Martin DiHigo

[torez77]

The more I read about him, the more I like him. Talk about the complete ballplayer! Johnny Mize played with him in the Dominican Republic one winter, and said, "DiHigo was the only guy I ever saw who could play all 9 positions, manage, run, and switch-hit. I thought I was having a pretty good year myself down there, and they were walking him to pitch to me."

Not only did DiHigo play all 9 positions, but he played them all well, and sometimes would play all 9 in one game! The only ML player I can think of who comes close to that level of versatility is Honus Wagner, but he never played catcher, and he wasn't anywhere near the pitcher DiHigo was. DiHigo was also solid in all of the 5 tools of a player.

Just call him "The Answer," cuz he's got the answer for whatever a team needs.

[Mischa]

The more I read about him, the more I like him. Talk about the complete ballplayer! Johnny Mize played with him in the Dominican Republic one winter, and said, "DiHigo was the only guy I ever saw who could play all 9 positions, manage, run, and switch-hit. I thought I was having a pretty good year myself down there, and they were walking him to pitch to me."

Not only did DiHigo play all 9 positions, but he played them all well, and sometimes would play all 9 in one game!

What's your source for this? I've never seen any record of him catching. The "played nine positions" bit is hardly Dihigo's greatest claim. He was an excellent pitcher and hitter who played the outfield, second and first and in a stretch could man the left side of the infield but didn't do so regularly, especially later in his career. I think he was certainly an appropriate Hall of Fame pick and one of the best two-way threats ever, but he did not routinely jump from spot to spot.

Additionally, I've never seen that Mize quote before. There are a couple others attributed to Mize re: Dihigo but there is no record of them actually occurring when the quote claims. See http://www.thediamondangle.com/archive/feb03/mizedihigo.html for a breakdown of this. For further information, note that Jorge Figueredo's Cuban Baseball came out since then and lists Mize on ZERO Cuban Winter League rosters. He played in Cuba three times on exhibitions but I can't find that Dihigo was the pitcher of record in any of those games and they were certainly not teammates, as it was Cardinals vs. Cubans.

Again, this is not to knock one of the all-time greats of baseball. Just don't use unverifiable quotes or incorrect statements to make the point.

[torez77]

What's your source for this? I've never seen any record of him catching. The "played nine positions" bit is hardly Dihigo's greatest claim. He was an excellent pitcher and hitter who played the outfield, second and first and in a stretch could man the left side of the infield but didn't do so regularly, especially later in his career. I think he was certainly an appropriate Hall of Fame pick and one of the best two-way threats ever, but he did not routinely jump from spot to spot.

I'm surprised to be challenged about this. I thought this was kinda common knowledge about DiHigo. I got the information from Bill James Historical Abstract, as well as the Baseball Library webpage about DiHigo, to name a couple. What sources do you have that claim he didn't play all 9 positions?

http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/D/DiHigo_Martin.stm


Additionally, I've never seen that Mize quote before. There are a couple others attributed to Mize re: Dihigo but there is no record of them actually occurring when the quote claims. See http://www.thediamondangle.com/archive/feb03/mizedihigo.html for a breakdown of this. For further information, note that Jorge Figueredo's Cuban Baseball came out since then and lists Mize on ZERO Cuban Winter League rosters. He played in Cuba three times on exhibitions but I can't find that Dihigo was the pitcher of record in any of those games and they were certainly not teammates, as it was Cardinals vs. Cubans.

Again, this is not to knock one of the all-time greats of baseball. Just don't use unverifiable quotes or incorrect statements to make the point.

The source you give suggests that Mize and DiHigo may have played together in Santa Clara rather than Dominican Republic, and that Mize's recollection when he made the quote may have been a little fuzzy. I got the quote from Bill James Historical Abstract and Who's Better Who's Best in Baseball by Elliot Kalb.

[Mischa]

I'm surprised to be challenged about this. I thought this was kinda common knowledge about DiHigo. I got the information from Bill James Historical Abstract, as well as the Baseball Library webpage about DiHigo, to name a couple. What sources do you have that claim he didn't play all 9 positions?


Eek, my memory is going. You're right. I checked Riley's biographical encyclopedia and he clearly lists catcher as the position Dihigo played least, right after shortstop. My apologies - I guess he did show up there a few times.

[Erik Bedard]

Personally, I rank him as the fourth best Negro Leaguer, after Paige, Charleston, and Gibson, but much closer than most have him. A truly outstanding ballplayer.

[Bill Burgess]

wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Dihigo)

Martín Magdaleno Dihigo Llanos (May 25, 1906 - May 20, 1971) was a Cuban player in baseball's Negro Leagues and Latin American leagues who excelled at several positions, primarily as a pitcher and second baseman. He was born in the sugarmill Jesús María (town of Cidra) in Matanzas Province.

