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 players were generally ignored by the Major League Baseball teams before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball.
12-676: In 1899, the All Cubans became the first all-Hispanic team to travel to the United States 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
24-545: The Cuban Stars (West) . 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 home. Unlike what the team's name may lead some to believe, the team was not composed exclusively of Cuban players, there were players from other Hispanic nationalities and
36-701: The United States as well. In 1941, Perucho Cepeda , father of National Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Peruchin Cepeda and a legendary player around the Caribbean himself, became the first Puerto Rican to play for the New York Cubans. Apart from Cepeda, there were also players from Mexico and the Dominican Republic 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
48-704: The All Cubans. The team was organized by Cuban baseball executive Abel Linares and its field manager was Tinti Molina . The American sponsor of the 1899 tour was former baseball player and entrepreneur Alfred Lawson . Linares later described the tour as calamitous. He recalled arriving in New York in June 1899 with $ 25 and 12 players. So little money was earned that at the end of the tour, Linares and two players were stranded in New York until money could be sent from Havana to pay for their return home. The team's first recorded game
60-739: The Cuban X-Giants and the Philadelphia Giants. Members of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame who played with the All Cubans include: 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 also managed Azul in 1904 and Almendares in 1904 and 1905. He then founded and owned
72-834: The Major Leagues, the Negro league stopped playing in 1950. On May 29, 2010, the New York Mets wore Cubans uniforms in a game in Milwaukee against the Brewers , who wore Milwaukee Bears uniforms. The Mets then wore this uniform again on August 22 against the Pittsburgh Pirates . 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
84-458: 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) , which was owned by Alex Pompez and competed in the New York city area. The older team (which was owned by Abel Linares and Tinti Molina and previously had competed in the New York area) moved to the midwestern region and became known as
96-610: The era, the Indianapolis Clowns , boasted a line-up with as many international players as the Cubans did. With a team that included such notables as Luis Tiant, Sr. , and Minnie Miñoso the New York Cubans won their only Negro League World Series title in 1947, defeating the Cleveland Buckeyes . The Cubans did not win another championship, and, because of many different reasons, which included economical strain and exodus both from African American and Hispanic players to
108-523: The premier Negro League teams, which had no actual Cuban players. The newspapers described it as a challenge; according to the New York Sun , the All Cubans protested "against the Cuban X-Giants posing as representatives of Cuba." The games took place in Hoboken, New Jersey . The X-Giants won the first game 7–3 behind the 5-hit pitching of James Robinson. The X-Giants also won the second match, 11–6. This series
120-568: Was a precursor for a Cuban tour by the Cuban X-Giants the following year, the first major tour of Cuba by an American Negro league team. The players on the 1899 All Cubans were Cuban criollos and mestizos , but the teams that toured in 1902–05 included afro-cuban black players. In 1903, there were reports the team had run into trouble in Florida because it was carrying three black players. These teams continued to play successfully against independent white semi-pro teams and Negro League teams, such as
132-682: Was on July 28, 1899, against a white semi-pro team in Weehawken, New Jersey ; the All Cubans won 12–4. On July 31, a crowd of 1,800 watched them lose to the West New York Field Club, 8–5. The All Cubans then defeated the Mountain AC club 9–3. The Jersey City, New Jersey , team then beat them 14–4. The 1899 All Cubans most famous games, however, came in August against the Cuban X-Giants , one of
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#1732854845106144-614: Was the first Latin American professional baseball team to tour the United States. As a racially integrated team, future major league players Armando Marsans and Rafael Almeida got their start in the United States on the team. The team was also a forerunner for later Negro league teams staffed by Latin American players, such as the Cuban Stars (West) , the Cuban Stars (East) , and the New York Cubans . Negro league stars Luis Bustamante and Carlos Morán started their American careers with
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