Sports Reference Blog

Last month we added updated coverage of Negro major leagues from Seamheads to Baseball Reference. A summary of those additions can be found here. We have recently added some other new data from Seamheads featuring competitions from outside of the seven established major Negro Leagues, which we will highlight below.

1945 Mexican League

This league was full of interesting stars from the Negro Leagues and Latin America. Hall of Famer Ray Dandridge finally left the Negro Leagues for good and hit .366 in 83 games for the Diablos Rojos del Mexico. Bobby Avila (born in Mexico) was still a few years away from an 11-year career in the AL/NL and hit .350/.450/.480 as a second baseman for the Angeles de Puebla. Roberto Ortiz, who had a six-year career in the AL, led the league with 26 home runs.

Claro Duany (who spent a two seasons with the New York Cubans in the Negro Leagues) won the batting title, hitting .375. Silvio García, a shortstop who was originally targeted by the Los Angeles Dodgers before Jackie Robinson to break baseball’s color line, led the league in stolen bases (40) while hitting .350 with 15 home runs (second in the league).

Players like Marvin Williams (.362/.410/.634), Pedro Formental (.362/.504/.555), Pancho Coimbre (.346 with only 8 Ks in 89 games), Lázaro Salazar (.337 BA, 3.83 ERA), Ramón Bragaña (15-16, 4.53 ERA, .209 BA), Agustín Bejerano (.322 with 84 walks), Alejandro Crespo (.312, 10 3B), and Cocaína Garcia (18-11, 3.59 ERA, .270 BA) all had long and very productive careers that spanned the Negro Leagues but also several other Latin American leagues, all coming together in Mexico in 1945.

1920-21 Cuban League

Several prominent players appeared in this season, including Hall of Famer Oscar Charleston (who hit .471 across nine games). Hall of Famers Louis Santop (.343) and Cristóbal Torriente (.306) featured prominently, as did Dolf Luque (3-1 with a sparkling 1.01 ERA). Legendary hurlers José Méndez and “Cannonball” Dick Redding also appeared, but uncharacteristically struggled.

1915-1917 Florida Hotel League

This two-team league based in Florida was a showcase of high-quality Black Baseball talent. The Royal Poinciana Hotel was managed by C.I. Taylor in 1915 and Rube Foster in 1916 and 1917. Star players for the team included Hall of Famers Oscar Charleston, John Henry Lloyd, Pete Hill, and Ben Taylor (brother of C.I. and teammate Candy Jim, who would go on to a long career as a player and manager in the Negro Leagues). Other prominent players for the Poinciana were John Donaldson, Bingo DeMoss, Juan Padrón, Bruce Petway, Frank Duncan, Dick Whitworth, Frank Wickware, and “Cannonball” Dick Redding.

The Breakers Hotel featured Hall of Famers “Smoky” Joe Williams (who also served as manager) and Louis Santop. They were joined by Spottswood Poles, Bill Pettus, Dick Lundy, Padrón, and Redding.

1907-1909 National Association/International League

The 1907 and 1908 National Association featured Hall of Famers Pete Hill, John Henry Lloyd, José Méndez, and Sol White. There were several other pre-Negro Leagues stars in the league, such as 2022 Hall of Fame Early Baseball Era finalist Grant “Home Run” Johnson and two-way star Harry Buckner.

Many of these players also took part in the 1909 International League, with Lloyd batting .449.

1900 Cuban League

Luis Padrón was the star of this league, leading both in hitting (.320) and pitching (12-4, 1.41 ERA). Early Cuban legend Carlos Royer had a 2.25 ERA while Cuban Hall of Famer (and on-base machine) Carlos Morán boasted a .487 on-base percentage.

1887 National Colored League

This league featured Hall of Famer Sol White and Welday Walker, brother of Moses Fleetwood Walker and alumni of the 1884 (major) American Association.

Additionally we have added coverage of various independent clubs from 1900 to 1906.

We hope you enjoy these additions.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 13th, 2023 at 8:38 am and is filed under Announcement, Baseball-Reference.com, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.