Dihigo began his professional career in the winter of 1922–23 at the age of 16 as a substitute infielder for Habana in the Cuban League. His first summer in U.S. baseball came in 1923 as a first baseman for the Negro Leagues' Cuban Stars (East). He played in the Negro Leagues from 1923 through 1936 and again briefly in 1945. Over the course of his career he made seamless transitions between all nine positions. As a hitter, he led the Negro Leagues in home runs in 1926 and 1935. As a pitcher he once defeated Satchel Paige when the latter was touring Cuba.

Dihigo's career record in 12 seasons in the Negro Leagues was a .307 average and .511 slugging percentage, with 431 hits, 64 home runs, 61 doubles, 17 triples, 227 RBIs, and 292 runs scored in 1404 at bats. He drew 143 walks and stole 41 bases. As a pitcher, he went 26–19 with a 2.92 ERA, with 176 strikeouts and 80 walks in 354 innings.[1]

Although a two-time All-Star in the American Negro Leagues, Dihigo's greatest season came in the Mexican League in 1938 , where he went 18-2 with a 0.90 ERA as a pitcher while winning the batting title with a .387 average. In his Mexican career he was 119-57 with a .317 batting average. In the Cuban League he was 107-56 with a .298 average. He is the only player to be inducted to the American, Cuban and Mexican Baseball Halls of Fame, and is also in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela Halls of Fame. He continued his playing career in Mexico into the early 1950s. He was Cuba's Minister of Sport from 1959 until his death, and was a greatly revered figure in his home country, where he was called El Maestro or "The Master". He died at age 65 in Cienfuegos. Known as a humorous, good-natured man as well as the most versatile player in baseball history, Dihigo was elected to the American Baseball Hall of Fame in 1977.

Combining his Dominican, American, Cuban and Mexican statistics results in a lifetime .302 career batting average with 130 home runs (11 seasons worth of home run totals are missing) and a 218-106 pitching record.

Martin Dihigo Baseball Think Factory (http://baseball-fever.com/showpost.php?p=579809&postcount=18)---Martin Dihigo BB Library bio (http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Martin_Dihigo_1905)---Martin Dihigo article (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.efqreview.com/graphics/18n2artwork/martin1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.efqreview.com/NewFiles/v18n2/onhistoricalground.html&h=356&w)

Cuban great Martin Dihigo, Neg. L. P/OF--Arguably the most versatile player the game ever produced.
http://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv217/BillBurgess/Negro%20Leagues/Image28-2.jpghttp://i685.photobucket.com/albums/vv217/BillBurgess/Negro%20Leagues/Image41-2.jpg

[Bill Burgess]

Martin Dihigo Data

There's surely better data on Dihigo's Mexican and Cuban play out there, but here's the data from Holway and career data from MacMillan for us to get started with.

Born 1905

Teams

23-37 Cuban Stars (East), 28 Homestead Grays, 29-31 Hilldale Daisies, 32 ??, 33 Venezuela, 34 ??, 35-36 NY Cubans, 37 Santa Domingo, 38-44 Mexico, 45 NY Cubans

Batting and Position Data from Holway

NeL

1922 no ba data; 1b for Eastern Cuban Stars
1923 .242 for Cuban Stars (East); 1b
1924 .239 for Cuban Stars (East; ut & p
1925 .299 for Cuban Stars (East); 2b
9-25 in World Series vs. KC
1926 .327 for Cuban Stars (East); ba 5th, 12 hr (1st), 32 hr/550 (1st); 1b, all-star
1927 .312 for Cuban Stars (East); ss, all-star (at 2b?)
.223 for Homestead Grays; ut (late pickup)
6-16 vs. Major-League competition
1928 .167 for Homestead Grays; 3b & p
3-13 vs. major-league competition
1929 .259 for Hilldale; 18 hr (2nd), 37 hr/550 (2nd); ut & p, all-star (at ss)
1930 .404 for Cuban Stars (East); ba 5th, 7 hr (2nd), 39 hr/550 (4th), 3 3b (4th); 3b, all-star (at 2nd)
1931 .244 for Phi Stars; 5 3b (3rd); lf & p (0-1)
2-8 vs. major-league competition
1932-34 No Data
1935 .335 for NY Cubans; 9 hr (3rd), 30 hr/550 (3rd), 4 3b (4th), 6 sb (5th); ut & p
6-28 in playoff vs. Pittsburgh
1936 .331 for NY Cubans; 13 hr (4th), 60 hr/550 (2nd), 9 2b (1st); ut & p; all-star (as dh)
0-7 vs. major-league competition
1937 No Data
2-6 vs. major-league competition
1938-1944 No Data
1945 .100 for NY Cubans; of & p

