Agate Type

the first american professional team to visit cuba, 1879

From Jorge Figueredo’s Cuban Baseball (p. 7):

On December 21, [1879,] an American team named the Hop Bitters, headed by Cincinnati promoter Frank Bancroft, visited Havana and easily disposed of a Cuban squad that scored a single run by Carlos Zaldo, who got on base following a successful bunt, the first native player to master this particular craft.

In Cuba the team was indeed promoted as the “Hop Bitters,” a name usually associated with Rochester, New York.  And in fact the trip appears to have been financed by a “Mr. Soule of Rochester, N.Y.” (New York Clipper, November 29, 1879).  But it turns out that Bancroft’s team was really, as the Clipper remarked in its November 29 issue, “composed entirely of the Worcesters of 1880”—that is, the Worcester, Massachusetts, club of the (minor) National Association of 1879, with the players they intended to use the following season.  The Worcesters joined the National League for the 1880 season, and would play there through 1882 (they are called in all the reference books the “Worcester Ruby Legs,” though I’m not sure how prevalent that nickname was at the time); so the nine that visited Cuba in 1879 was, if not technically a “major league” club, practically one.  The latest standings I could find for the 1879 NA shows the Worcesters at fourth place of nine clubs with a 19-23 record.  In 1880 they would fare about the same in the NL, at 40-43 and fifth (though with Lee Richmond and Fred Corey added on the mound, and Harry Stovey in the outfield).  The roster is listed in the Clipper (November 22, 1879); here is the passenger manifest for their return to the United States, arriving at New Orleans on December 31:

The players are:
George Wood
Alonzo Knight
Charlie Bennett
Art Whitney
J. F. “Chub” Sullivan
C. J. “Curry” Foley
A. J. “Doc” Bushong
Arthur Irwin
Frederick “Tricky” Nichols

Seven of these players (all but Foley, who would go to Boston, and Nichols, who would only pitch two games for Worcester) would be regulars for Worcester in 1880.

The trip was not a financial success.  As far as I can tell, they ended playing only two games in Cuba, spending the rest of the winter in New Orleans.  This piece, from the Clipper (January 3, 1880), explains it from the American point of view:

It’s important to remember that the United States had made several attempts to acquire Cuba, most recently offering to purchase the island in 1869, just after the Ten Years’ War, a Cuban rebellion, had begun.  Baseball, probably considered a symbol and symptom of U.S. subversion, was banned by Spanish authorities in that same year (though the ban was apparently flouted often, or only intermittently enforced).  In 1873, war had nearly broken out between the United States and Spain over the “Virginius Affair,” a Bay of Pigs-like incident involving an American-manned ship caught attempting to smuggle arms, ammunition, revolutionary leaders, and about 100 soldiers into Cuba (you will be hearing more about this soon).  When the Worcester players visited in 1879, the Ten Years’ War had been over for only a year, and the atmosphere they encountered was surely tense.

cuban stars vs. lincoln giants, 1911

Just to fill in another small item on Luis Padrón’s resumé: he joined the Cuban Stars after leaving the Mansfield Brownies in 1911.  The Negro Leagues Book actually does have “Juan Padrone” on the Cuban Stars’ roster for that year (which I had missed), though Riley’s encyclopedia does not.  Here’s a box score for an August 19 slugfest between the Cuban Stars and Lincoln Giants (in their first year of existence), in which Padrón hit 4 for 5 with a triple and a home run:

The excellent, detailed box score is also noteworthy because it was printed in the New York Times (August 20, 1911), which very rarely published box scores for Negro League games.

By the way, “Costello” would be the slugger Julián Castillo; “Zaldez” is Rogelio Valdés.

luis padrón in new britain, 1908

Peter T. Toot’s book Armando Marsans: A Cuban Pioneer in the Major Leagues has an excellent account of Luis Padrón’s time on the New Britain club in the 1908 Connecticut League (see a team photo here).  You can check out the pages on Padrón through Google Book Search.

the first north americans to play in the cuban league

From Jorge Figueredo’s Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961, p. 7 (on the 1879/80 Cuban League season):

Pitcher George McCullar and catcher Urban Carpenter became the first Americans to play (for Colón) in the Cuban league.  Oddly enough, the other teams objected to their presence when McCullar struck out 21 Habana batters in a game and also belted the first home run.  When the circuit high command upheld the protest, Colón withdrew from the competition and the Americans went home.

