When the teenage Orestes Miñoso approached the manager of the Ambrosia Candy Company baseball team for a tryout, little did he know that it would be the beginning of a career that would span four countries and last seven decades. […]
Category: Cuba
Martín Dihigo: El Maestro of Swat
Perhaps the most versatile player in the history of the game, Martin Dihigo player every position on the field and in every country that had a league. […]
Bruce “Buddy” Petway: Keeping Ty Cobb (and history) Honest
Like many students of Negro League history, I was initially attracted to the subject by the rich stories that seemed too good to be true. Over the decades, many of those great tales have been proven false–but most, like the one I’m going to relate below, began with a true event, and no matter how much it was re-told and embellished over the years, that real story makes no less of a great story. […]
José Méndez: Beating the Reds Black and Blue
When the Cincinnati Reds arrived in Havana in November 1908 for a 15-game exhibition tour, they last thing they expected was to be beaten black and blue by the Almendares Azules and their young pitching ace, José Méndez. […]
Tomás Romañach: Afraid of being what the Americanos call “the lemon”
In the spring of 1913, Cincinnati Reds fans, players and management were finally confident their club was turning a corner. Two years earlier, in what was thinking outside the box for the time, the Reds signed Cubans Armando Marsans and Rafael Almeida to fill holes in their roster. Now they were awaiting the arrival of another Cuban import to solve their shortstop problem… […]
Claro Duany: The Giant
Mexico City, July 25, 1946.
Mickey Owen, former catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, warily watched the big Cuban standing 90 feet away on third base. Before putting his mask back on he wiped the sweat from his forehead and eyeballed the man they called “El Gigante” – “The Giant”. […]