Career, according to Holway
609-2034, .299
69 home runs, 18 hr/550 ab
12-49 vs. major-league competition
Mean avg. for 11 seasons with data, .287

Career, according to MacMillan 8th edition
415 g, 1435 ab, 453 hits, 53 2b, 18 3b, 64 hr, 32 sb, .316 ba, .511 sa

Cuba

1922 5-28
1923 no data
1924 15-50
1926 31-75
1927 54-130
1928 46-152
1929 51-180
1930–1934 No Data
1935 63-176 (batting title),
1936 74-229
1937 50-165
1938 25-99
1939 23-79
1940 20-110
1941 28-123
1942-44 No Data
1945 16-71

career, 501-1595, .314

Other Latin Play

1933 Venezuela (also possibly in 1932 and 1934)

1937 In Santa Domingo, 34-97
1938 In Mexico
1939 In Mexico
1940 In Mexico, 110-302, .364 (2nd), 9 hr (4th), 16 hr/550 (5th)
1941 In Mexico, 102-329, .319
1942 In Mexico, 89-279, .319
1943 In Mexico
1944 in Mexico

Pitching Data from Holway

NeL

1924 1-4
1925 no data
1926 2-2
1927 2-0
1928 1-1
1929 5-3
1935 7-3 (on pitching leaderboards)
1936 7-4 (on pitching leaderboards)
1-0 vs. major-league competition
1945 0-1

Career, 25-18
Holway gives his career record as 29-26
MacMillan 8th gives it as 27-21

Cuba

1924 2-3
1927 4-2
1928 2-1
1935 11-2 (led in wins)
1936 14-10
1937 11-5
1938 14-2 (led in wins)
1939 6-4
1940 8-3
1941 8-3
1942 4-8
1944 3-3
1945 5-4

Career, 78-50


Other Latin Pitching

1934 6-4 in Santa Domingo
1940 8-0 in Mexico
1941 9-10 in Mexico
1942 22-7 in Mexico, led league in ERA and Ks


Career, 45-21
1928 Martin Dihigo
Homestead Grays

Batting
G-19 (team 19)
AB-67
H-23
D-1
T-1
HR-4
R-15
W-8
HP-0
SF-1
SH-0
SB-0
AVE-.343 (NeL east .282)
OBA-.408 (.333)
SLG-.567 (.384)

Pitching
W-1
L-1
TRA-7.41
G-2
GS-2
CG-2
IP-17
H-27
HR-4
R-14
W-4
K-14
HB-0

Fielding-ss
G-9
DI-60
PO-16
A-14
E-1
DP-1
RF-4.50 (team 5.13; NeL east 5.07)
FPCT-.968 (team .938; NeL east .917)

Fielding-2b
G-5
DI-41
PO-7
A-13
E-1
DP-1
RF-4.39 (team 4.50; NeL east 5.39)
FPCT-.952 (team .952; NeL east .949)

Fielding-3b
G-4
DI-31
PO-1
A-6
E-2
DP-0
RF-2.03 (team 1.82; NeL east 2.73)
FPCT-.778 (team .842; NeL east .919)

Dihigo also played two games at pitcher (1 putout and 1 error in 17 innings) and one game at first base (12 putouts, 5 assists in 9 innings).
Here's Dihigo's Mexican League batting:
Yr--G--AB---H--D-T-HR--R--BI-BB-SO-SH-HP-SB-AVE-OBA-SLG
37-07-026-010-01-2-01-07-12-03-00-00-00-00-357-448-643
38-42-142-055-08-2-06-37-27-26-04-01-00-09-387-482-599
39-51-187-063-11-3-05-32-31-27-13-00-03-05-337-429-508
40-78-302-110-17-6-09-60-73-17-25-03-02-09-364-402-550
41-92-329-102-25-4-12-74-59-57-53-02-00-07-310-412-520
42-85-279-089-12-4-08-56-51-74-21-00-03-09-319-466-477
43-75-238-066-14-3-07-35-50-51-24-01-01-05-277-407-450
44-60-189-047-10-2-04-34-29-33-17-00-03-05-249-369-386
46-66-177-056-09-2-03-27-32-32-21-00-02-08-316-429-441
47-20-046-009-03-1-00-04-06-07-06-00-00-00-196-302-304
(He also played one game in the field in 1950, without coming to bat.)

