Nearly a quarter of a century after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball with the Brooklyn Dodgers, the National Baseball Hall of Fame finally began enshrining the stars of the Negro leagues and players from other Black teams. Satchel Paige, who played professionally for over 20 years before finally joining the Cleveland Indians of the American Leagues at the age of 42, was the first Negro leagues star to be admitted to the Hall of Fame in 1971. Paige is considered by many baseball experts and fans to be the greatest pitcher in the sport’s history.
As detailed on the Major League Baseball website, “there are now 37 inductees -- players, managers and executives -- who have reached Cooperstown mostly or entirely on the strength of their careers in the Negro Leagues.” In addition to Paige, these include three Cubans whose careers ended before the color barrier was broken:
- Martin Dihigo, who according to MLB.com, “may have been the most versatile player in baseball history,” and “might have been at his best on the pitcher’s mound, where he twirled no-hitters and won hundreds of games while still winning batting titles at home plate.”
- José Méndez, a pitcher who was “a summer star in the United States and a winter hero in his native Cuba” according to MLB.com and “the first Cuban star of the pre-Negro Leagues era,” and
- Cristóbal Torriente, whose “legend was built on a national scale in 1920, when he outhit and outhomered Babe Ruth during a nine-game exhibition series in Cuba,” according to MLB.com
Among the teams Dihigo played for were the New York Cubans, who won their only Negro World Series in 1947. Minnie Miñoso, who will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame this July 24, was part of that N.Y. Cubans championship team, two years before joining the Cleveland Indians to start a Major League Baseball career that included parts of 17 seasons, the last of which was in 1980 when he batted twice at the age of 54! Luis Tiant Sr., father of the 18-year Major League Baseball player of the same name, was a pitcher on the 1947 N.Y. Cubans title team.
“A predominantly Latino team, the Cubans played at historic baseball institutions such as Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, N.J., and the Polo Grounds in New York City,” according to MLB.com.
Decades before the New York Cubans, there was the Cuban Giants baseball team which, according to Leslie Heaphy’s 2003 book, The Negro Leagues, 1869-1960, were the first fully salaried African American professional baseball club. The team’s Wikipedia entry states the Cuban Giants were initially an independent barnstorming team that played games against major and minor league clubs, semiprofessional teams, college and amateur squads. Despite their name, no Cubans played on the team. They remained one of the premier Negro league teams for nearly 20 years and a model for future Black teams.
Some former Cuban Giants players formed the Cuban X Giants in 1896, according to the team’s Wikipedia entry. Like the Cuban Giants, none of Cuban X Giants’ original players were Cuban, although the team would later sign Cuban players. According to MLB.com, among the team’s notable players were Rube Foster, “who would later become more widely known for his executive contributions to the sport, eventually earning the moniker, ‘Father of Black Baseball.’”
Foster is prominently mentioned in what many historians consider the definitive book about Black baseball before Major League Baseball's color barrier was broken, Only the Ball Was White: A History of Legendary Black Players and All-Black Professional Teams, by Robert Peterson. First published 1970 and re-issued 1992, Peterson’s book is a real eye-opener about the indignities Black baseball teams and players endured – and the determination of people like Foster to keep moving forward – during the first part of the 20th century.
If you were fascinated by the “5th Inning – Shadow Ball” episode of the Ken Burns Baseball documentary miniseries which first aired 1994, then you should read Robert Peterson’s book about Black baseball. And while you’re at it, take a look at MLB.com’s stories about the nearly forgotten Black stars of baseball who were finally honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