And from Roberto González Echevarría’s The Pride of Havana, p. 100:

In the 1879-80 season Colón Base Ball Club hired two Americans—Carpenter and McCuller, a pitcher and a catcher—who so dominated the games that other teams refused to take the field against them.

I’ve always been curious about the identity of these U.S. players who so outclassed the Cubans.  Neither Urban Carpenter nor George McCullar played in the major leagues, and I couldn’t match them with any minor leaguers at the time, either.

However, I was able to find passport applications for two men who had played for the National League’s Syracuse club in 1879, James F. Macullar (who managed the club briefly) and Warren W. “Hick” Carpenter.  The applications are dated September 24 and 25, 1879:

Neither application mentions their destination.  But according to Figueredo, the Cuban League season started on November 11.  Colón played only two games, one against Habana and one against Almendares, winning both; the club withdrew from the league on January 11, 1880.  And on the passenger manifest for the steamship City of Veracruz, arriving in New York from Havana on 15 January 1880, we find “James F. Maculler” [sic] and “W. W. Carpenter” (at the bottom, partly obscured by a crease), both 24 years old:

(click to enlarge)

Obviously, as the dominance of these players (or Esteban Bellán, for that matter) shows, Cuban baseball was just getting started.  (By some curious coincidence, both Carpenter and Macullar were left-handed infielders in the majors.)  Perhaps a more interesting question is what official reason was given for barring them from the league.  Was it because they were foreigners?  Or was it because they were paid?

UPDATE 12/21/2007  Adrian Burgos correctly identifies Macullar and Carpenter in his book, Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line, p. 32.  My only quibble is that he refers to them as “future major leaguers” (they had both already played in the National League).

los padrones

One of the more interesting projects I’ve pursued in this blog has been the disentangling of Luis Padrón and Juan Padrón, two players who for a long time were thought to be the same person.  Here’s a quick summary of how I see their careers now.  (A number of people have helped with this research, including Jerry Kuntz, Bob Mayer, Jack V. Morris, Patrick Rock, Tito Rondon, Scott Simkus, and David Skinner; if anybody sees anything wrong in what I’ve written below, or has anything to add, please jump right in.)

***Luis Padrón***
Born: ca. 1877-1880, Matanzas, Cuba
Though a 1911 article in a Mansfield, Ohio, newspaper reports that Padrón was born in Mexico, three different passenger manifests give Matanzas, Cuba, as his birthplace.  As Tito Rondon has pointed out to me, the reporter (who clearly had trouble understanding Padrón’s English) may have mistaken “Matanzas” for a word he knew, Mexico.  In addition, Padrón may have mentioned the fact that he had played ball in Mexico.

Bats: Right
Possibly; see this post
Throws: Right
Tito also reports that César López has found three photographs of Padrón either throwing right handed or wearing a glove on his left hand.  More on this soon.

Cuban Teams:
1900-1902, 1904-1912, 1913-15 Habana
1903, 1918-19 Almendares
1913 Fe
1915-16 San Francisco
1917 Red Sox

U.S. Teams:
1902 All-Cubans (independent)
1903 All-Cubans (independent)
1905 Poughkeepsie (Class C Hudson River League) (ADDED 1/30/2008 courtesy Bob Mayer)
1906 Jacksonville (Class C South Atlantic League)
1906 Poughkeepsie (Class C Hudson River League) (Padrón did not actually play for Poughkeepsie in 1906, instead returning to Cuba after leaving Jacksonville - 8/4/2009)
1907 Cuban Stars (independent; Padrón listed as manager on passenger manifest) (ADDED 1/30/2008)
1907 Poughkeepsie (Class C Hudson River League) (ADDED 1/30/2008 courtesy Bob Mayer)
1907 Brooklyn (Atlantic League, independent)
1908 New Britain Perfectos Mountaineers (Class B Connecticut League)
1909 Cuban Stars (independent)
1910 Cuban Stars (independent)
1910 Kankakee Kays (Class D Northern Association)
1910 Eddie Hahn’s Red Sox (Chicago City League)
1910 Peoria Distillers (Class B Three-I League)
1911 Mansfield Brownies (Class C Ohio-Pennsylvania League)
1911 Cuban Stars (independent) (ADDED 12/21/2007)
1911 New Britain Aviators (Class B Connecticut League) (ADDED 8/4/2009)
1912 (uncertain; destination on passenger manifest is Paterson, New Jersey, home of Coogan’s Smart Set, a black team) Paterson Smart Set (independent black team owned by Dick Cogan) (ADDED, CORRECTED 8/4/2009)
1913 Long Branch Cubans (Class D New York-New Jersey League)
1914 Newark/Long Branch Cubans (Class D Atlantic League)
1915 Long Branch Cubans (independent)
1916 Long Branch Cubans (independent)