Career totals:
G-577
AB-1917
H-607
D-110
T-29
HR-55
R-366
RBI-370
BB-327
SO-185
SH-7
HP-14
SB-57
AVE-317
OBA-420
SLG-490

Dihigo's Mexican League pitching:
Yr--W--L--ERA--G-CG---IP---H--BB--SO-HB-WP
37-04-00-0.93-05-04-038.7-022-03-008-03-00
38-18-02-0.92-22-16-167.0-104-32-184-04-03
39-15-08-2.90-23-20-202.0-169-42-202-09-01
40-08-06-3.54-17-08-109.3-106-48-065-00-00
41-09-10-4.01-23-09-157.0-177-43-093-00-00
42-22-07-2.53-35-26-245.3-244-77-211-00-02
43-16-08-3.10-26-18-194.3-181-64-134-02-05
44-12-10-3.14-31-18-212.3-207-88-090-01-02
46-11-04-2.83-20-11-140.0-134-49-063-02-09
47-04-02-4.37-10-03-055.7-077-13-016-00-01
50-00-00-0.00-01-00-002.0-001-01-000-00-00

Career totals:
W-119
L-57
PCT-.676
G-213
CG-133
SHO-19
IP-1523.7
H-1422
BB-465
SO-1109
HB-21
WP-23

Unfortunately, the MeL didn't count games started (until the last couple of seasons of his career), runs allowed (as opposed to earned runs), saves, or home runs allowed.
22. Gary A Posted: April 18, 2005 at 02:32 PM (#1267279)
Sorry--his career MeL ERA was 2.84.
Martin Dihigo's Cuban League batting (the second 26/27 season was in a rival league):
Yr-----AB--H--D--T-HR--R-SB-AVE-SLG-POS
22/23-028-05-00-0--0-03-00-179-179-INF
23/24-002-00-00-0--0-00-00-000-000-INF
24/25-050-15-03-3--1-12-02-300-540-OF/P
25/26-032-11-03-2--1-11-00-344-656-INF/P
26/27-075-31-04-1--3-20-06-413-613-3B/P
26/27-020-09---------------450-----INF/P
27/28-130-54-12-3--2-32-05-415-600-OF/1B/P
28/29-152-46-14-4--2-29-04-303-487-OF/1B/P
29/30-180-51-06-6--0-23----283-383-OF/INF/P
30----054-18-02-1--0-08-04-333-407-OF/P
31/32-010-03-02-0--0-02-00-300-500-OF
35/36-176-63-08-8--0-42----358-494-OF/P
36/37-229-74-10-2--4-38-10-323-437-OF/P/INF
37/38-165-50-05-4--0-21-06-303-382-1B/P/OF
38/39-145-37-06-1--1-24-05-255-331-P/OF
39/40-079-23-02-1--1-10-03-291-405-P/INF
40/41-110-20-05-2--0-16-04-182-264-P/OF
41/42-123-28-06-0--1-19-01-228-301-OF/P
42/43-135-36-06-1--1-14-02-267-348-OF/P
43/44-087-22-01-2--0-11-00-253-310-P/INF
44/45-029-06-01-0--0-03-00-207-241-P/INF
46/47-011-01-00-0--0-01-00-091-091-P/INF

Career totals:
AB-2022
H-603
D-96
T-42
HR-17
R-347
SB-52
AVE-298
SLG-412
26. Gary A Posted: April 18, 2005 at 10:32 PM (#1269202)
Martin Dihigo's Cuban League pitching:
Yr-----W-L, G-CG
24/25 2-3, 20-1
25/26 0-0, 1-0
26/27 2-0, 2-1
26/27 1-0, 2-0
27/28 4-2, 6-5
28/29 2-1, 5-2
29/30 1-2, 3-2
30 2-0, 4-2
31/32 DID NOT PITCH
35/36 11-2, 18-13
36/37 14-10, 30-22
37/38 11-5, 20-12
38/39 14-2, 21-14
39/40 6-4, 19-9
40/41 8-3, 13-10
41/42 8-3, 17-11
42/43 4-8, 14-7
43/44 8-1, 15-4
44/45 3-3, 13-2
46/47 1-3, 8-0

Career totals
W-102
L-52
PCT-.662
G-231
CG-117

Pitching stats are quite skeletal. Also, the career totals at the end of the Cuban Baseball book show a 107-56 record (he's the career leader in wins). Somewhere I missed 5 wins and 4 losses, but haven't been able to figure out where.
Here is an analysis of Dihigo’s wins above team for the Cuban League. I think these data are largely consistent with Chris Cobb # 50 showing his wins above team were much more impressive starting about 1935. I think they are also consistent with Gadfly’s assertion (#61) that as a pitcher he could have been a 20-game winner at least some years from 1935 to 1942 (Gadfly said starting with 1931, but Dihigo didn't pitch in Cuba during 1931-34).
Yr W L TPct WAT % tm dec
24/25 2 3 .500 -0.6 10%
26/27 2 0 .633# 0.8 7%
26/27(T) 1 0 .433 0.6 3%
27/28 4 2 .606#* 0.4 18%
28/29 2 1 .714#$ -0.2 7%
29/30 1 2 .469 -0.4 6%
30f(U) 2 0 .692# 0.7 15%
35/36 11 2 .708# 2.5 27%
36/37 14 10 .551# 1.2 35%
37/38 11 5 .509& 4.0 28%
38/39 14 2 .537 7.7 30%
39/40 6 4 .510 1.1 20%
40/41 8 3 .633# 1.3 22%
41/42 8 3 .523 3.0 25%
42/43 4 8 .500 -2.7 25%
43/44 8 1 .667# 2.5 19%
44/45 3 3 .521 -0.1 13%
45/46 5 4 .617# -0.6 15%
46/47 1 3 .379 -0.5 6%
# = team won pennant
* = excludes 4 games won by forfeit
$ = excludes 13 games won by forfeit
& = excludes 6 games won by forfeit

