Baseball journeyed to Cuba in the 1860s. In 1864, an upper class Cuban who studied in Mobile, Alabama, Nemesio Guilló, brought home to Havana a bat and a baseball. He began teaching the American game to his friends. A little later, American sailors began playing baseball with Cubans on every port in the island. The first such game recorded took place in 1866 in the port city of Matanzas. The practice of the newfangled sport soon took political overtones. It became an expression of anti colonial sentiment among the island’s population, so much so, that the Spanish governor of Cuba banned baseball in 1869.
When, the National Baseball Association, the first American professional league was formed on April 1871, a Cuban, Esteban (Steve) Bellán, was part of the Troy Haymakers team. He played third and second base as well as the outfield.
On December 27, 1874, the first organized and recorded game took place in the island. At Matanzas, the Havana team thrashed the locals 51-9. A year later, on December 29, the Professional Baseball League of Cuba was founded with three teams: Havana, Almendares and Matanzas. That was only two years after the National League was established and 23 years before the American League. Club Havana won that first ever Cuban league championship.
Baseball Development in the Caribbean
The 1890s were important to the development of baseball in the Caribbean basin. Cubans took baseball to Puerto Rico and Mexico in 1890, to the Dominican Republic one year later and to Venezuela in 1895. In 1894, the Club Almendares won its first Cuban championship and what came to be known as the great rivalry with the Havana team, which had won nine of the 12 previous seasons, was born. It continued as long as there was professional baseball in Cuba.
The beginning of the 20th Century saw a growing relationship between Cuban and American professional baseball. Negro League player from the Philadelphia Giants and Royal Giants and a team called the Cuban X-Giants, which had no Cubans, toured the island. In 1908 pitcher Luis Padrón was asked to spring training by the Chicago White Soxs, but was sent back because he was considered too dark. The following year the American League Champion Detroit Tigers played 12 games in the island against the Cuban All Stars. The Tigers lost eight. On November 18, Cuban pitcher Eustaquio “Bombín” Pedroso, a sugar cane cutter by trade, pitched a no hit against the Americans. Many Afro Americans supplemented their Negro League salaries by playing winter ball in Cuba.
First Cuban in the Major Leagues
In 1923, blue-eyed Adolfo "Dolf" Luque, became the first Cuban and Latin American in modern times to play in the Majors when he joined the Boston Braves. Four years later he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, starting a love affair between the Reds and the island’s fans. Luque still owns the Major Leagues’ best won-lost record and ERA (earned runs average) for a single season of any Latin American pitcher; that year Luque won 27 games, lost eight and had an ERA of 1.98.
Luque unlocked the doors to Cuban players in the U.S. White Cubans such as José Acosta and Mike Guerra played in the Majors, while the Afro-Cubans like Martín Dihigo, Manuel (Cocaína) García and Luis Tiant, Sr. toiled in the Negro Leagues. Dihigo is the only player to be included in the American, Cuba, and Mexican, Dominican and Venezuelan halls of fame. In 1935, the New York Cubans joined the Negro leagues. After Jackie Robinson broke the baseball color barrier, both white and Afro Cubans were able to play together in the majors. After playing in the Negro Leagues for years, Cuban Orestes (Minnie) Miñoso, became the first Black player ever to take the field for the Chicago White Sox in 1951.
The 1950s were the golden years for Cuban professional baseball. Not only did the sport flourish in the island, but Cuban players were an integral part of most Major League teams. Sandalio (Sandy) Consuegra was a stellar pitcher for the Senators, Whites Sox, Orioles and Giants; Edmundo (Sandy) Amorós played for the Dodgers and Tigers; Camilo Pascual, for the Senators/Twins, Dodger, Reds and Indians, Julio Bequer for the Senators/Twins and Preston Gómez , for the Senators, were some of the best known. Gómez would go on to manage the Padres, Astros and Cubs . Even the mighty Yankees signed shortstop Guillermo (Willy) Miranda.
In 1954, the Havana Sugar Kings, were granted an AAA International League, franchise. Five years later, they would win the leagues Little World Series. However 1959 would be the last year of the team’s existence. Fidel Castro’s government would nationalize all foreign owned enterprises and in March 1961 all professional sports were abolished in the island.
Many of the young Cuban players at the time such as Tony Pérez, Miguel (Mike) Cuellar Tony Oliva and Bert Campaneris either stayed in the U.S. or promptly left the island and made a name for themselves in the Majors.
Cubans Dominate International Baseball
Baseball in Cuba was not dead, though. The Cuban National Team has won three Gold and two Silvers at the Olympic Games since 1992. The Cubans baseball dominance which started in 1951 in the Pan American Games, and in 1939 in the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) World Cup has continued under the revolution. The Cuban cachet has been 12 Gold and one Silver medal in the Pan Am Games and an incredible 25 Gold, two Silver and two Bronze in the IBAF World Cup.
In the last few years defectors such as Orlando (El Duque) Hernández of Yankee fame, Kendry Morales of the Angels and Yuniesky Betancourt of the Royals have kept the flame of Cuban baseball lit in the Majors.
