I want to extend my thanks to Jason Mishelow, who recently loaned me three Cuban baseball guides from the 1945/46, 1946/47, and 1948/49 winter seasons. Here are the covers of two of them:
There are certainly some cool images inside these guides. Here is a team photo of the Almendares club, champions of the 1946/47 Cuban League:
Here is a page showing the league leaders and award winners for the 1948/49 season, including home run leader Monte Irvin, RBI leader Lennie Pearson, and runs scored leader Hank Thompson:
The 1948/49 guide also features a photo of the groundskeeper for El Gran Estadio de La Habana, which hosted all Cuban League games in 1948/49. Although his name is misspelled here, it is none other than Alfredo Cabrera, legendary Cuban League shortstop, career U.S. minor leaguer, and cup-of-coffee major leaguer in 1913. Here’s his picture in the 1948/49 guide side-by-side with his 1909 Cabañas card:
But the most important aspect of these Cuban baseball guides is the fact that they printed box scores for every single Cuban League game played during these three seasons.
This means that we can go well beyond the numbers published in Jorge Figueredo’s Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, to obtain fielding statistics, batters’ walks, pitchers’ home runs allowed, and so on—just as I’ve been able to do from newspaper box scores for Cuban League seasons in the 1900s, 1910s, and 1920s.
Thanks again to Jason for generously providing this amazing material. If anybody else has Cuban baseball guides—from any season—please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Comments