The New York Cubans were a

Negro league baseball 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 ...

team that played during the 1930s and from 1939 to 1950. Despite playing in the Negro leagues, the team occasionally employed white-skinned

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

baseball players as well, because Hispanics in general were largely ignored by the major league baseball teams before

Jackie Robinson Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the baseball color line ...

broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

Historical roots

In 1899, 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 ...

became the first all-Hispanic team to travel to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

and stage exhibition games, against established Negro league powerhouse teams. The All Cubans kept traveling to the United States each year until 1905. Beginning in 1907, they were replaced by the Cuban Stars, which became accepted as an independent Negro baseball team. In 1916, the team was struck by controversies and competition regarding booking, which led to the creation of a new Cuban Stars carrying the same name. To differentiate between the two teams, the newer of the two was referred to as 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 on ...

, which was owned by Alex Pompez and competed in the

New York city New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

area. The older team (which was owned by

Abel Linares Abel Linares (1872 – August 21, 1930) was a Cuban baseball executive in the Cuban League and Negro league baseball. Linares founded the All Cubans in 1899 and served as owner and business manager, and briefly managed the club in 1904. Linares ...

and Tinti Molina and previously had competed in the New York area) moved to the midwestern region and became known as the Cuban Stars (West).

Founding (or re-incarnation)

About 1930, both Cuban Stars teams folded, but in 1935 Pompez was able to re-create a Cuban team under the new name New York Cubans. In 1935 and 1936, the New York Cubans called historic Hinchliffe Stadium in

Paterson, New Jersey Paterson ( ) is the largest city in and the county seat of Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...

n players, there were players from other Hispanic nationalities and the

as well. In 1941, Perucho Cepeda, father of

National Baseball Hall of Fame 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 ...

r Orlando Peruchin Cepeda and a legendary player around the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

himself, became the first Puerto Rican to play for the New York Cubans. Apart from Cepeda, there were also players from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

and the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

playing for the New York Cubans. From 1941 to 1944, the Cubans had the services of well-known Dominican utility player Tetelo Vargas. Only one other team of the era, the

Indianapolis Clowns The Indianapolis Clowns were a professional baseball team in the Negro American League. Tracing their origins back to the 1930s, the Clowns were the last of the Negro league teams to disband, continuing to play exhibition games into the 1980s. The ...

, boasted a line-up with as many international players as the Cubans did.

Negro League World Series champions

With a team that included such notables as

Luis Tiant, Sr. Luis Eleuterio Tiant Bravo () (August 27, 1906 – December 10, 1976) was a pitcher in Negro league baseball, as well as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. He also performed with barnstorming teams. Tiant's career extended from 1926 thr ...

Minnie Miñoso Orestes "Minnie" Miñoso (, ; born Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso Arrieta; November 29, 1923 – March 1, 2015), nicknamed "The Cuban Comet" and "Mr. White Sox", was a Cuban professional baseball player. He began his baseball career in the N ...

and

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 pitch ...

, the New York Cubans won their only Negro League World Series title in 1947, defeating the

Cleveland Buckeyes The Cleveland Buckeyes were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1942 to 1950 in the Negro American League. The Buckeyes played in two Negro World Series, defeating the Washington Homestead Grays in 1945, and losing to the New York Cu ...

Demise

The Cubans did not win another championship, and, because of many different reasons, which included economical strain and exodus both from

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

and Hispanic players to the Major Leagues, the Negro league stopped playing in 1950.

Hall of Fame players

holds the distinction of being inducted into three Halls of Fame;

Cuban Cuban may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Cuba, a country in the Caribbean * Cubans, people from Cuba, or of Cuban descent ** Cuban exile, a person who left Cuba for political reasons, or a descendant thereof * Cuban citizen, a pers ...

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

and

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. *

holds the distinction of being inducted into three Halls of Fame:

and

. * Tetelo Vargas is a member of the Puerto Rican and Cuban baseball Hall of Fames, despite never having played a single game in Cuba. His election to the Cuban baseball Hall of Fame has been credited to his participation with the New York Cubans.

MLB throwback jerseys

On May 29, 2010, the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major lea ...

wore Cubans uniforms in a game in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

against the Brewers, who wore Milwaukee Bears uniforms. The Mets then wore this uniform again on August 22 against the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

Notes

External links

New York Cubans
on the Negro League Baseball Players Association website {{Negro League teams, Majorleague Afro-Caribbean culture in the United States Afro-Cuban culture Caribbean-American culture in New York City Cuban-American history Hispanic and Latino American culture in New York City Negro league baseball teams Defunct baseball teams in New Jersey Baseball teams disestablished in 1950 Baseball teams established in 1935