Pelayo Chacón
Andrés Pelayo Chacón Cortina was a Cuban professional baseball shortstop, first baseman, second baseman, right fielder and manager. He spent his American playing career in the Negro leagues, mostly with the Cuban Stars of the Eastern Colored League, which he also managed from to.
Outside of the negro leagues, Chacón was also active in the Cuban League and in Venezuela's amateur leagues. He managed the Colombia national baseball team in several international tournaments, including a world championship on home soil in 1947.
Nicknamed "Cortina" or "the Curtain", Chacón was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in. In a player-voted poll by the Pittsburgh Courier, he was voted the fifth best all-time shortstop of the Negro leagues.
Career
Chacón played from to with several clubs in the Cuban League, including Almendares, Azul, Club Fé, and Habana; he managed Cienfuegos to a List of [Cuban baseball champions|championship] in. Over the course of his Cuban League career, he compiled 463 hits with a.246 batting average. He won the league batting title in the 1920–21 season, hitting.344.In the Negro leagues, he played for both iterations of the Cuban Stars: the Western Stars, an independent team, from to ; and the Eastern Stars, which were a major league side from 1923 to. Along with Horacio Martínez, he was rated as one of the best Hispanic shortstops in the Negro Leagues.
In the 1930s, Chacón played in the Venezuelan first division with the "Caribe" club, alongside fellow Cuban Cocaína García. He managed Caribe to a division title in 1932, and Vargas to two more in 1937 and 1939.
Chacón managed the Colombia national baseball team throughout the 1940s. At the 1947 Amateur World Series, held in Cartagena, Colombia, he led the team to its first world championship.
Chacón's three sons, Elio, Armando y Pelayito, were all active baseball players in Venezuela. Elio Chacón was the seventh Venezuelan to play in Major League Baseball.