Placement of Dihigo's stateside pitching on the career leaderboards:

WINS t-103rd with 29 wins

LOSSES t-107th with 26 losses

DECISIONS t-102 with 55 decisions

WINNING PCT .527
(50+ decisions minimum) 74th
(25+ decisions minimum) 111th
(10+ decisions minimum) 169th

ADJ PCT OF TEAM DECISIONS 11.8%
(50+ decisions minimum) 113th
(25+ decisions minimum) 173th
(10+ decisions minimum) 255th

WAT 92nd with 2.2

WAT PER DECISION .04
(50+ decisions minimum) 49th
(25+ decisions minimum) 73th
(10+ decisions minimum) 113th

PLACEMENTS ON YEARLY WINS LEADERBOARDS

1935 t-7th in EWL with 7.

1936 t-4th most wins in NNL with 7.
127. Dr. Chaleeko Posted: June 24, 2005 at 05:00 PM (#1428855)
Here's a little more on Dihigo's pitching in Mexico.

1940
Pitched in hard luck. -.4 WAT despite ERA that was 20% less than team total and 25% better than league. Peripherals all suggest a better record than he got stuck with.

1941
No data on him.

1942
Huge year, 22-7, 6 WAT with a 2.53 ERA in a 4.38 league, on a 4.37 team that went 48-40.

1943
A very good year. 16-8 with 2 WAT and an ERA of 3.10. But team ERA was 3.22. League was 3.90.

1944
12-10, .5 WAT, 3.14 ERA for a 4.09 ERA team. I haven't compiled the league figures yet.

1945
Haven't compiled figures for the league or him.

1946
11-4, 3.3 WAT, 2.83 ERA for a 4.18 ERA team in a 3.94 ERA league.

1947
The last season I have data on him. 4-2, 1.4 WAT, 4.37 ERA for a 4.72 ERA team in a 3.96 ERA league.

All told, it's a very interesting and positive career in Mexico, probably better than I had personally credited him with initially.
128. Dr. Chaleeko Posted: June 24, 2005 at 10:15 PM (#1429674)
Hang on, I looked back, and it turns out that I'd simply missed Dihigo in my spreadsheet in 1941.

1941
9-10, .5 WAT, 4.10 ERA for a 5.08 ERA team in a 4.77 ERA league.

[Bill Burgess]

Martin Dihigo, a 6'3" 210-lb righthanded Cuban, was one of the most versatile players of all time. His incredible skills gained him the unique honor of being elected to the Mexican, Cuban, and American Halls of Fame. Endowed with great speed and an exceptionally strong arm, Dihigo was a star performer at every position.
Dihigo began his American career in 1923 at the age of 18, playing first base with the touring Cuban Stars. He played in America from 1923 until 1936. After 1936 he played his summer ball in Mexico, except in 1945 when he was the player-manager of the New York Cubans. He reportedly continued to play in the Mexican Leagues until the 1950s, although his statistics are available only through 1947.

Statistics documenting Dihigo's American career exist for 1923-31, 1935-36, and 1945. In those 12 years, Dihigo hit over .300 six times, including .325 in 1926 with a league-leading 11 home runs in 40 games, and .333 in 1935 with a league-leading 9 home runs in 42 games. His overall American statistics show a .295 career batting average and a 6-1 record as a pitcher in 1931.

Dihigo was primarily a pitcher in Latin America, where he was known for his blazing fastball. His Mexican League totals show a lifetime .317 batting average in 10 seasons (1937-44, 1946-47), including a league-leading .387 in 1938. He was 119-57 as a pitcher in Mexico, going 18-2 with a 0.90 ERA in 1938 and 22-7 with a league-leading 2.53 ERA in 1942. He threw the first no-hitter in Mexican League history, and also had no-hitters in Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

Dihigo played for 24 seasons in Cuba (1922-29, 1931-46). The record of his Cuban career is somewhat fragmentary, but for the years which are documented (1922-29, 1931, 1935-46), he hit over .300 nine times, finishing with a lifetime .291 batting average. As a pitcher he was 93-48 in 1935-46.

