{"id":30534,"date":"2016-02-17T23:02:40","date_gmt":"2016-02-18T04:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seamheads.com\/?p=30534"},"modified":"2016-02-17T23:07:01","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T04:07:01","slug":"negro-leagues-db-update-191819-cuban-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seamheads.com\/blog\/2016\/02\/17\/negro-leagues-db-update-191819-cuban-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Negro Leagues DB Update: 1918\/19 Cuban League"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 1918\/19 Cuban winter season<\/a> was the only time Tinti Molina<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s Cuban Stars<\/a>, normally a summertime traveling team in the United States, competed under that name for the regular Cuban League championship. (Molina would enter teams that were essentially his Cuban Stars in the league under different names: as the \u201cWhite Sox\u201d<\/a> in 1916\/17, and as \u201cAm\u00e9rica\u201d in 1919-20.) Nicknamed \u201cLos Osos Tropicales\u201d (the Tropical Bears), the Cuban Stars played fairly well but suffered from both bad luck and the absence of Crist\u00f3bal Torriente<\/strong><\/a>, the best player in Cuban history to that point. They finished well back of Habana in the first half of the split season. One of the highlights of their season occurred in a December 21, 1918, game against Almendares, when Bienvenido Jim\u00e9nez<\/strong><\/a> stole 8 bases, and Bartolo Portuondo<\/strong><\/a> another 5. Their victims were Almendares<\/a> pitcher Benito Marrero<\/strong><\/a> and the legendary (but aging) catcher Gervasio \u201cStrike\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Habana<\/a>, stocked with players from the North American minor leagues, ran away with the first half. The second half was much closer. At the end of the regular schedule the three teams were deadlocked with identical 11-11 records. A further round of games was scheduled, and Habana came out on top, thus winning both halves and the pennant. Habana\u2019s manager, the St. Louis Cardinals\u2019 Mike Gonz\u00e1lez<\/strong><\/a>, was probably the best everyday player in the league (.329\/.392\/.452, with a league-leading 8 doubles and 32 RBI). Their ace, the right-hander Jos\u00e9 Acosta<\/strong><\/a> (\u201cAcostica\u201d), proved to be a real workhorse, despite his slight build (5\u20196\u201d, 134 pounds). He threw over half of Habana\u2019s innings and went 15-9 with a 1.55 ERA. Possibly the greatest moment of the Reds\u2019 year, however, came on December 2, 1918, when Baldomero \u201cMerito\u201d Acosta<\/a><\/strong> (Jos\u00e9\u2019s brother, who had hit .298 in 52 games for the Senators and A\u2019s the previous summer) turned an unassisted triple play from center field.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a newspaper strike in February resulted in several games going completely uncovered (we lack even the scores), so our record of the season is slightly incomplete, with Habana missing two games, and the Cuban Stars and Almendares missing four each. We\u2019ll work on getting this rectified in future updates.<\/p>\n

Next up: the 1939 NNL & NAL. On deck: the 1940 NNL & NAL, the 1919\/20 Cuban League, and the 1921\/22 Cuban League.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a>

Three Cuban League stars in 1918\/19: Merito Acosta, Bienvenido Jim\u00e9nez, Jos\u00e9 Acosta<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 1918\/19 Cuban winter season was the only time Tinti Molina\u2019s Cuban Stars, normally a summertime traveling team in the United States, competed under that name for the regular Cuban League championship. (Molina would enter teams that were essentially his Cuban Stars in the league under different names: as the \u201cWhite Sox\u201d in 1916\/17, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":809,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16162,4235],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-negro-lgs","category-top-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t