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.
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