Rare unassisted triple plays: Cuban League's turn was more uncommon

An item in the latest USA TODAY Sports Weekly points out that on this day in baseball history (April 29, 2007) Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki completed one of the 15 unassisted triple plays in major league history, an accomplishment more rare than throwing a perfect game.

The Cuban League has it's own history with the uncommon baseball feat, as author Jorge Figueredo reminded me today in an email.

On Dec. 2, 1918, Baldomero "Merito" Acosta completed an unassisted triple play in Cuban League play, but what he did was even more rare than what Tulowitzki and 14 other major leaguers have done.

Why?

Acosta did it as an outfielder. All 15 major league player to have accomplished this were infielders -- eight shortstops, five second basemen and two first basemen.

Figueredo's Spanish-language book, Beisbol Cubano: A Un Paso de las Grandes Ligas, 1878-1961, describes the play. I'll translate.

With Acosta playing center field for Habana and Almendares at the plate, Joseito Rodriguez led off the eighth inning with a triple. Francisco "Canilla" Rivas followed with a walk and "Strike" Gonzalez was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

After Habana pitcher Pastor Pareda walked Jose Maria Fernandez to drive in a run, Oscar "Barriguilla" Rodriguez hit a line shot to center. But Acosta made a great running catch for the first out and ran straight to second to step on the bag before Rivas could get back for out No. 2. Fernandez, who had been running from first, tried to get back but Acosta chased him down and tagged him out for the final out of the inning.

Acosta (right with Adolfo Luque) played 12 seasons in the Cuban League for Habana, Almendares and Marianao, and was elected into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955. He managed Marianao to the pennant in 1922-23. He also was a part owner of Marianao and later of the Havana Cubans.

Acosta played five major league seasons with Washington (1913-16) and the Philadelphia Athletics (1918).

Black press: Key role during Jackie Robinson's spring training in Cuba

Thursday marked the 63rd anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball with every player in baseball wearing Robinson's retired No. 42.
As I've noted before in this blog, that historic event began in Cuba, where the Dodgers held spring training in 1947.
But Robinson, the Dodgers and members of their minor league team, the Montreal Royals, weren't the only ones who played a significant role that spring.
Black sports writers Sam Lacy of The Baltimore Afro-American and Wendell Smith of The Pittsburgh Courier were with Robinson, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe and Roy Partlow, chronicling the events and advocating for baseball to desegregate.
During a 1997 interview, Lacy, who at the time was still writing for the Afro-American, talked about the struggles of that spring: Robinson and the other black players having to be quartered separately from the Dodgers and the Royals' white players, Robinson's stomach problems, a foot injury and having to learn a new position -- first base.
"He didn't like it at all, but [Dodgers president Branch] Rickey convinced him that this was his way of getting up to the majors," Lacy said. "It was just a case where he had enough problems, he had enough things to be concerned about to give him this additional concern of changing positions and possibly doing poorly."

Spanish-language Cuban baseball blog relaunches under new name

Looks like t he Cuban baseball blog Baseball Empire has relaunched under a new name.

It's now Desde Mi Palco de Fanatico.

The Spanish-language site includes biography capsules on numerous Cuban players from the pre- and post-Castro era, as well as a lot of historical information on the teams from both eras.

But perhaps the coolest thing on the site by Rogério Manzano are year-by-year images of the uniforms of Cuba's teams, including Almendares, Habana, Cienfuegos and Marianao.

Like the book, Baseball Uniforms of the 20th Century, Manzano's "database" allows visitors to click through each year to see how those teams' uniforms changed from 1943 to 1961.

Ex-Oriole Mike Cuellar played in the final years of the Cuban League

Miguel "Mike" Cuellar, who died Friday at age 72, is best remembered as being a part of the Baltimore Orioles' quartet of 20-game winners in 1971.

But the lefty began his professional career as a 19-year-old during the 1956-57 Cuban League season with Almendares. He pitched for the Scorpions during the final five seasons of the league, compiling a sub-.500 21-28 record despite a 3.09 ERA.

During the 1959-60 season, Cuellar went 5-10 desptie a stellar 2.92 ERA as Almendares won the Cuban League pennant and went on to win the Caribbean Series.

As a minor leaguer, Cuellar (second row, fourth from the left) played with the Havana Sugar Kings from 1957-60, registering ERAs of 2.44, 2.77, 2.80 and 3.53 in those seasons and was with the team when it was forced to move from Havana to Jersey City in the middle of the season after the International League -- in the wake Fidel Castro coming to power in 1959 -- revoked the franchise and gave Cuban owner Bobby Maduro 48 hours to find a city to which to transfer the team.

In the majors, Cuellar used his screwball to become the only Cuban-born pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in 1969 as he went 23-11 with a 2.38 ERA for the Orioles. He won 20 or more games four times, including 1971 when he joined Pat Dobson, Jim Palmer and Dave McNally as the Orioles' four 20-gamer winners that season.

Cuellar was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.

Chapman likely to start in minors; Reds have history of Cuban debuts

Looks like the back injury Aroldis Chapman sustained this spring will force him to start the season in the minors, delaying the 22-year-old Cuban defector's debut with the Cincinnati Reds.