In 1909, Luis Padrón tried out for the Chicago White Sox, but was not signed.  In 1913, he was purchased by the Boston Braves but never called up.

***Juan Padrón Acosta***
Born: ca. 1892-1893, Key West, Florida
I think I’ve found Juan Padrón’s family—more on this in another entry.

Bats: ?
Throws: Left
See this post, for example.  There are many further references, both in the United States and Cuba, to Juan Padrón’s left-handedness.

Cuban Teams:
1915-16 Almendares

U.S. Teams
1915 Almendares
1915 Lincoln Stars
1915 Cuban Stars (Molina)
1916 Cuban Stars (Molina)
1916 Chicago American Giants (one game)
1917 Royal Poinciana (Florida Hotel League)
1917 Cuban Stars (Molina)
1918 Breakers (Florida Hotel League)
1918 Cuban Stars (Pompez)
1919 Cuban Stars (Pompez)
1920 Cuban Stars (Pompez)
1921 Cuban Stars (Pompez)
1922 Chicago American Giants (NNL)
1923 Cuban Stars (Molina; NNL)
1923 Birmingham Black Barons (NNL)
1924 Chicago American Giants (NNL)
1925 Chicago American Giants (NNL)
1925 Brooklyn Royal Giants (ECL)
1926 Cuban Stars (Molina; NNL)
1926 Indianapolis ABCs (NNL)

(From 1924 on, I am relying on Riley.)  Juan Padrón went on to play for semi-pro teams in Michigan well into the 1930s; he passed away in Grand Rapids in December, 1981. (UPDATE 12/20/2007 He died on December 7, 1981.)

Luis Padrón and Juan Padrón played in the same game once that I know of (on opposing sides), in Havana on December 4, 1915.

dick redding and joe williams in providence, 1924

Dick Thompson sent along this story from the Providence Journal (August 25, 1924), about a doubleheader between the Brooklyn Royal Giants and two semipro teams (along with an ad for the games from earlier in the week):

Dick writes:

Dick Redding and Joe Williams did the hurling for the Giants.  The games were played at Kinsley Park, which was the professional field at that time in Providence; the same field, I believe, that Babe Ruth played on while with Providence in 1914.

The Wollaston team was from Quincy, which is just outside of Boston.  Wollaston is a section of Quincy.  It was a pretty good semi pro team and several of the players had minor league experience.  The pitcher, in fact, was Steve White, who pitched in the majors in 1912.

The Giants were touring New England that summer and I have some other games from Portland, Maine, as well, though my notes are in longhand.  On August 16, 1924, Redding dropped a 5-4 game to a semipro team in Portland.  Ray “Lanky” Jordan, who played in the majors in 1912 and 1919, was the winning pitcher.  Redding's line was 8 innings pitched, 9 hits, 3 walks and 3 strikeouts.

Dick

cuban players in the atlantic league, 1907

I noticed the other day that Jerry Kuntz, at his marvelous site on the baseball promoter / aviation pioneer Alfred Lawson, had posted some information on the outlaw Atlantic League Lawson founded in 1907.  I’ve seen a number of references to Luis Padrón’s time with the Brooklyn team in that league; looking at the rosters Jerry has put together, it would appear that as many as four more Cubans played for Brooklyn, alongside Padrón: “Ortega,” lf; “Molina,” c; “Palamino,” p; and “San’z,” rf. 

