Agate Type

juan luis padrón

Pulled from the comments:

Juan Padron, my grand uncle, was Juan Luis Padron. Possibly the reason for some of the confusion. Not sure where Acosta came from, but I've heard it from the family. As a family historian, still not making the connections. If you can help, great.

To the best of my knowledge and according to census and ship's manifests, my Juan Luis Padron was born in NYC, Oct 20, 1892 and died in Grand Rapis, Dec 7, 1981. He was the son of Manual Padron Sr. His brother, my grandfather, was Manuel Padron Jr. My son Andre Padron, will send you the obits and news articles re: Juan. Hope this helps.

--Posted by Nancy Padron

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.

juan padrón sightings

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

juan padrón

For the blog’s 100th post, here is a photo of Juan Padrón I found recently (La Lucha, October 6, 1918):

The heading reads: “A pitcher with a famous left arm.”

The caption reads: “Juan Padrón, the marvelous Cuban pitcher just returned from Mexico, who very probably will lend his valuable services to one of the clubs forming the National Professional League [the newly reorganized Cuban League].”

Figueredo has Luis Padrón as a pitcher/outfielder for Almendares in the 1918/19 Cuban League, which is interesting since Almendares was Juan’s team in 1915/16.  Neither Padrón appeared in the special preseason series played in the fall of 1918 (Copa El Mundo and a couple of others); ditto for the few box scores I’ve so far collected for the 1918/19 regular season.

Compare these other photos of Luis and Juan, along with this one of Luis (he appears in the middle of the top row).

juan padrón and his arm of iron

I still have the strong suspicion that I’m laboriously reinventing the Padrón wheel, but anyway: here’s some new information on Juan Padrón, who is discussed several times in La Lucha during the runup to the Spring 1917 Cuban League season.  There’s this, for example, from the January 25, 1917, issue:

Entre los jugadores que forman el club que dirigirá Tinti figuran los populares serpentineros Juan Padrón y “Cheché” Suárez.  El primero obtuvo la pasada temporada en los Estados Unidos muchos y muy resonantes éxitos estableciendo también un gran record mundial y el segundo está considerado como el mejor lanzador cienfueguero.

Among the players on Tinti Molina’s club [which would eventually be called the “White Sox”] are the popular pitchers Juan Padrón and “Cheché” Suárez.  The first enjoyed many successes last season in the United States, including a great world record [see below], and the second is considered the best pitcher from Cienfuegos.

On January 27, 1917, La Lucha again mentioned Juan Padrón as one of Molina’s pitchers, and described him as “el gran pitcher zurdo Juan Padrón, lanzador éste de ‘brazo de hierro’ y que goza tanto en Cuba como en los Estados Unidos de gran fama y popularidad” (“The great lefthanded pitcher Juan Padrón with the ‘arm of iron’, who enjoys as much fame and popularity in Cuba as in the United States”).  The article also mentions that he played for the Cuban Stars the past season.  (A couple of paragraphs later “Padrón” —Luis—is mentioned among the players on Miguel Angel González’s Red Sox team.) 

But Juan does not appear on a White Sox roster list elsewhere in the same issue.  And in fact, he did not play in the Cuban League that season, though I could not find an explanation anywhere.  (Luis Padrón played in the outfield for the Red Sox.)

The next fall, we find more mentions of Juan Padrón as a pitcher for Molina’s team, the Cuban Stars, which represented Cienfuegos in several series against Habana and Almendares during the 1917/18 season.  Once again, though, he doesn’t appear in any Cuban box scores that season, at least that I’ve found so far.  In La Lucha (November 4, 1917) he is referred to as the “serpentinero éste que posee el record mundial de struck outs en nueve innings, 21,” that is, the pitcher who owns the world record for strikeouts in nine innings with 21.  I don’t know precisely when or where this was supposed to have happened, just that it was during the 1916 season in the United States.  Several ProQuest searches haven’t turned anything up yet.

So, in summary: more separation between Juan and Luis, a mention of Juan as a lefthanded pitcher, and an identification of Juan as the Cuban Stars’ pitcher in 1916. 