As potentially important as Chapman's debut could be for the 2010 Reds, the team was involved in a more historically significant debut ... in 1911.

That was the season Armando Marsans (top row, second from left) and Rafael Almeida (bottom row, first from left) debuted in the major leagues, playing their first games on July 4 for the Reds.

Marsans and Almeida (shown with the 1913 Reds in this Library of Congress photo) were the first Cuban-born players to play in the majors during the modern era (Esteban Bellan first played for the Troy Haymakers of the National Association in 1871).

The debut of Marsans and Almeida, of course, was before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1947. But despite their light skin, the Reds had to assuage doubts about the pair's racial heritage, insisting that Marsans and Almeida were "two of the purest bars of Castilian soap ever floated to these shores."

Marsans and Almeida aren't the Reds' only Cuban connection. Among them:

• Cuban Baseball Hall of Famer Adolfo Luque, whose 194 victories ranks second behind Luis Tiant among Cuban-born major league pitchers, played for the Reds from 1918-29 during his 20-year career.


• The International League's Havana Sugar Kings were the Reds' Triple-A affiliate from 1955-60.


• Hall of Fame first baseman Tony Perez was a key cog in The Big Red Machine teams that won the World Series in 1975 and 1976.

March 19, 1887: 'El Diamante Negro' Jose Mendez was born

On this date in 1887, one of the greatest pitchers in the Cuban baseball history was born in Cárdenas.

Jose Mendez, El Diamante Negro, would go on to star in Cuba -- mostly playing for Almendares along with one-year stints each with Santa Clara (below), Matanzas and Habana -- and in the Negro Leagues with teams, such as the Kansas City Monarchs and Cuban Stars.

A look at the year-by-year breakdown of Mendez's first nine seasons in the Cuban League with Almendares -- as listed in Jorge S. Figueredo’s book, Who’s Who in Cuban Baseball, 1878-1961 -- gives a glimpse at how dominant he was:

1908: 9-0

1908-09: 15-6

1910: 7-0

1910-11: 11-2

1912: 9-5

1913: 1-4

1913-14: 10-0

1914-15: 2-0

1915-16: 1-1

But don't just believe the numbers. Mendez consistently defeated major league teams visiting Cuba since 1908.

When the New York Giants of manager John McGraw and Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson visited the island for a series of exhibition games against the local nines, Mendez split two decisions against Mathewson, prompting McGraw to say he would pay $50,000 for Mendez ... if he were white.

"Mendez is better than any pitcher except [major league star] Mordecai Brown or Christy Mathewson," McGraw said at the time. "And sometimes, I think he's better than Matty."

Best Cuban pitchers in history

The hype surrounding Cuban defector Aroldis Chapman continues to ratchet up after his first spring training start for the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday.

After hitting 102 mph on the radar gun in his Cactus League debut on March 8, the 22-year-old lefty -- after allowing a home run to the first batter he faced -- was "almost untouchable," striking out five batters in three innings in his first spring training start on Wednesday.

Whether Chapman will become the next star Cuban major league pitcher remains to be determined. While we wait to find out the answer, here's my top 5 pitchers who were born in Cuba:

1. Martin Dihigo: Because of baseball's color barrier, Dihigo (right), born in Matanzas in 1906, never played in the majors, but the Negro League star is enshrined in the Halls of Fame in the United States, Cuba and Mexico.

A versatile player who played multiple positions, Dihigo -- known in Cuba as El Inmortal, The Immortal One -- compiled a 104-56 record in 18 seasons in Cuba pitching for Habana, Marianao Almendares, Santa Clara and Cienfuegos, according to Jorge S. Figueredo's book, Who's Who in Cuban Baseball, 1878-1961.

2. Jose Mendez: Born in Cárdenas in 1887, El Diamante Negro, the Black Diamond, also was denied a career in the majors because of the color of his skin, but he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by a special election of Negro League players in 2006.

In 13 seasons in Cuba, pitching for Almendares, Santa Clara and Matanzas, Mendez compiled a 76-28 record, according to Figueredo's research.

3. Luis Tiant: The four-time 20-game winner leads all Cuban-born pitchers with 229 career major-league victories (229-172) to go with a 3.30 ERA and 2,416 strikeouts.

Tiant's best season came in 1968 with the Cleveland Indians, when he went 21-9 with an American League-leading 1.60 ERA and nine shutouts, while striking out 264 batters.

4. Adolfo Luque: In 20 major-league seasons, The Pride of Havana, compiled a 194-175 career record with a 3.24 ERA.

His best season came in 1923 with the Cincinnati Reds. After losing 23 games despite a 3.31 ERA the previous season, Luque (left) led the National League with 27 wins (eight losses), a 1.93 ERA and six shutouts.

5. (tie) Mike Cuellar and Camilo Pascual: Cuellar was a four-time 20-game winner, posting a career 3.14 ERA in 15 major-league seasons while winning 185 games with 130 losses. His best season came in 1969 when he went 23-11 with a 2.38 ERA with the Baltimore Orioles.

Given his 3.63 career ERA, Pascual, a two-time 20-game winner, deserved better than his 4-games-above .500 174-170 record in 18 major-league seasons. His best season came in 1963: 21-9 with a 2.46 ERA and an AL-leading 202 strikeouts with the Minnesota Twins.