An Associated Press video interview on YouTube with Cuban baseball legend Conrado Marrero, who turned 101 on Wednesday.

1955-56 Cuban League season belonged to Oscar Rodriguez' Cienfuegos club

 

The four managers of the 1955-56 Cuban League season. From left to right:

Napoleon Reyes (Marianao), Conrado Marrero (Almendares), Adolfo Luque (Habana) and Oscar Rodriguez (Ciefuegos).

This photo was up for auction at CubanBaseballCards.com in September 2010.

With Rodriguez at the helm, Cienfuegos won the Cuban League pennant, finishing six games ahead of Marianao and Habana. Almendares finished 10 games back in last place.

Pitchers Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos paced the Elefantes, winning 25 of Cienfuegos' 40 victories.

Conrado Marrero was an amatuer star in Cuba before joining Almendares

Cuban baseball legend Conrado Marrero during his playing days with the Cienfuegos club of La Liga de la Uniόn Atlética, Cuba's amateur baseball league.

The photo appears in a March 4, 2011 post at Tom Hawthorne's Blog, more than a month before Marrero turned 100, making him the oldest living former major-league player.

Aside from amateur vs. professional status, there was another major difference between the professional Cuban League and La Liga de la Uniόn Atlética.

Black and white players had participated in the professional Cuban League since the late 1800s.

But la Uniόn Atlética -- as El Nuevo Herald sports writer Marino Martínez detailed in his presentation at the Cuban Cultural Center of New York's Aug. 20 congress on Cuban baseball history -- excluded black players.

Teams in La Uniόn Atlética, which existed from 1914-1960, were affiliated with Cuba's affluent social clubs, which also blocked black Cubans from obtaining membership.

Statement from Conrado Marrero to be read at Cuban baseball history congress

Word of the Cuban Cultural Center of New York's upcoming congress on Cuban baseball has reached Havana.
More specifically, it has reached Cuban baseball legend Conrado Marrero, who turned 100 in April and is the oldest living former major-league player.

According to Iraida Iturralde, first vice president of the Cuban Cultural Center, Marrero, who recently fractured his hip, and his doctor (who has internet at the hospital treating Marrero) contacted the center.

"I promised Conrado (shown in a 1949-50 Alerta premium) we would read his message at the congress," Iturralde wrote in an e-mail this week.

Among the former Cuban players expected to attend the congress at Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus in New York are: Minnie Miñoso, Luis Tiant, Tony Pérez, Julio Bécquer, José Cardenal and Cookie Rojas.

Conrado Marrero now oldest living former major-league player

With the death this week of former Brooklyn Dodgers infielder Tony Malinosky, Conrado Marrero apparently becomes the oldest living former major-league baseball players.

That's according to Baseball Reference and Bloomberg, among other sources.

Marrero, who was born April 25, 1911 in Sagua La Grande, Las Villas, Cuba, was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977 after a long and stellar career in the amatuer and professional ranks in Cuba.

Marrero (shown in this photo from Cuban baseball historian Peter Bjarkman's story on the Havana Times website when Marrero turned 99 last year) played 13 professional seasons in the Cuban League, 10 with Almendares.

Among Marrero's accomplishments, Who's Who in Cuban Baseball, 1878-1961 lists:

• 9th all-time in Cuban League victories (69)
• Record for lowest ERA (1.12) and shutouts (eight) in a season (1947-48)
• MVP of the 1947-48 season
• 70-25 in three seasons from with the minor-league Havana Cubans between 1947-49

Despite all that, Marrero didn't make his major-league debut until April 21, 1950 at age 39, pitching for the Washington Senators until 1954, going 39-40 with a 3.67 ERA.