The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame (''Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Cubano'') is a
hall of fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
that honors eminent baseball players from Cuban baseball. Established in 1939 to honor players, managers, and umpires in the pre-
revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
Cuban League
The Cuban League was one of the earliest and longest lasting professional baseball leagues outside the United States, operating in Cuba from 1878 to 1961. The schedule usually operated during the winter months, so the league was sometimes known a ...
, by 1961 it had honored 68 players, managers, and umpires whose names are shown on a marble plaque at
Havana
Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center. 's
Estadio Latinoamericano
The Estadio Latinoamericano (Spanish for ''Latin American Stadium'') is a stadium in Havana, Cuba. It is primarily used for baseball, and is the second largest baseball stadium in the world by capacity. Gran Estadio, a spacious pitchers' park ...
. After the revolution, however, the Hall of Fame languished for more than 50 years, seldom mentioned or acknowledged and with no new inductees. Following a campaign led by Cuban filmmaker
Ian Padrón, a meeting was held on November 7–8, 2014 to reformulate the Hall of Fame and to propose a museum in which it would be housed. The reformulated Hall recognized the original 68 members, and a jury of 25 people selected 10 new inductees—five from the pre-revolution period and five representing for the first time the post-revolution
Cuban National Series
The Cuban National Series (, SNB) is the primary domestic professional baseball competition in Cuba. Formed after the dissolution of the Cuban League in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, the Series is a part of the Cuban baseball league system.
...
. The planned site for the new museum is in the José Antonio Echeverría Workers' Social Club (also known as the Vedado Tennis Club).
History
Pre-revolution (1939–1961)
The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame was established by the DGND (''Dirección General Nacional de Deportes''), a government agency supervising sports activities in Cuba. The hall was inaugurated on July 26, 1939—about six weeks after the June 12 dedication and opening of the U.S.
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
in
Cooperstown
Cooperstown is a village in and county seat of Otsego County, New York, United States. Most of the village lies within the town of Otsego, but some of the eastern part is in the town of Middlefield. Located at the foot of Otsego Lake in the C ...
—by placing a bronze plaque at Havana's
La Tropical Stadium. The first ten inductees were selected by former and current baseball writers and the DGND's baseball advisers (''asesores de baseball''). The inaugural class included 19th-century Cuban stars (
Antonio María García
Antonio María García Callaghan (1868 – July 24, 1923), nicknamed "''El Inglés''" ("The Englishman"), was a Cuban baseball catcher in the Cuban League. He played from 1882 to 1905 with several Cuban ballclubs, including Almendares, the Fe c ...
,
Valentín González
Valentín González González (4 November 1904 – 20 October 1983), popularly known as ''El Campesino'' (the Peasant), was a Spanish Republican military commander during the Spanish Civil War.
Life
Spanish Civil War
Born in Malcoc ...
,
Adolfo Luján, and
Carlos Royer
Carlos "Bebe" Royer (1874 – death date unknown) was a Cuban baseball pitcher in the Cuban League and Negro leagues. He played from 1892 to 1910 with several Cuban ballclubs. He was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame
The Cuban Baseball ...
), black players who had achieved success in the U.S.
Negro leagues
The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...
(
Luis Bustamante,
José de la Caridad Méndez,
Gervasio González, and
Cristóbal Torriente
Cristóbal Torriente (November 16, 1893 – April 11, 1938) called Babe Ruth of Cuba , was a Cuban outfielder in Negro league baseball with multiple teams. He played from 1912 to 1932 and was primarily a pull hitter, though he could hit with pow ...
), and white players who had played
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
(
Rafael Almeida
Rafael D. Almeida (July 30, 1887 – March 19, 1968) was a Major League Baseball third baseman from 1911 to 1913 with the Cincinnati Reds.
Almeida and Armando Marsans debuted together with the Reds on July 4, 1911. They are sometimes named the ...
and
Armando Marsans
Armando Marsans Mendiondo (October 3, 1887 – September 3, 1960) was a Cuban professional baseball player who played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1918. He played in three different major leagues in his career: with the ...
). Méndez and Torriente, along with later inductee
Martín Dihigo
Martín Magdaleno Dihigo Llanos (May 25, 1906 – May 20, 1971), called The Immortal, was a Cuban professional baseball player. He played in Negro league baseball and Latin American leagues from 1923 to 1936 as a two-way player, both as a pitche ...
, subsequently were also recognized by the U.S. Hall of Fame.
The bronze plaque was subsequently replaced by a marble plaque that hangs on a wall "in a poorly lit corner" of Havana's Estadio Latinoamericano.
