I finally got a chance to look up some 1914-15 North Carolina newspapers to see if Francisco Muñoz and Luis Padrón played for the Raleigh Capitals of the North Carolina League (as evidence collected by David Skinner and Patrick Rock seemed to suggest).
First, Padrón in 1914: According to the Raleigh News and Observer, a certain “George Pennele,” who came from Baltimore and had played briefly for the Orioles, was acquired by Earle Mack for the Raleigh club and played his first game on June 11, 1914. Then the next day his name changes (without explanation) to Pedrone, then alternates between Pedrone and Pedone (in the box scores he is "Pedone" seven times, "Pedrone" three times, and "Pennele" once). I'm certain they're the same person, as the newspaper was pretty scrupulous about recording the comings and goings of players. Altogether Pennele/Pedrone/Pedone played 11 games, June 11 through June 24; according to the box scores, he batted 10 for 40 with no extra base hits, collected 26 putouts and 2 errors, all in center field. The stats are very slightly different from what David Skinner found in the Spalding Record Book for "Pedrone" in 1914, but not by much. He batted eighth in the first three games, then second in the next five, then led off in his last three games. When he was released, the News and Observer commented: "Pedone is a nice little outfielder, but is almost invisible in front of a catcher. He just naturally hits weakly." That just doesn't sound like Padrón, whose heavy hitting was always remarked upon wherever he went. Plus, Padrón was always a story when he played in the minors; it seems unlikely he would have made such an underwhelming impression for a Class D club.
I briefly thought that perhaps the "Pennele" name and the bit about Baltimore might have been a cover story (soon abandoned) to hide his identity. The publisher of the News and Observer at the time was still Josephus Daniels, one of the men who had orchestrated the 1898 coup d'etat that ended the last vestige of reconstruction in the south (the so-called "Wilmington race riot"); certainly the climate could not have been friendly for someone suspected of African ancestry. Still, that didn't quite add up, since claims of a Baltimore origin would hardly deter suspicions of blackness. Cuba would have been much safer (that was the whole point of using "Cubanness" as a dodge). Plus, Francisco Muñoz (as well as J. M. Gutiérrez) did play for Raleigh the next season, as it turns out, and were openly known as Cubans, and nobody seemed to care.
Anyway, according to Marshall Wright’s book of International League stats, "Pedone," no first name, did play for the Baltimore Orioles in 1914. He appeared in 7 games as an outfielder and hit 2 for 19 (two singles). Then I searched for Pedone in the WWI draft cards. It was actually a fairly well-represented name (87 Pedones registered for the draft). Several were in Baltimore; one was named George, the same first name the News and Observer had given "Pennele" when he first arrived. And, as his card shows, he listed himself as a professional ballplayer:
So the whole thing turns out to be an odd coincidence, a similar name rendered even more similar by a typo (“Pedrone” for “Pedone”), on a team for which one (actually two) of Padrón’s Long Branch teammates would play the following season.
And Francisco Muñoz did indeed play for Raleigh in 1915. The Long Branch Cubans, evidently playing their way north, visited Asheville in April, 1915, for a three-game series, during which the Asheville Mountaineers signed Muñoz and catcher Manuel Jiménez to form a Cuban battery. Shortly thereafter (though I haven't checked for the precise circumstances) the Raleigh Capitals signed J. M. Gutiérrez to catch and play right field. Muñoz pitched well for Asheville, going 5-2 as they led the Carolina League toward the end of May; however, rosters had to be reduced from 15 to 13 on May 25, and for some reason never explained Asheville manager Jack Corbett decided to get rid of his Cuban battery. Earle Mack pounced immediately (the Capitals were actually in Asheville at the time), and Muñoz was signed; Jiménez, however, was sent back to the Long Branch Cubans. The move did not work out for Asheville; in first place at the time they dumped the Cubans, the Mountaineers ended up dead last with a 43-73 record (the Capitals weren't great either, finishing fourth in a six-team league).
A couple of random notes:
1) The North Carolina League was usually referred to as simply the “Carolina League.”
2) The Asheville News-Gazette in 1915 carried an astronomy column by H. P. Lovecraft, and also featured a “Socialist Column,” put together by the “Socialist Local of Asheville.”
Soon to come: Luis Padrón’s minor league peregrinations in 1909-1911.
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