he left Almendares to return home for some reason in January, then came back to Cuba at some point before April, but did not rejoin Almendares (or, at least, he failed to get in a game before the season ended). Then he returned to the U.S. a few days earlier than the rest of Molina’s team—which makes perfect sense, considering that Tampa was his permanent home.
Patrick Rock has also found Juan Padrón traveling to New York from Puerto Rico on May 12, 1920, accompanied by Alejandro Pompez and four other players:
Unfortunately, the columns for birthplace are left blank for Padrón:
So, here’s a roundup of the pertinent information from each passenger manifest listing:
January 12, 1916
Name: Juan Padrón Acosta
Age: 23
Nationality: Cuba
Race or People: “Afric.”
Last Permanent Residence: Tampa, U.S.
Birthplace: K. West, U.S.
April 5, 1916
Name: Juan Padrón Acosta
Age: 24
Calling or Occupation: “B. Player”
Nationality: Cuba
Race or People: “Afric.”
Last Permanent Residence: Tampa, U.S.
Birthplace: K. West, U.S.
May 12, 1920
Name: Juan Padrón
Age: 26
Calling or Occupation: Base ball player
Nationality: Cuban
Race or People: “Black Cuban”
Last Permanent Residence: San Juan, P.R.
Birthplace: not given
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