[Toot 2004, p. 171.] Before listing the names of the inductees, the introductory section of the plaque reads,
Cuban Professional Baseball Hall of Fame
List of players that have been selected as
BASEBALL IMMORTALS
And have deserved this just recognition for their distinguished work
maintaining an undying memory of what they were in this
sport
While all of the inductees were recognized as baseball players, in several cases their distinction reflected, at least in part, accomplishments achieved after their playing careers. For example,
Emilio Sabourín,
Agustín Molina, and
José Rodríguez were long-time managers who won championships, as also were more celebrated players such as Dihigo,
Miguel Angel González
Miguel Angel González (born 3 July 1944) is a Mexican sprinter. He competed in the men's 100 meters at the 1968 Summer Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1968), officially known as the Games of the XIX ...
,
Adolfo Luque
Adolfo Domingo De Guzmán "Dolf" Luque (August 4, 1890 – July 3, 1957) was a Cubans, Cuban starting pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from to . Luque was enshrined in the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1957 and the Cincinnati Reds Hall of ...
, and Marsans. Francisco A. Poyo and Eustaquio Gutiérrez served as umpires. Carlos Zaldo, Eugenio Jiménez, and Molina entered the business side of baseball as stadium developer, promoter, and league administrator. Wenceslao Gálvez wrote a history of baseball in Cuba, published in 1889, which according to
Roberto González Echevarría
Roberto González Echevarría (born 1943) is a Cuban-born critic of Latin American literature and culture. He is the Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature at Yale University.
Early life, education, and career
González Ech ...
"may very well be the first history of the game ever written anywhere".
Other inductees achieved distinction outside of baseball. For example,
Juan Antiga
Juan Antiga Escobar (August 23, 1871 - February 9, 1939) was a Cuban baseball player, physician, homeopath, government official, and diplomat, who served as an ambassador to France and Switzerland, delegate to the League of Nations, and Secretar ...
, who played in the Cuban League for just two seasons prior to completing medical school, became a notable intellectual,
homeopath
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a dise ...
, government official, and diplomat, serving as ambassador to Switzerland and delegate to the
League of Nations
The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...
. The type of post-playing distinction most often recognized by the hall, however, is military service, especially during the
Cuban War of Independence
The Cuban War of Independence (), fought from 1895 to 1898, was the last of three liberation wars that Cuba fought against Spain, the other two being the Ten Years' War (1868–1878) and the Little War (1879–1880). The final three months ...
that was fought from 1895 to 1898.
Alfredo Arango, Eduardo Machado, and Carlos Maciá served as officers in the Cuban revolutionary army and Sabourín,
Juan Manuel Pastoriza
Juan Manuel Pastoriza (died 1896) was a Cuban baseball pitcher in the Cuban League. He played from 1889 to 1895 with Club Fé, Aguila de Oro, and Almendares. He was killed in 1896 during the Cuban War of Independence. He was elected to the Cuba ...
, and Ricardo Cabaleiro died in the conflict.
In the 20th century, opportunities to play in the United States became increasingly important to Cuban players. Some of the earliest opportunities to play in the U.S. came in nearby
Key West
Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it cons ...
beginning about 1890. Key West had an independent baseball league with considerable participation by Cuban emigrants, and Cuban League players were recruited to play there during the off season. Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame inductees Molina and Poyo began their baseball careers in Key West before moving on to the Cuban League. In 1899, a Cuban all-star team, the
All Cubans
The All Cubans were a team of Cuban professional baseball players that toured the United States during 1899 and 1902–05, playing against white semiprofessional and Negro league teams. The team was the first Latin American professional baseball ...
, undertook their first barnstorming tour of the United States. The team, which was racially integrated (reflecting the racial integration of the Cuban League) played against professional and semi-professional teams, white and black, until 1905.
However, the U.S.
color line soon affected Cuban players. By 1904, white Cubans, such as
Juan Violá
Juan Violá (1883–1919) was a Cuban baseball player in the Cuban League, Negro leagues and the minor leagues. He played from 1902 to 1915 with several ballclubs, including Almendares, the Habana club, the Long Branch Cubans, and the Jacks ...
, were playing in the
minor leagues
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...
, and in 1911
Rafael Almeida
Rafael D. Almeida (July 30, 1887 – March 19, 1968) was a Major League Baseball third baseman from 1911 to 1913 with the Cincinnati Reds.
Almeida and Armando Marsans debuted together with the Reds on July 4, 1911. They are sometimes named the ...
and
Armando Marsans
Armando Marsans Mendiondo (October 3, 1887 – September 3, 1960) was a Cuban professional baseball player who played as an outfielder in Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1918. He played in three different major leagues in his career: with the ...
broke into the
majors
Jonathan Michael Majors (born September 7, 1989)Majors in is an American actor. He rose to prominence after starring in the independent feature film ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' (2019). In 2020, he garnered wider notice for portraying ...
with the
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...
