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 as the "Cuban Winter League."
The league generally comprised 3 to 5 teams, and was centered in Havana, though it sometimes included teams from outlying cities such as Matanzas or Santa Clara. Despite its name, it was not the only professional league active in Cuba during that time, nor was it always the most popular; Peter C. Bjarkman argues that amateur play drew far more interest due to its reach outside the capital. However, the Cuban League did join Major League Baseball's National Association in 1947, becoming the first Latin American league to join the fold of "Organized Baseball".
The league became racially integrated in 1900, and during the first half of the 20th century the Cuban League was a premier venue for black and white players to meet. Many great African American players competed in Cuba alongside native black and white Cuban stars such as José Méndez, Cristóbal Torriente, Adolfo Luque, and Martín Dihigo. Following the 1959 Cuban Revolution, however, tensions rose with the new Communist government, and in March 1961 the government decreed the abolition of professional baseball.

Early history: 1878–1899

The first game in what became known as the Cuban League took place in Havana on December 29, 1878. Esteban Bellán, the first Latin American to play professionally in the United States, was captain of Habana while the opposing Almendares was captained by Carlos Zaldo. Habana won the first game, 21-20. The only other team in the league was Matanzas. In that first season, only four games were scheduled for each team, with the season lasting through February. Habana won the first championship with a record of 4-0-1.
Early baseball in Cuba, as in the United States, was an amateur sport first organized by gentlemen's athletic clubs. Games were played on Sundays and were typically preceded by a picnic and followed by a dance. A unique feature of early Cuban baseball is that teams played with 10 players per side. The tenth player was a "right shortstop", playing halfway between the first and second bases.
By the mid-1880s, the best-known players were becoming celebrities and baseball began to become professional, as players jumped from team to team and Americans were sometimes brought in as reinforcements. The gradual development of professionalism that took place in Cuba during the 1880s and 1890s echoed the development of professionalism in the United States two decades earlier in the National Association of Base Ball Players, which ultimately led to the formation of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. In Cuba, however, the clubs that wished to remain amateur broke off from the Cuban League.
Baseball in Cuba became associated with Cuban identity and nationalism. González Echevarría notes, "Baseball was a sport played in defiance of Spanish authorities, who viewed this American invention as vaguely secessionist and dangerously violent because of the use of sticks. A ban was issued in 1869, just as the Ten Years' War was starting." Several of the sponsors of early baseball teams were also supporters of the revolutionary cause. A number of ballplayers fought against Spain in the Cuban War of Independence, and at least three lost their lives: Emilio Sabourín, Juan Manuel Pastoriza, and Ricardo Cabaleiro.
During the 19th century the Cuban League remained a segregated, whites-only institution. However, black Cubans were developing their baseball skills playing for semi-professional and sugarmill teams. The Cuban War of Independence brought Cuban blacks and whites together in a common cause and created the pressures that ultimately brought integration.
The other great legacy of 19th century Cuban League baseball was the enduring rivalry between Habana and Almendares. This rivalry began before the formation of the Cuban League and survived after its end, lasting for nearly a century. Growing up in Havana meant choosing between Habana and Almendares.