Tomorrow: Luis Padrón and his tryout with the Chicago White Sox.

juan padrón in cuba, 1915

We can now confirm that “J. Padrón,” whom Jorge Figueredo also refers to as “José Padrón,” is indeed Juan Padrón.  In the first game of the 1915/16 Cuban League season, played on December 4, 1915, Juan and Luis Padrón played against each other, Juan pitching for Almendares, Luis playing center field for San Francisco.  A play-by-play account published in La Lucha gives both first names, not just initials: Luis is named in the sixth inning, Juan in the seventh.  For the record, Luis batted one for three, with a single, a walk, and two strikeouts, against the man he would later be confused with.

Here’s the whole game (click to enlarge):

Since I haven’t yet found Juan in Cuba any earlier than fall, 1915 (he shows up in the Indianapolis ABCs series, as you may have noticed), right now his earliest known (to me) professional appearance was for Molina’s Cuban Stars in 1915, after which he went to Cuba for the 1915/16 winter.  He then returned to the States with Molina for the summer of 1916, when he was one of the best pitchers on the Midwestern black baseball circuit.  It makes sense that he would play for Almendares, since Molina’s Cuban Stars were largely (though not entirely) drawn from Los Azules during those years.  Luis, on the other hand, seems to have played for the Long Branch Cubans in 1914, possibly the Lincoln Stars in 1915 (though that could also be Juan—I haven’t studied 1915 yet), and Long Branch again in 1916.

I understand from another Negro League historian that Juan is known to have been a Cuban-American born in Key West in 1896, although the same source maintained that generally Juan played for fellow Key West native Alejandro Pompez’s (eastern) Cuban Stars, whereas I believe that Juan played for Molina’s (western) Cuban Stars in 1915 and 1916, and later for the American Giants and other NNL teams.  He also says that Juan died in Grand Rapids in 1981. 

By the way: I’ve gotten to the end of February, 1916, and so far every single game of the 1915/16 Cuban League is given this batter-by-batter treatment (the season ended in late March).  All but a handful of 1914/15 games have play-by-plays, too; when I get to them, these seasons will yield unusually rich and detailed stats.

padrón

In James Riley’s Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues, we find on page 594 an entry for a Cuban ballplayer named “Padron, Juan Luis (Jose, El Mulo),” with a North American career spanning 1909 to 1926, playing for many teams, most notably the various Cuban Star clubs and the Chicago American Giants.  In the body of the entry we discover that his Cuban career lasted from 1900 to 1919 and that he played semipro ball in the U.S. until 1938, worked at a garage in Flint, Michigan, until dying in 1939, “still a relatively young man.”  Then in 1943 he was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame.

In Cuban baseball, Luis Padrón (pictured at right) emerged as a pitcher in the 1900 season, going 13-4 for the second-place Habana club.  After that he played as an infielder/outfielder (except for a couple of seasons around 1908-1909 when he reemerged briefly as a pitcher) until 1919. 

Padrón also enjoyed a rather full North American career, beginning (according to this account) in what must have been his mid-thirties in the 1910s.  He revived his pitching career in the U.S. (but not Cuba), becoming a mainstay of Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants for a couple of seasons in the early 1920s.  His semipro career would have taken him well into his fifties.

I think you can see where I’m going here.  It is pretty apparent, and has been known for some time in the research community, that two different Padróns, probably named Juan and Luis, were conflated to create “Juan Luis.”  Luis was, of course, well-known in Cuban circles, and his career as a versatile infielder/outfielder/pitcher lasted from 1900-1919; Juan was, as I understand it, an American who never went to Cuba, was primarily a pitcher, and probably followed the North American trajectory described in Riley (mid-1910s to late 1920s as a professional, 1930s in semipro ball).

As you can see from my compilation of 1916 Negro League statistics (standings, batting, fielding, pitching) , that season finds a Padrón (Luis, I believe) playing right field for the Long Branch Cubans of the New York/New Jersey area, while another Padrón (Juan) plays simultaneously for Molina’s Cuban Stars in the midwest.  In fact, Juan Padrón may have been the best pitcher in western black baseball.  His overall won/loss record was not great, at 9-11, but he was easily the most effective strikeout pitcher, with 132 in 168 innings (compare Frank Wickware, with 87 in 164), had good control (47 walks, to Wickware’s 73), and played for a team that went .500 versus black professional teams.  He is second to Chicago’s Dick Whitworth in total run average among pitchers with more than fifty innings (2.73, to Whitworth’s 2.53, in 65 more innings); the number three guy is teammate José Junco, at 3.54.  Padrón was borrowed for one game by Rube Foster’s American Giants and shut out the Lincoln Stars, striking out seven.

