Cuba well represented in Latino Baseball HOF's inaugural class

Cuba will be well represented in the inaugural class of the Latino Baseball Hall of Fame.

Nine of the 25 to be inducted on May 29 at the Altos de Chavon Amphitheatre in Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic will be Cuban.

All the inductees will be divided into three groups -- Cooperstown Historic, Veterans Committee (active before 1959) and Permanent Induction Committee (active after 1959). Here's the breakdown of the Cuban inductees:

Cooperstown Historic

• Atanasio "Tony" Pérez, first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds "Big Red Machine" teams of the 1970s. He hit 379 home runs with 1,652 RBI in 23 major league seasons with Cincinnati, Montreal, Boston and Philadelphia before his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.


• Martín Dihigo, a versatile -- he excelled at nearly every position -- star of the Cuban League and Negro Leagues who compiled a 104-56 record in 18 seasons in Cuba pitching for Habana, Marianao Almendares, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos and was the first Cuban-born inductee at Cooperstown.


• Jose de la Caridad Méndez, a Cuban League and Negro Leagues star who compiled a 76-28 record in 13 seasons in Cuba, pitching for Almendares, Santa Clara and Matanzas. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special election of Negro League players in 2006.

• Cristóbal Torriente, perhaps the Cuban greatest position player of the first half of the 20th Century. The power-hitting outfielder was known as "The Cuban Babe Ruth," and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special election of Negro League players in 2006.


• Alejandro Pompez, a Cuban-American who became one of the most influential figures in the Negro Leagues as owner of the New York Cuban Stars. A Harlem numbers runner with ties to gangster Dutch Schultz, Pompez was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special election of Negro League players in 2006.


• Rafael "Felo" Ramirez, the Spanish-language radio voice of the Florida Marlins, has called baseball games in Latin American since 1945, working many years with Buck Canel on the Cavalcade of Sports. Ramirez won the Ford Frick Award in 2001.

Veterans Committee

• Orestes "Minnie" Miñoso, the former Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox all-star batted .298 and stole 205 bases in 17 major league seasons. He was also a star in the Negro Leagues with the New York Cubans and in the Cuban League with Marianao.


• Bobby Maduro (Special Award for Outstanding Latino Baseball Personality) was the owner of the Havana Sugar Kings of the International League and Cienfuegos of the Cuban League. He was part of the corporation that built the Gran Stadium of Havana.

Permanent Induction Committee

• Camilo Pascual, a two-time 20-game winner who deserved better than his 4-games-above .500 174-170 record in 18 major-league seasons, mostly with the Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins.

Happy birthday, Cuban Leaguer Willie Mays

Happy birthday, Willie Mays.

On this date (May 6) in 1931, Hall of Famer Willie Howard Mays was born.

We're used to seeing photos of Mays with the Giants or Mets or even the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues.

But you might not be as used to seeing Mays wearing an Almendares uniform in the Cuban League.

He was on the Almendares roster for the 1950-51 season.

But he he never played because of a leg injury.

Cuban League mottos to live by

Of the mottos used by teams in Cuba's now defunct professional winter baseball league, perhaps none stood out more than that of the Almendares Scorpions:

"El que le gane al Almendares se muere," or "Whoever defeates Almendares dies."

It spoke to the intensity of the competition among the four traditional teams -- Almendares, Habana, Cienfugoes and Marianao -- and particularly between "Eternal Rivals" Almendares and Habana.

That motto was by no means the only colorful one.

The Habana Lions' motto was "La leña roja tarde pero llega," or "The red beating arrives late but is inevitable."

The Cienfuegos Elephants' motto was equally forceful: "El pase del elefante es lento pero aplastante," or "The elephant's pace is slow but crushing."

Only the Marianao Tigers' motto lacked flair: "Ciudad de progreso," apparently borrowing from the city of Marianao's actual motto, "City of Progress."

Unlike the other mottos, it didn't convey Cuba's passion for baseball. Cuba was a country defined by that passion as much as by its language, music, culture and history.

Like New York of the 1950s -- where labels such as Yankee fan, Dodger fan or Giant fan carried as much weight as Irish, Italian or Jewish -- Cuba had it's own ingrained system of identification. You were either Almendarista or Habanista. You rooted either for Cienfuegos or Marianao.

And the team mottos -- for the most part -- spoke to the intensity of the rivalry among those teams.