New York Giants prepared for 1937 season by holding spring training in Cuba

Members of the New York Giants at La Tropical Stadium during s spring training in 1937.

The then-defending National League champions didn’t fare all that well in their games against Cuban teams, losing to a military team, Habana, Almendares and Fortuna, a local amateur club.

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.

217-game winner Freddie Fitzsimmons played in Cuba with Marianao

Freddie Fitzsimmons in Cuba for spring training in 1941 as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers.

It wasn't the first time Fitzsimmons, who won 217 games during a 19-year major-league career with the New York Giants and Dodgers pitched in Cuba.

Fitzsimmons (shown in this photo that was up for auction at CubanBaseballCards.com in September 2010) pitched for Marianao in during the 1923-24 Cuban League season and returned to the island for spring training with the Giants in 1937.

Pirates held spring training in Cuba in 1953 under Branch Rickey's direction

Members of the Pittsburgh Pirates during spring training in Cuba in 1953.

Information on the back of the photo -- which was part of a lot that was up for auction at Mears Monthly Auction in October 2010 -- identifies this as La Salle Field, near the team's headquarters in Marianao.

According to Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961, the Pirates -- under the direction of Branch Rickey, who had brought the Brooklyn Dodgers to Cuba for spring training in the 1940s -- played 10 games against a Cuban team managed by Rodolfo Fernandez. The Pirates won six of those games.

The Pirates also played games against the minor league Havana Cubans and other local teams in Santa Clara and hosted the Philadelphia Athletics for a pair of games, splitting the two contests.

The Pirates squad included Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner and future NBC broadcaster Joe Garagiola.
Kiner, who held out in a contract dispute, didn't join the team in Cuba until late March.

Jim Vitti's Brooklyn Dodgers in Cuba, quotes Otis "Stat" Davis as saying, "Rickey told him we can lose without you." That apparently was enough to get Kiner on a plane to Cuba.

Rodolfo Fernandez: 8th in Cuban League history in complete games

June 27: On this day in 1911, Cuban League star Rodolfo Fernandez was born in Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba.

Elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966, Fernandez (shown in this 1952-53 Victoria card) played for Almendares and Habana during 12 Cuban League seasons between 1931-44.

According to Who's Who in Cuban Baseball, 1878-1961, Fernandez compiled a 66-49 career record in the Cuban League and ranks eighth in league history with 75 complete games. He led the league with eight victories in 1931-32.

During the New York Giants' spring training visit to Havana in 1937, Fernandez shut out a Giants team that included Mel Ott and Carl Hubbell 4-0, according to Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961.

Before joining Dodgers, Jackie Robinson was in Cuba with Royals

April 15: On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson made his debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers, thus breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

What was the most socially significant event baseball history began that spring in Havana, Cuba, where the Dodgers and their Montreal Royals farm team -- which included Robinson --held spring training.

In this photo that was up for auction at Leland's in February 2007, Robinson shakes hands with Dodgers manager Leo Durocher at El Gran Stadium de la Habana, where the Dodgers played exhibition games.

Dodgers were one of five MLB teams to play in Cuba in 1941

Two Brooklyn Dodgers players getting their spikes shined in Cuba, where the team held spring training in 1941.

This photo was up for auction at CubanBaseballCards in September, 2010, and according to description by Cesar Lopez, the creator of the Cuban Ball website, a sticker on the back of the photos reads "Property of Pee Wee Reese Library" and lists an address and phone number.
According to the description:

We tried to call this number just to make sure this photo was not stolen and then sold on the secondary market, but it was a wrong number. We've asked numerous industry experts if they know anything about this "Library" but none had heard of it. The lack of any information about a "Pee Wee Reese Library" leads us to believe that it was likely part of Pee Wee Reese's personal collection and was sold at some point after his death in 1999.

Reese was with the Dodgers when they went to Cuba in 1941, when five major-league teams came to play at La Tropical Stadium: the Dodgers, New York Giants, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and Boston Red Sox.

The Dodgers swept a pair of three-game series against the Giants and Indians, according to Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961. But Brooklyn split a five-game series (there was a 7-7 tie) against a Cuban squad put together by manager Joseito Rodriguez. Gilberto Torres and Adrian Zabala were the winning pitchers for the Cuban team.

Brooklyn Dodgers made Cuba their spring training home in 1942

Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop Pee Wee Reese at La Tropical Stadium during the team's 1942 spring training trip to Havana, Cuba.