Statistics exist for one year of play in the Dominican Republic (1937), when Dihigo hit .351.

Combining his Dominican, American, Cuban and Mexican statistics results in a lifetime .302 batting average with 130 home runs (11 seasons worth of home run totals are missing) and a 218-106 (.673) pitching mark. Dihigo often showed his versatility in Negro League competition by playing all nine positions in the course of a single game.

Known for his warm, friendly personality, Dihigo was a national hero in his native Cuba, where he served as Minister of Sport in his later years. He was elected posthumously to the American baseball Hall of Fame in 1977. In a poll conducted in the early 1980s among ex-Negro League players and other experts on black baseball, Dihigo gathered votes as best all-time outfielder and third baseman, and was voted to the first team all-time black all-star team as a second baseman. (JJM)

[Bill Burgess]

---http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.efqreview.com/graphics/18n2artwork/martin1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.efqreview.com/NewFiles/v18n2/onhistoricalground.html&h=356&w]Martin Dihigo article

Martín Dihigo: Baseball's Least-Known Hall of Famer
By Peter C. Bjarkman

Cuban baseball—for all the glamor it now seemingly holds for American diamond aficionados—is hardly a matter of household names. The biggest stars on the current Cuban national team—a big-league-quality outfit that has more than held its own in recent seasons with both the big league Orioles and AAA-level USA and Japanese Olympic nines—are virtually unknown to all but the most dedicated Cuba watchers. Nineteen-year-old Maels Rodríguez twirls a scorching fastball clocked in Cuban League play in excess of one hundred miles per hour, and equally proficient flamethrowers José Ariel Contreras and José Ibar have of late set big league scouts salivating with their repeated mastery of U.S. pro hitters in Winnipeg (1999 Pan Am Games) and Sydney (2000 Olympics). Yet none of these headlining island stars would receive even a knowing nod from perhaps one in fifty thousand self-proclaimed U.S. baseball experts.

The first Cuban-born big leaguer enshrined in Cooperstown? Big Red Machine icon Tony Pérez finally cracked that barrier with the last Hall-of-Fame balloting of the twentieth century. Minnie Miñoso, Camilo Pascual, Bert Campaneris, and Tony Oliva may be familiar enough names from earlier Cuban big league infiltrations, but the Cuban presence in the U.S. major leagues has seemingly always been more a matter of colorful role players than one of legitimate front-line stars. Yankee ace Orlando "El Duque" Hernández and his much-embellished tale of heroic escape from Cuban baseball servitude is, admittedly, a recent headline grabber—as was half-brother World Series MVP Livan Hernández a few short Octobers back with the Florida Marlins. But in Cuba itself, Orlando Hernández would never have been classed among the island's true diamond immortals. And Livan was hardly a blip on the radar scope of Cuban baseball (posting a lifetime 27–16 mark over three seasons) before defecting from the junior national team earlier in the last decade. Far heftier stars on the Cuban scene like sluggers Omar Linares and Orestes Kindelán and hurlers Lázaro Valle and Norge Vera (owner of a league-best 0.97 ERA in 2000) are all but invisible anywhere except on their native island.

"Doubleheaders on the Dark Side of the Moon"

This is an old story for Cuban baseball. Light-skinned Dolf Luque (a twenty-year major leaguer from 1914 through 1935 who still owns the best-ever season for a Cincinnati Reds hurler) and swarthy-toned Martín Dihigo (legendary denizen of the invisible Negro leagues) remain the indelible Cuban baseball icons of the first half-century. Yet such hallowed status can be claimed only within the boundaries of Fidel Castro's off-the-beaten-track Communist island. Both Luque and Dihigo are entirely overlooked by U.S. diamond historians—even those of a most industrious bent who ply their trade under the banner of the august Society for American Baseball Research, an organization whose members pride themselves for leaving almost no stone unturned when it comes to mining baseball's rich past.

Despite nearly two hundred wins and one dominating National League season where he boasted twenty-seven victories and a microscopic 1.93 ERA (both NL bests in 1923), Luque was never a genuine star in the big leagues, even if he was the most visible and renowned among exotic Caribbean ballplayers who labored on the major league scene between the two world wars. More tragical, Dihigo remained virtually unknown to U.S. ballpark denizens, along with the bulk of his fellow Negro league stars, at least until his strange-sounding name was belatedly added decades later to the list of immortals housed in Cooperstown. On the annual winter tour back home in Cuba—as well as in Venezuela, Mexico, and the neighboring Dominican Republic—the lanky and trim six-foot-one-inch Dihigo was a true giant among itinerant diamond barnstormers. His absence from big league parks nonetheless meant certain anonymity among white U.S. fans and white U.S. sports writers up north, where the biggest crowds and biggest headlines were always drawn.