. Meanwhile, Cubans with darker complexions played in the Negro leagues for teams such as the
Cuban Stars (West)
The Cuban Stars were a team of Cuban professional baseball players that competed in the United States Negro leagues from 1907 to 1930. The team was also sometimes known as the Cuban Stars of Havana, Stars of Cuba, Cuban All-Stars, Havana Reds, Alm ...
, the
Cuban Stars (East)
The Cuban Stars (East) were a team of professional baseball players from Cuba and other Latin American countries who competed in the Negro leagues in the eastern United States from 1916 to 1933. They generally were a traveling team that played onl ...
, and the
New York Cubans
The New York Cubans were a Negro league baseball team that played during the 1930s and from 1939 to 1950. Despite playing in the Negro leagues, the team occasionally employed white-skinned Hispanic baseball players as well, because Hispanics in ...
. Some Cuban players moved on to success with U.S. teams, such as
José Méndez
José Colmenar del Valle Méndez (January 2, 1885 – October 31, 1928) was a Cuban right-handed pitcher and manager in baseball's Negro leagues. Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, he died at age 43 in Havana. Known in Cuba as ''El Diamante Negro'' ...
with the
Kansas City Monarchs
The Kansas City Monarchs were the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball's Negro leagues. Operating in Kansas City, Missouri, and owned by J. L. Wilkinson, they were charter members of the Negro National League from 1920 to 193 ...
and
Cristóbal Torriente
Cristóbal Torriente (November 16, 1893 – April 11, 1938) called Babe Ruth of Cuba , was a Cuban outfielder in Negro league baseball with multiple teams. He played from 1912 to 1932 and was primarily a pull hitter, though he could hit with pow ...
with the
Chicago American Giants
The Chicago American Giants were a Chicago-based Negro league baseball team. From 1910 until the mid-1930s, the American Giants were the most dominant team in black baseball. Owned and managed from 1911 to 1926 by player-manager Andrew "Rube" Fo ...
.
Exile in Florida (1962–1986, 1997–1998)
After the closing of the Cuban League in 1961, inductions to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame ceased in Havana for more than five decades. The players who had migrated to the United States, however, formed an organization, the Federation of Professional Cuban Baseball Players in Exile (''Federación de Peloteros Profesionales Cubanos en el Exilio'') which held elections in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
to add new members to the hall. These additional members are not universally recognized; they are not recognized in Cuba, nor are they included in lists of Hall of Fame inductees shown in reference books by historians Peter Bjarkman and Jorge Figueredo. The Miami elections continued in three phases—1962–1986, 1997–1998, and 2007—ultimately declaring more than 200 additional individuals as inductees.
Official reformulation (2014–present)
In August 2014, Cuban filmmaker and baseball fan Ian Padrón brought together a group of 12 prominent fans to create a group called Enthusiasts for the Refoundation of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame. The group developed a set of rules to govern a reformulated hall which would recognize the 68 original members, provide for regular elections of additional professional and amateur players from both the pre-revolution and post-revolution periods, and would help arrange for the hall to be part of a Cuban baseball museum. With support from the National Institute of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation (INDER), a meeting of sports commentators was held on November 7–8, 2014. The meeting approved the draft rules, selected a jury of 25 people to select the inductees, and planned for subsequent annual elections. Four players and an umpire were honored from the pre-revolution era—
Conrado (Connie) Marrero,
Orestes (Minnie) Miñoso,
Camilo Pascual
Camilo Alberto Pascual Lus (born January 20, 1934) is a Cuban former Major League Baseball right-handed pitcher. During an 18-year baseball career (1954–71), he played for the original modern Washington Senators franchise (which became the Mi ...
,
Esteban (Steve) Bellán, and umpire
Amado Maestri. Five players were also honored the post-revolution era, the first players from that period to be recognized—
Omar Linares
Omar Linares Izquierdo (born October 23, 1968)[B ...](_blank)
,
Orestes Kindelán
Orestes Kindelán Olivares (born November 1, 1964) is the most prolific home run hitter in the history of post-revolutionary Cuban baseball, known as "El Cañon de Dos Rios" and one of the offensive stars of the Cuba national baseball team, whi ...
,
Antonio Muñoz,
Luis Casanova, and
Braudilio Vinent.
Inductees
See also
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Baseball awards#Cuba
Notes
References
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External links
Cuban Baseball Hall of Fameat Baseball-Almanac.com
{{Cuban League teams
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
Baseball museums and halls of fame
Lists of baseball players
Museums established in 1939
Awards established in 1939
1939 establishments in Cuba
Awards disestablished in 1961
Halls of fame in Florida
Baseball in Cuba
Baseball in Florida
Awards established in 1962
Awards established in 2014
Cuba–United States relations
1961 disestablishments in Cuba
1962 establishments in Florida
2014 establishments in Florida