This is a William Vandivert photo from the Life magazine photo archive hosted by Google.

According to Who's Who in Cuban Baseball, 1878-1961, the Dodgers split a pair of games with the New York Giants, but lost a five-game series three-games-to-two against a Cuban squad.

In those three victories by the local nine, Tomas de la Cruz, Rodolfo Fernandez and Agapito Mayor held the Dodgers to a combined six runs.

Red Sox played Reds at La Tropical in 1941 spring training series

Jimmie Foxx, left, and Bobby Doerr during the Boston Red Sox's 1941 spring training visit to Havana, Cuba for a series of exhibition games against the Cincinnati Reds.

This and seven other photos from that visit were up for auction at Cuban Baseball Cards in September, 2010.

Sarasota, as it was from 1933-42, was Boston's spring training base, but the team played three games against Cincinnati at La Tropical Stadium, according to Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961. The Red Sox won the series 2 games to 1 without the services of Ted Williams, who remained back in Florida because of an ankle injury.

Jorge S. Figueredo's book also says Boston also played an all-star team of Cuban amateurs on March 17, with the local nine winning 2-1 as Juan Decall struck out the side (Doerr, Jim Tabor and Johnny Peacock) in the second inning.

Cardinals played series in Cuba in March, 1940

Postcard from Havana's RHC Cadena Azul radio station commemorating the St. Louis Cardinals' spring training visit to Cuba in March of 1940.

The Cardinals, held spring training in St. Petersburg, Fla., that year, but played four games in Havana against a Cuban all-star squad managed by Adolfo Luque. The Cards won the first three games by scores of 5-4, 5-3 and 6-0, according to Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961.

But the Cubans, behind the pitching of Agapito Mayor, beat St. Louis 4-2 in the American Series finale.

The Cardinals team included Mickey Owen, Johnny Mize, Pepper Martin, Enos Slaughter and a lefty pitcher who seven years later would team up with Mayor to give Almendares a three-game pennant-clinching sweep of Habana: Max Lanier.

Red Sox held spring training at La Tropical Stadium in 1941

A 1941 photo of the Boston Red Sox holding spring training at Estadio La Tropical in Havana, Cuba.

Visible in the photo are Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx (throwing) and perhaps Bobby Doerr (to Foxx's right).

This photo and three others from that spring training were up for auction in September at Cuban Baseball Cards Auctions, yet these amazing images received no bids.

This despite, or perhaps because of, a ... unique condition of the auction:

Any bids on this lot will be considered an official acknowledgment by the bidder that the Red Sox suck. Any such declaration of heretofore mentioned Boston suckery will be considered binding and valid until such time at which the Red Sox do not suck or are deemed no longer relevant as a professional sports franchise.

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.

This week in history: Jackie Robinson arrives in Havana

Sixty-three years ago this week, a ship carrying members of the Brooklyn Dodgers and their minor league team, the Montreal Royals pulled into Havana Harbor for spring training.
Among the passengers were former Negro League players Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Don Newcombe and Roy Partlow. With Dodgers president Branch Rickey intent on having Robinson break baseball's color barrier, he moved the Dodgers' spring training site in 1947 to Havana.

Cuba, Rickey reasoned, would provide a better atmosphere in which to smooth Robinson's transition to the major leagues than Jim Crow Florida, where the Dodgers had trained in 1946.

The irony was that even though Cuba had seen black and white players share baseball fields since before the turn of the 20th century, Robinson and his black Royals teammates found themselves segregated not only from the Dodgers but from their white Royals teammates.

While Robinson, Campanella, Newcombe and Partlow stayed at the Hotel Los Angeles -- a fleebag that the New York Sun at the time described as a "musty third-rated hotel" -- their white Royals teammates stayed and trained at the Havana Military Academy on the outskirts of Havana. The Dodgers, meanwhile, stayed at the opulent Hotel Nacional.

During a 1997 interview, Newcombe relayed this story about the separate, but hardly equal accommodations:

"I wasn't even allowed to go in the lobby of the Nacional to see Mr. Rickey on baseball business. I had to bet permission from the bellhops. In fact, one [white] bellhop put me out of the lobby."

And yet, despite such uninspiring circumstances, that spring training paved the way for Robinson to break baseball's color barrier on April 15, 1947.