Cuban Stars (West)

The Cuban Stars were a team of Cuban professional baseball players that competed in the United States Negro leagues from 1907 to 1932. The team was also sometimes known as the Stars of Cuba, the Cuban All-Stars, the Havana Reds, the Almendares Blues, or simply as the Cubans. For one season, 1921, the team played home games in Cincinnati, Ohio and was known as the Cincinnati Cubans. For the rest of its life, it was a traveling team that played only road games. For its first five years, the team competed primarily in the eastern states, near New York City and Philadelphia, although it made a famous sojourn into Chicago in 1910 and 1911, taking on the Leland Giants and numerous semi-pro teams in the Chicago area. By 1916, however, the team was competing primarily in the midwestern states and a competing Cuban team was organized in the New York area, which was also named the "Cuban Stars." To differentiate between the two teams, the original team (organized by Abel Linares and Agustín "Tinti" Molina) is known as the "Cuban Stars (West)," and the new team (organized by Alex Pompez) is known as the Cuban Stars (East).

From 1920–30, the Cuban Stars competed in the Negro National League, and in 1932 they played in the East-West League. In earlier years, they were an independent team. In 1919 they were the western champions, having the highest winning percentage of any Negro league team playing in the west.^[1]

Notable players

• José Méndez – P, 1908–12
• Cristóbal Torriente – OF, P, 1913–18

Notes

1. ^ Holway, p. 128.

References

• Holway, John B. (2001), The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues: The Other Half of Baseball History, Fern Park, FL: Hastings House Publishers, ISBN 0-8038-2007-0