“Juan Luis” the Composite is always said to have been a lefty, and Luis the Cuban is listed in Figueredo's Cuban Baseball as a lefthanded thrower and hitter.  Curiously, I have not come across a mention (that I recall) of Juan the American’s handedness.  If he were a lefty, you’d normally expect an occasional reference.  I’m not saying there isn’t one; I just don’t remember it.  And in 1916 he was mentioned fairly prominently in game stories and accounts.

I have, however, found a photo of Luis the Cuban, in the November 17, 1911, issue of La Lucha:

The caption reads (loosely translated): LUIS PADRÓN, who hit a home run in yesterday’s game [against the Phillies].  This photograph was taken by our photographer Señor Pijuán a moment after said player [Padrón] had touched home.

Feel free to correct my Spanish!  It is a little curious that he is posing with the bat just after scoring…Anyway, my interest in this photo is, of course, that he’s posing as a righthanded hitter.  (By the way, you can tell that the photo has not been unintentionally reversed because of the “HP” that is, to me anyway, clearly visible on his cap.  His club that fall was called “Habana Park”—La Lucha carried several photos of the team showing the letters “HP” on their jerseys and caps.)

So, if he was really a righthanded hitter (or at least switch-hitter), that certainly raises the possibility that he threw with his right hand as well.  As it happens, he played extensively as an infielder in the 1900s, mostly at third base (though he also appeared at short and second—but not first base, at least that I’ve seen).  Left-handed infielders were not completely unheard of at this time: the last regular lefty infielder in the majors was Bill Hulen, Phillies shortstop in 1896, and Kid Mohler was still playing a southpaw second base in the PCL through 1912.  Still, they were a very tiny minority, so I’d think it somewhat unlikely that a lefthander would play a great deal of time at third base in the 1900s Cuban League, an already very good and fast-rising league.

However, Padrón’s fielding statistics do support the idea, as they were pretty awful.  He fielded .720 at third base in the 1906 Cuban League, for example (the other two regular third basemen, Carlos Morán and Rafael Almeida, both fielded .891—then again, Morán was supposed to have been a lefty also!).

(I’ve been trying to confirm Morán’s handedness, as he was an excellent offensive player with good on-base skills, and his fielding statistics at third were actually quite good, even compared to his contemporary, Almeida, who of course went on to be a major league third baseman.  I have one lead, in a photograph from La Lucha around the same time as the Padrón photo above.  The copy is so poor, though, that I can’t tell whether Morán is wearing a glove on one hand or not.  Next time I’m reading La Lucha I’ll look for this photo again, to see if it’s more visible on the microfilm reader.)

Two further notes on Padrón to cap this rambling entry:

In the 1915/16 season, Jorge Figueredo’s Cuban Baseball lists Luis Padrón as an outfielder in two games for the San Francisco club.  The book also lists a “J. Padrón” pitching for the champion Almendares club of the same season, going 4-2.  A photo of Agustín Molina’s 1915 Cuban Stars (the North American traveling club) shows a “José Padrón” (pictured right).

Clearly not Luis, not to my eyes, anyway.   I wonder if J. Padrón of Almendares is the same as Juan the American?  Furthermore, could “Juan”’s real name be José, or vice versa? 

Lastly, a Bernardo Padrón played in the 1904 and 1905 Cuban Summer League (but never to my knowledge appeared in the winter league).  I recently found this in Diario de la Marina, July 12, 1904:

Bernardino Padrón (hermano de Luigi), jugó tambien con bastante serenidad y realizó bonitas jugadas en la dificil posición del S.S.

Bernardino Padrón (brother of Luigi), also played with poise enough and made good plays at the difficult position of shortstop.

So Bernardo was Luis’s brother.  I wonder: is “Luigi” a random nickname, or did the Padróns have an Italian heritage (there were plenty of Italian immigrants in Cuba)?