Highlights

  • On December 29, 1878, the Cuban League's first game took place in Havana; Habana beat Almendares 21-20.
  • On December 21, 1879, an American professional team, the "Hop Bitters", visited Cuba and easily beat a Cuban team. The team's players comprised the Worcester team that had played in the minor league National Association in 1879 and would play in the major National League in 1880–1882. This tour began a long tradition of post-season exhibition series between major leaguers and Cuban teams.
  • In 1881 the first Almendares Park opened. For several decades it served as the principal Havana home for Cuban League baseball.
  • On February 2, 1886, Carlos Maciá pitched a shutout for Almendares, the first in Cuban League history, beating Fe 16–0.
  • In 1887 Habana won its sixth consecutive pennant. In the nine years since the founding of the Cuban League, Habana had so far been the only winner.
  • In 1888 Fe became the first team other than Habana to win a championship. Antonio María García, known as El Inglés, wins the first of 4 batting championships, hitting.448 for Habana.
  • In 1889 Wenceslao Gálvez writes the first history of baseball in Cuba, El base-ball en Cuba.
  • On May 17, 1890, the President of the league, Oscar Martínez Conill, was killed in a fire while serving in a volunteer fire-fighting brigade.
  • In 1891, Alfred Lawson led two American teams on tours of Cuba. The first team to tour, in January and February, featured a mix of major and minor leaguers. It beat Matanzas, Progreso, and Almendares, but lost to Habana, Fe, and an all-star team known as the All-Cubans. The second team, the "All Americans", came in December and comprised major-league players including young stars like Bill Dahlen and John McGraw. This team easily beat the Cubans in five straight games with scores of 17-0, 14-0, 11-4, 14-3, and 10-1. For the second tour, Cuban player Antonio María García was lent to the All Americans and led all hitters in the series, prompting an offer from McGraw to sign with the Baltimore Orioles; García turned down the offer because he was paid more in Cuba.
  • In 1894 Almendares finally won its first championship, led by the pitching of Juan Manuel Pastoriza.
  • In 1895–96 and 1896–97, baseball was not played due to the Cuban War of Independence. In 1897 Emilio Sabourín, who played for Habana in its inaugural season and went on to become its manager, died in a Spanish prison after being captured during the war. In 1897–98 the Spanish government allowed baseball to be played even though the revolution continued in the countryside; the season was ended early, however, when the Spanish–American War broke out.
  • In February 1899, the Cuban League returned under American occupation.

    Golden Age: 1900–1933

The year 1900 brought fundamental change to the Cuban League. In the aftermath of the Cuban War of Independence and the Spanish–American War, pressures mounted for racial integration of the league. Led by promoters and entrepreneurs such as Abel Linares and Tinti Molina, the league integrated in 1900 with the admission of an all-black club, San Francisco, and the admission of non-white players to some of the other clubs. When San Francisco easily took the pennant, the other clubs quickly began bidding for the top black players. These changes also marked the recognition of the league's status as a fully professional institution.
These changes did not occur without opposition and controversy. At least one team owner sold his interest rather than invest in an integrated enterprise. Several of the players from the upper classes moved to amateur leagues, which continued to compete behind walls of racial segregation.
The next major change came in 1907 when the Fe team began loading up with black American stars, such as Rube Foster, Home Run Johnson, Pete Hill, and Bill Monroe. Soon the other teams were also bringing in the Negro league stars, culminating in the 1912 Habana, which easily took the title with a team featuring Hall-of-Famers Joe Williams, John Henry Lloyd, and Pete Hill, as well as Home Run Johnson and Cuban stars Julián Castillo, Carlos Morán, and Luis Padrón. According to González Echevarría, "These teams were clearly of major-league quality, combining the cream of Negro baseball with the best Cuba had to offer, and a few white major leaguers to boot." Only Almendares was able to remain competitive for a while without American reinforcements, relying on its strong core of Cuban-born pitchers including Hall-of-Famer José Méndez, Eustaquio Pedroso, and José Muñoz.
As the Cuban League strengthened, it began doing much better in its now regular competitions against major league teams. In 1908 Méndez blanked the Cincinnati Reds for 25 consecutive innings, including a 1-hit, 9-strikeout shutout. In 1910 the Cuban teams beat the World Series champion Philadelphia Athletics, 6 games to 4, leading the embarrassed Commissioner to issue a ban on post-season exhibition games by the reigning World Series champion.
During the 1910s a number of white Cuban players began to break into major league ranks, including the outstanding Cincinnati Reds pitcher Dolf Luque, catcher Mike González, and outfielder Armando Marsans. Black Cuban players competed regularly in the Negro leagues, where Cristóbal Torriente and José Méndez became stars.
During the 1920s the Cuban League reached its apex in quality, as top Negro league stars such as Oscar Charleston, Jud Wilson, John Henry Lloyd, Cool Papa Bell, Mule Suttles, Satchel Paige, Bill Foster, and Willie Wells played alongside great Cuban stars such as Martín Dihigo, Cristóbal Torriente, Alejandro Oms, Bernardo Baró, Dolf Luque, and Manuel Cueto. Researchers have estimated that for several seasons the quality of play in the Cuban League probably equaled that of the major leagues.