The fates of Dihigo and Luque were anything but unique, to be sure. Back on the island, however, there were still other Cuban stalwarts who rivaled Luque and Dihigo in athletic stature, even if none ever quite surpassed "The Pride of Havana" (Luque's popular moniker) or "El Inmortal" (Dihigo's) for the sheer dimension of their outsized homespun legends. Among the most notable of the island stars from the century's earliest decades was a brief and brilliant comet known everywhere on the winter ball scene as the Cuban "Black Diamond"—José Méndez—who turned big league heads and warmed Cuban pride with his domination of John McGraw's Giants and Ty Cobb's Tigers back in 1908 and 1909. The rubber-armed, ebony-faced Méndez stood only five feet nine inches and tipped the scales at a mere 155 pounds, but he flung a dancing fastball that appeared to even the most seasoned pro hitters to weigh more than the pitcher himself.

Méndez amazed the baseball world almost overnight in the winter of 1908 when he was first discovered by baseball's white establishment, much to the dismay of one set of big league batsmen who performed off-season duties for the Cincinnati Reds. When the visiting National League club arrived in Havana that winter for their celebrated whirlwind tour, they could hardly have anticipated the rude greeting they would receive from an unheralded set of island blackball strikeout artists. First came Méndez's 1908 exhibition contests versus the bedazzled Cincinnati ball club. In November of that year the diminutive Cuban first shut down the big leaguers with a brilliant 1–0, one-hit masterpiece. To prove that the first dominant encounter was no fluke, Méndez hurled another seven shutout innings of relief only two weeks after the first surprise blanking. He then punctuated the issue with a second complete-game shutout, 4–0, just four days later.

"El Diamante Negro" had suddenly thrown twenty-five straight scoreless frames against the bewildered Cincinnati team. Trading his Cuban League uniform representing Havana-based Club Almendares for the jerseys of various barnstorming outfits, he reportedly then continued his miraculous string of outings with twenty more consecutive runless frames, though now admittedly working against somewhat lesser competition: a nine-inning shutout against a touring semipro team from Key West; a no-hitter in a return engagement against the same ball club back in Key West (perhaps the first integrated game ever played in Florida); and finally, two additional shutout innings for Almendares in Cuban League play.

The magic which Méndez began against the shell-shocked Cincinnati ball club in 1908 continued against four additional big league visitors over the course of the next three winters. Things started a bit roughly for the celebrated Cuban ace the following winter, however, when the touring Detroit Tigers (even sans Ty Cobb and Sam Crawford) drubbed him 9–3. Returning to form against the Tigers' Ed Willett (21–10 that summer in the American League), Méndez fell again, 4–0, despite yielding just six hits and one earned run while enduring four costly fielding errors behind him. But Méndez did manage a victory against the Tigers in 1909—a two-to-one, five-hitter in his third and final outing. The 1909 series against Detroit also saw a second black Cuban ace, Eustaquio Pedroso, dazzle the once-more humiliated visiting big leaguers with his own eleven-inning no-hitter.

Manager John McGraw desperately wanted Méndez for his own roster despite the Cuban's taboo swarthy skin tone, and he even compared the "El Diamante Negro" to the immortal Christy Mathewson—the current ace of his own National League staff back in New York. It was Luque, however, who somewhat later offered perhaps the highest praise for the talents of the remarkable José Méndez. Returning to Havana for a public celebration honoring his own twenty-seven-win 1923 National League campaign, the successful big leaguer spied Méndez lurking in the grandstand and approached the aging and injured thirty-six-year-old Negro leaguer with a most memorable greeting: "This parade should have been for you," the humble and politic Luque remarked. "Certainly you're a far better pitcher than I am."

There was also another blackball star from Cuba—this one named Cristobal Torriente—who once outslugged Babe Ruth during a memorable island visit by the Bambino more noted than anything else for the Babe's epic carousing. Much of Torriente's own legend is indeed founded not on his stellar decade of blackball play (with Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants), but upon his brief encounter with John McGraw's touring team of big leaguers (mostly New York Giants) in Havana during the late fall following the 1920 season. And no lesser figure played a key role in this memorable face-off than Babe Ruth himself, fresh from his stunning fifty-four-homer debut with the Yankees the previous summer and enticed to perform in Havana by a then-incredible offer of $1,000 per game in hard cash from Cuban promoter Abel Linares. With regular Giants first baseman George "High-pockets" Kelly taking the mound for the big leaguers against the same Cuban Almendares club that had once featured Méndez, Torriente seized advantage by smashing booming back-to-back opposite field homers. When Ruth (who himself failed at the plate three times) assumed the hill to silence the Cuban slugger, he was greeted rudely enough by Torriente's third prodigious blow—a ringing double to left that nearly removed the legs of Giants third sacker Frank Frisch.

