Robinson’s legacy includes assist for Latinos
By Adrian Burgos
When was the first time you heard of Jackie Robinson? It’s a question I often ask my students in my sport history class. Typically, the response is during Black History Month in elementary school. His story as an integration pioneer and Civil Rights activist has rightly become a key part of how we celebrate the contributions of African Americans to U.S. history.
When I ask students whether they knew of Latinos who participated in Major League Baseball’s integration story or about Latino participation in the Negro Leagues prior to integration, the response is usually silence and even astonishment.
Robinson was a pioneering figure, yet we undersell the significance of his accomplishment when we do not likewise celebrate the other players who broke the color line on the other major league teams.
This is why one of my favorite photos of Robinson is of him in a Montreal Royals uniform about to enter the Dodgers clubhouse. Robinson truly opened the door for other black players. He was the inspiration for the other black players who also went through the very real and sometimes traumatic challenges of breaking the color line for the other 15 major league teams. Let’s not forget integration continued to occur throughout the minor leagues into the late 1950s.
It is important to note that not all the black players who integrated teams came from the United States. There were a number of Afro-Latinos who took on this pioneering challenge in the minor leagues and in the majors. Inspired by Robinson, they too became integration pioneers and are worthy of celebrating on Jackie Robinson Day.
Remembering Jackie
Fifteen years ago, Major League Baseball made April 15 Jackie Robinson Day. Ever since then each home team holds a series of events and a pregame ceremony commemorating the anniversary of Robinson’s 1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Additionally, MLB marks Jackie Robinson Day by having each major leaguer wear No. 42, which was retired throughout MLB, in the spirit of proclaiming we are all Robinson.
However, in the 1940s and 1950s not all players were Robinson.
Many are now aware about those white players who opposed integration and engaged in hostile bench jockeying, slung racial slurs and at times attempted to physically intimidate Robinson. It took time for Robinson to defeat segregation’s vocal supporters, on and off the playing field. He also dealt with the racist letters threatening physical harm to baseball’s integration pioneer. Those letters were mailed to Ebbets Field and other ballparks where Robinson was scheduled to appear.
Part of the reason we celebrate Robinson was his mental fortitude, his ability to put those things aside and perform at a Hall of Fame level on the baseball diamond.
A Latino Jackie Robinson
Robinson’s success inspired blacks who were playing in the Negro Leagues and the minor leagues, and also youngsters across the United States and the Caribbean. If he could do it, there was hope for them.
Robinson’s successful 1947 season with the Dodgers inspired a number of – but not all – major league organizations to sign black players. Teams signed Negro League players who were considered the most talented and mentally prepared for the challenge of pioneering integration in the major leagues.
That is what Orestes Miñoso and other Afro-Latinos aspired to achieve.
Like Robinson, Miñoso was a product of the Negro Leagues. Robinson played with the Kansas City Monarchs in 1945. Miñoso, a Cuban native, started playing in the Negro Leagues in 1946, the season immediately following Robinson’s signing with the Dodgers organization. Miñoso developed into a star on the New York Cubans, appearing in the East-West Classic, which was the Negro Leagues’ all-star game, in 1947 and 1948.
The Cleveland Indians, who broke the American League’s color line with eventual Hall of Famer Larry Doby three months after Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers, acquired Miñoso from the New York Cubans after the 1948 season for reportedly between $15,000 and $20,000.
On April 19, 1949, Miñoso made his major league debut with Cleveland, appearing as the first black Latino. Traded two seasons later, Miñoso integrated the Chicago White Sox on May 1, 1951, in grand style, hitting a home run against the New York Yankees in his first at-bat.
Latino ballplayers from the 1950s and 1960s understood Miñoso’s significance.
Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda called Miñoso “the Jackie Robinson for all Latinos” noting that the Cuban native “opened doors for all Latin American ballplayers.”
Cepeda knew personally that before Robinson’s 1947 breakthrough the overwhelming majority of players from Latin America who came North to play professional baseball did so in the Negro Leagues. That was where Luis Tiant’s father “Lefty” Tiant performed as an ace pitcher for the Cuban Stars and New York Cubans teams in the 1930s and 1940s.
Cepeda’s father Pedro “Perucho” Cepeda did not follow that path. Pedro Cepeda was a legend in the Caribbean leagues. He starred alongside Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, James “Cool Papa” Bell and other Negro League greats in winter ball in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.
Perucho Cepeda adamantly refused to play in the United States, unwilling to deal with Jim Crow segregation.
They Too Were Jackie Robinsons
Miñoso was followed by a Latino trio who also integrated other major league teams. Although these four had varying degrees of success in the majors, each found inspiration in Robinson’s success in dealing with the challenges of pioneering integration.
On April 17, 1954, Saturnino “Nino” Escalera singled in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter for the Cincinnati Reds. His African American teammate Chuck Harmon followed as a pinch-hitter for the next batter. Appearing back-to-back as pinch-hitters, Escalera and Harmon are both credited as the Reds’ pioneering players. The 1954 season would be Escalera’s lone season in the majors. He hit just .159 in 73 games.
Carlos Paula enjoyed more success as a major leaguer than Escalera. Like many other Cubans, Paula made the trek from the island to the Washington Senators organization. Paula was undeniably black, unlike the Cubans who played for the Senators in the 1930s and 1940s. On September 6, 1954, Paula broke the color line for the Senators, garnering two hits in five at-bats versus the Philadelphia Athletics.
Dominican Republic native Ozzie Virgil made the biggest splash in a game when a Latino broke a team’s color line. Although Virgil made his major league debut with the New York Giants in 1956, a mid-season trade two years later landed him in Detroit. On June 6, 1958, Virgil went 5-for-5 as he broke the color line for the Tigers.
It was Virgil’s most productive day at the plate as a player in a career where he ended spending more time as a major league coach than player.
Significantly, a quarter of major league teams had a Latino player that broke the team’s color line. They were evidence that Robinson’s impact was international. In dealing with the reality of segregated practices in baseball and across U.S. society, they too became Jackie Robinson.
Featured Image: Bettman