'Life' magazine photos by Mark Kauffman show shanty town in shadows of El Gran Stadium

One of an amazing series of 1950s Mark Kauffman photos from the Life magazine archives on Google. This and other photos depict a "shanty town" in the shadows of the left-field stands of El Gran Estadio de la Habana.

The stadium also was referred to as El Estadio del Cerro, for the working-class barrio del Cerro where the stadium stood. But given the conditions they appear to have lived in, these people could only hope to be "working class."

When I first saw the photos, all I could wonder was how -- if at all -- did Life put them into context with whatever pictorial it ran on Cuban baseball; so many of Kauffman's other photos from that shoot depict the festive atmosphere in the stadium.

My father, who would have been in his early teens at the time these photos appear to have been taken, said he had no idea such a scene ever existed outside the stadium.

Sandy Amoros' catch saved 1955 World Series

Oct. 4: On this date in 1955, Sandy Amoros saved Game 7 of the World Series for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Amoros is best remembered for what was the defining moment of the 1955 World Series (shown in this Life magazine photo on the right), his running, one-handing catch of Yogi Berra's drive down the left field line.

With the Dodgers up 2-0 in the decisive Game 7, Amoros came in as a defensive replacement in left field to start the sixth inning. After the first two Yankee batters of the inning reached base, the left-handed hitting Berra sliced toward the left-field corner for an apparent double that would have tied the game.

Instead, Amoros raced toward the line, extending his gloved right hand at the last instant to snare the drive. He then threw back to the infield, where a relay throw by Pee Wee Reese doubled Gil McDougald off first base.

The Dodgers got the final out of the inning without surrendering a run and would go on to win the franchise's only World Series title in Brooklyn.

Never more than a part-time player in seven major-league seasons, Amoros was a star in the Cuban League with Almendares and Habana and was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978.

Amoros, who went on to live in Tampa, Fla., after his playing days, suffered from diabetes, and doctors amputated part of his left leg in September 1987. Amoros died in Miami, Fla., on June 27, 1992, at age 62.

During a 2008 interview, Glorida Mayor, the widow of Cuban baseball legend Agapito Mayor recounted the friendship between Amoros and her husband while the two former players lived in Tampa.

Mayor adored Amoros. He helped him a lot. Amoros was in Tampa for 11 years, and for 11 years Mayor was fighting to help Amoros. When they amputated his leg we were with him in the hospital. Mayor would go every day to the hospital. Mayor would buy his groceries, buy him food until his daughter took him back to Miami. He died in Miami. Mayor loved Amoros, even though there was a big age difference. Amoros started playing just as Mayor was finishing his playing career. But he was so fond of Amoros and Amoros was so fond of Mayor. Amoros used to say that Mayor was his brother. One of the last times, he saw Amoros, Mayor went to get Amoros at his home and took him to the stadium to one of the Cuban legends games. Amoros had a prosthetic leg. He found Amoros and took him to the stadium. Mayor would never leave Amoros behind.

Cuba's spring training history

Long before Florida and Arizona came to monopolize spring training, major league teams would set up camp in small towns all across the country to prepare for upcoming seasons.

Occasionally they even ventured to cities beyond America's borders, including Havana, Cuba.

According to Cuban Ball, the Federal League's St. Louis Terriers, with Cuban outfielder Armando Marsans, was the first major league organization to hold spring training in Cuba in 1915.

The Brooklyn Dodgers were the major league's most frequent visitors to the island, training in Havana in 1941, 1942 and 1947. An earlier blog post described the spring of '47, a prelude to Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier and you can view Life magazine photos that chronicled the Dodgers' 1942 visit.

The first major league team of the modern era to call Havana its spring training home was the 1937 New York Giants (right). The then-defending National League champions didn't fare all that well in their games against the local nines, losing to a military team, Habana, Almendares and Fortuna, a local amateur club, according to an online article by David Marasco.

Finally with the Giants' Carl Hubbell matched against Cuban pitcher Luis Tiant Sr., the Giants won 7-3. In their six games against Cuban professionals, the Giants won one game, tied one and lost four as Cuban pitcher Ramon Bragaña held the Giants to two runs in 21 innings.

But however rough things were for the Giants that spring was nothing compared to what the Pittsburgh Pirates experienced when they trained in Havana in 1953, according to an item in a 1967 article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The last major league team to hold spring training in Cuba was invited to train on the island by Cuban president Fulgencio Batista at his expense. Branch Rickey, who had been the Dodgers' president during their 1947 trip to Cuba, accepted.

But when slugger Ralph Kiner was held out -- presumably because of an injury -- Cuban fans stopped coming to the games. One game drew 15 fans, including the team's bus driver.