The final count saw Torriente going four for five with three round-trippers and six runs batted home; Ruth stood zero for two, having walked twice and reached once on an error. Frisch would later lionize "The Cuban Strongboy" when he remembered the particular blast that nearly amputated his limbs: "In those days Torriente was a hell of a player! Christ, I'd like to whitewash him and bring him straight up [to the majors]!"

Thus, for three full decades—1910 through 1940—Cuba was a genuine "Béisbol Paradiso," a true island paradise of wintertime barnstorming heroics. The big leaguers visited frequently and seemingly always returned home with awestruck assessments like the one Torriente had inspired from Frankie Frisch or the one Méndez elicited from John McGraw. So did the best among U.S. blackball stars, who were tested regulars on the November–January Cuban League scene. Oscar Charleston fashioned a .361 batting mark over nine Cuban seasons and was part of a Santa Clara Leopards outfield in 1923–24 (with Cubans Pablo Mesa and Alejandro Oms)—often considered the best fly-chasing trio pro baseball ever produced. James "Cool Papa" Bell ("Jimmy" Bell in Cuba) spent four seasons flashing on the base paths with Cienfuegos. Lesser black stars like Preston Hill, Rube Foster, and Oliver Marcelle were as lionized on the island as they were in the shadowy blackball circuit back in the U.S. And the legends they left behind still vibrate in the island's baseball soul: Jimmy Bell's three homers (one struck against Dihigo) in a single 1929 game; Ray "Jabao" Brown's first twentieth-century Cuban no-hitter; and native Cuban Alejandro Oms's prodigious slugging (featuring powerful blasts sprayed to all fields), daring base-path feats, and circus outfield catches spread over two full decades.

But as far as most white North American fans of the major league game were concerned, these tropical barnstormers might just as well—in the phrase of historian Douglass Wallop—have been "playing doubleheaders on the dark side of the moon." They were invisible in the lands up north where baseball was strictly a summertime affair—and strictly a white man's affair when it came to mainstream reporting. It would be more than half a century before the efforts of dedicated revisionist historians would bring these legends back to life for the bulk of a major-league-oriented (and largely white) North American baseball fandom.

For all the unappreciated glories of Luque, Torriente, Méndez, and the island's other forgotten white and black stars, one name still towers above all the rest. When a special committee of Hall-of-Fame electors was established in 1971 for the overdue task of selecting past-era greats from among excluded blackballers, one of the committee's earliest choices (1977) was inevitably the versatile Cuban pitcher-infielder-outfielder who stands head and shoulders above his Latin countrymen. Among fourteen greats tabbed to date by this special Negro leagues enshrinement committee (Satchel Paige was the first in 1971 and Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard followed close behind), Martín Dihigo was the ninth chosen and thus far remains the only player of Latin American origin selected by this group. The perhaps-surprising nomination of Dihigo for Cooperstown enshrinement, coming at a time when only Roberto Clemente among Latin-born ballplayers was a member of the unique fraternity of the game's greatest stars, is a decision that, in retrospect, is beyond criticism—even under the most exacting of standards. Yet without careful study of long-buried blackball and winter ball records, perhaps few at the time could have truly appreciated the wisdom underlying the honor.

PETER C. BJARKMAN made history on March 3, 2001, as the first American in forty years to be interviewed on Cuban television about the shared national sport of baseball. He is co-author (with Mark Rucker) of Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball (1999), and he is currently completing a history of Cuban baseball after Fidel Castro's revolution, writing a biography of Martín Dihigo, and working on a novel set in Cuba during the first three decades of the past century.

© 2001 Peter C. Bjarkman

[Mischa]

Martin Dihigo Data


Baseball-Reference has a lot of statistical data on Dihigo. See http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Mart%C3%ADn_Dihigo

[Bill Burgess]

Baseball-Reference has a lot of statistical data on Dihigo. See http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Mart%C3%ADn_Dihigo
I hadn't known that Baseball-Reference was now doing Negro Leaguers. Their page is set up to look like wikipedia articles. It is awesome.

Thank you so much for bringing this to all of our attention, Mischa. Do you know how long BB Ref. has been carrying this information?

Bill Burgess

[Mischa]

I hadn't known that Baseball-Reference was now doing Negro Leaguers. Their page is set up to look like wikipedia articles. It is awesome.

Thank you so much for bringing this to all of our attention, Mischa. Do you know how long BB Ref. has been carrying this information?

Bill Burgess

The BB Ref encyclopedia was started in June or July of 2005. Our Negro League section is far from complete but there are a lot of good bios up. I've been focusing on international competitions lately like the Baseball World Cup.