Baldomero Pedro "Merito" Acosta Fernández (May 19, 1896 – November 17, 1963) was an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to c ...

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), ...

who played five seasons for the Philadelphia Athletics and Washington Senators. Acosta played winter baseball in the

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 ...

from 1913 to 1925 and was also a long-time manager and part-owner of the

Havana Cubans The Havana Sugar Kings were a Cuban-based minor league baseball team that played from 1946 to 1960. From 1954 until 1960, they belonged in the Class Triple-A (baseball), AAA International League, affiliated with Major League Baseball's 1960 Cinc ...

. In the 1918/19 season, Acosta made an unassisted

triple play In baseball, a triple play (denoted as TP in baseball statistics) is the act of making three outs during the same play. There have only been 733 triple plays in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1876, an average of just over five per season. Th ...

while playing center field. With the bases loaded, he sprinted in to catch the ball, then continued to touch second base before the runner could return and tagged the runner from first base. In his first season as a manager, 1922/23, he led a brand new franchise,

Marianao Marianao is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs (''municipios'' in Spanish) in the city of Havana, Cuba. It lies 6 miles southwest of the original city of Havana, with which it is connected by the Marianao railway. In 1989 the municipality had ...

, to a championship. Acosta was elected to the

Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame (''Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Cubano'') is a hall of fame that honors eminent baseball players from Cuban baseball. Established in 1939 to honor players, managers, and umpires in the pre-revolution Cuban League ...

in 1955.Figueredo 2003, pp. 143, 509.

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1896 births 1963 deaths Atlanta Crackers players Baltimore Orioles (International League) players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Habana players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from Cuba Cuban expatriate baseball players in the United States Marianao players Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players Minor league baseball managers Philadelphia Athletics players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players People from Bauta, Cuba Sportspeople from Artemisa Province Dayton Aviators players {{Cuba-baseball-outfielder-stub