By Amaury Pi-González

Esteban Bellán, born in Cuba was the first

ever baseball player from Latinamerica

to play in the United States.

Presently in Major League Baseball

30 percent of all the players are

Latinos. In the minor leagues the

percentage is even greater.

But it wasn’t like that until 1950.Cuban players were the pioneers from

Latin America to play professional baseball

in the United States

The first one was Esteban Bellán from Cuba

who played from 1871 to 1873 in the

National Association.

Bellán was born in 1850 and died in 1932.

He played with the Troy Haymakers and

New York Mutuals.

Cuba was the first country to play baseball

in Latin America after US saliors that

arrived in the island tought the game

to the Cubans. And then Cuba tought

the rest of Latin America about the

“great american passtime”.

Althought Jackie Robinson was the

first African-American to play in the

Major Leagues in 1947, many Cubans

and other Latinos of fair skin played

before.

But it was actually in 1950 when a total

of 10 Latino players were in the Major

Leagues(the first time such a big number)

Luis Castro from Colombia in 1903,

Alejandro Carrasquel (1939),Alejandro

Carrasquel(1939)and Jesús Ramos(1944)

the three from Venezuela. From México

there were 4; Mel Almada(1933)José Luis

Gómez(1935)Jesse Flores(1942)and

Beto Avila(1949), who later became the

first ever Latino player to win a batting tittle

when he hit .341 with the Cleveland

Indians in 1954.

Today’s Latino players are headed by

the Dominican invasion. Close to 100

players in the Major Leagues are from

the Dominican Republic.

The first Dominican to play in the

Major Leagues was Ozzie Virgil with

the New York Giants in 1956. By then

a total of 71 players born in Cuba had

already played in the Major Leagues.

The first Latino manager of a Major

League team was Cuban-born catcher

Miguel Angel González with the St.Louis

Cardinals in 1938, as interim nanager.

Because of Fidel Castro’s assuming

power in Cuba in 1958, a couple of

years later the US and Cuba broke

diplomatic relations when Castro

during a speech in front of 1 million

Cubans in “Plaza de la Revolución”

in Havana told the world he was a

Marxist-Leninist and would be until

the day he die. Castro has been in

power ever since, the longest Dictatorship

in this hemisphere and Cuban players

can only make it to the US by escaping

in ding/rafts accross the Florida straights

or when they visit other countries during

international competition. Some players

find it easy to ask for political asylum

when they travel outside of Cuba with the

Cuban Olympic and National Teams.

Just for the record: Castro has outlived

9 US Presidents since he took power

from Fulgencio Batista in 1958-59.

Legends has it that Fidel Castro was

scouted by the New York Giants and that

the Giants offered him a $5,000 bonus to sign

in the early 1950’s. But I have researched

this and found out that to – start with,

Castro was not that good of a pitcher

and second; history has it that he knew

it, and decided to finish his studies and

get a Law Degree and then became a

Dictator.

For many, many years a lot of American

born players played in the old Cuban

Professional League. Guys like Brooks

Robinson,Tommy LaSorda,Bob Allison,

Rocky Nelson, Bill Werle and many more

played in Cuba. I have spoken with some

of these players and they told me that

the quality of the Cuban professional

league them (back in the 1950-60) was

as good as the Major Leagues today.

My good friend, Yale Professor Roberto

González-Echevarría, like this reporter

also born in Cuba- wrote a book titled

“The Pride of Havana” in which he

highlighted Cuban pitcher Adolfo Luque’s

career. Luque won 27 games in 1923

with the Cincinnati Reds. The first Latino

pitcher to win that many (the previous

season Luque led the NL in losses with

23) games.

Because of the climate, baseball is played

365 days a year in Cuba,Dominican

Republic,Panamá,Puerto Rico,Nicaragua,

México,Colombia and other Latinamerican

countries. Many Major League teams

have developed baseball academies in

Latinamerica(Dodgers were the first)were

they can develop their skills after

getting signed to a ML contrac, and were

-in some cases-they get to learn English..

Not very far in the future, Cuba will have

a much different system of government,

a systems that will alloud all its citizens

and players to travel freely in and out

of the island. And then, If you think you

have seen a lot of Latino players here

in the Major Leagues, wait until the

Cuba-US relations are back to normal

like it was prior to 1960.

Because of the popularity of other sports

here in the United States, like Football,

and Basketball, you don’t really see young

kids in this country playing much baseball.

When I was a teen in Miami I use to play

with my friends after school, even after

I played with the School team, we would

play “sandlot baseball”. Tell me where

do you see that today, not only here in

the liberal Bay Area with all the Soocer

Moms, but anyplace in the US? A lot

of kids play Soccer, but when they reach

High School and College, they have no palce to go. The so called “Major” League Soccer

in the US is not really major. Here is a

simple fact: The best baseball players

in the world play in MLB. The best Football

players in the world, they play in the NFL.

The best Basketball players in the

world play in the NBA. The best Hockey

players in the world play in the NHL.

But the best Soccer players in the world?

Do they play here ? Of course not ! They

play in Europe and Latin America. That is

why Soccer will never be a big time sport

here in the United States.

I am sick and tired (specially during the

recent World Cup) people coming to me

and telling me about Soccer. Look, in

many countries in Latin America, like

Cuba,Dominican,Panamá,Nicaragua,

Venezuela, Soccer is NOT the most popular

sport, baseball is.,

Latin American players will increase by

great numbers in the future and the

presence in the Major Leagues will

be ever present. This will be seen specially

in the Hall of Fame, where today there

are only a handful of Latino players

inducted: Dihigo,Clemente,Cepeda,

Marichal,Aparicio,Pérez,Carew. But in

the years to come guys like Iván

Rodríguez(Puerto Rico), Rafael Palmeiro

(Cuba),Sammy Sosa(Dominican),

Pedro Martínez(Dominican) and many more will be knocking in the door at

Cooperstown.

Hasta la vista !

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Amaury Pi-González is on his eight season as the Spanish Radio Play by Play Announcer for the San Francisco Giants

on KZSF 1370 AM Radio”La Caliente”.

Previously for 17 seasons he was the Oakland Athletics Spanish Play by Play Announcer for radio and Telemundo TV.

During the Postseason, Amaury is on the staff of ESPN Spanish Radio Network doing

Playoffs and World Series Play by Play.As

well as for Fox Sports during the Caribbean World Series each year in Latinamerica

in February.