Luis Padrón was definitely in the U.S. in 1907; a passenger manifest shows him arriving in New York on April 19, along with the whole All-Cubans or Cuban Stars club (a note next to his name on the manifest says “manager, Base Ball Club”).  Agustín Molina, Emilio Palomino, and Andrés Ortega traveled together from Havana, arriving in New York on April 23, 1907.  The fact that they did not arrive with the rest of the Cuban Stars club suggests that they may have come specifically to play in the Atlantic League.  Gonzalo Sánchez arrived in New York on June 1, along with several other Cuban players. 

Molina apparently returned to Cuba to retrieve his family; he’s again shown in the manifests arriving in New York on June 12, accompanied by wife, daughter, and son.

Jerry also has “Augustin Molina,” catcher, on the Brooklyn roster of the 1908 Union League, the Atlantic League’s successor.

the first spaniards to play professional baseball

I got this email from Tito Rondon the other day:

Thanks to you, I have found the first Spaniards who played baseball at the professional level.  Following one of your links, I read the book El Base Ball en Cuba y América, by Ramón de Mendoza, Manuel Calcines and José María Herrero.  On pages 21 and 28 the players who founded Almendares are mentioned. Then on p. 42, bingo: Antonio Alzola and Leonardo Ovies “were two Peninsulars [my note: Spaniards] who were the catcher and the firstbaseman of Club Almendares.”  Elsewhere it states that they were pretty good.  It shows also the universal appeal of baseball.

Historians and sociologists insist that baseball replaced bullfighting as the national sport in Cuba as a symbol of independence and getting closer to the new ideals in the United States. Which is all very nice, except that nobody in Cuba thought of bullfighting as a sport (you will never find it in the Sports section in Spanish newspapers, plus it is usually described as a “fiesta brava,” somewhat like a celebration or dance showing bravery). So it could not be replaced by one, except as an avocation or hobby.

[…]

And, by the way, it has never been established that supposed Spanish big leaguer Alfredo “Pájaro” Cabrera was born in the Canary Islands; it is theorized that 1) he was trying to avoid being thought of as a mulato (half Black) from Cuba, or 2) that he was really born in Spain and he was brought to Cuba as a baby.  I suppose all this means I have to investigate Gregorio Solis (first Spanish minor leaguer circa 1957?), Alberto Pardo, and recent minor leaguers Gaby Valarezo and Xavier Civit.  And hurry; like the other European countries they are “nationalizing” Argentinians, Cubans, and Americans in order to compete against pros...

Tito

“B B C Cuba 1901”

Bob Mayer has in his collection a presentation or trophy baseball, silver-plated and engraved as follows:

B B C
Cuba
1901

There wasn’t, as far as we know, a Cuban team touring the U.S. in 1901, but there are, as Bob says, two other possibilities: 1) It could be from a club playing in Cuba; or 2) It could be one of the several towns in the U.S. called Cuba.  I thought I’d post photos of the baseball, and see if anyone has any ideas.

There was in fact a club called “Cuba” in the 1899 Cuban League.  Roberto González Echevarría tells a complicated story about the Cuba club’s role in the controversy over the league’s racial integration in 1900.  Essentially, the team’s owner Severino T. Solloso, “made a present of it to Agustín (Tinti) Molina and José Poyo rather than allow it to play, under his direction, in a championship that included blacks.”  Molina, of course, later ran the Cuban Stars team that toured the U.S. for many years; Poyo was the son of José Martí’s secretary.  The new owners took the old uniforms and added “no” to the “Cuba” name, calling their team, which would include several black players, Cubano.  González Echevarría explains that “[w]ritten this way it means, ‘This is not the team Cuba.’  But they obviously meant to say also that the white Cuba Solloso envisioned was no Cuba at all” (The Pride of Havana, p. 119).

Could the trophy baseball above be associated with Molina and Poyo’s Cubano club, or with Solloso’s original Cuba club (perhaps continued with all white players, outside the Cuban League, in 1901)?  Or is it Cuban at all?  If I get any updates from Bob I’ll pass them along.

UPDATE 12/4/2007 Just wanted to point out that “B B C” probably stands for “Base Ball Club.”  It was a common abbreviation at the time, and it was used in Cuba (as in “Almendares B.B.C.”, for example).