Cocaína García

Manuel García Carranza was born in Manacas, Las Villas, Cuba on December 28, 1905. Little is known about his youth and family background, as is often the case with Cubans of bygone generations. García started playing weekend baseball games in his late teens for the Central Washington (Washington Sugar Mill). There, a promoter known today only as Miguelito “El Jabao”1 noticed his potential.  García would not stop pitching until the early 1950s, despite a portly frame that resembled Kirby Puckett’s.

Billed at 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds, García was not a prototypical power pitcher. He soon became known as “Cocaína,” a colorful nickname that did not stem from a penchant to indulge in the drug, but rather the claim “that his fastball, drop-ball, and exceptional curveball seemed to have the effect of literally mesmerizing batters and inducing an appearance of intoxication in the batter’s box.”2 Later he earned other sobriquets: “El zurdo de hierro” (the iron lefty) and “el moreno de Manacas” (the Black from Manacas).3 An overview of his illustrious multinational career  follows.

United States Negro Leagues

García pitched for the Cuban Stars West in 1927 and 1928 but fared poorly (4-13, 6.24). The franchise was among the weakest of Negro National League (NNL) squads. He then played for the Stars of Cuba (1929, 1931) and the Cuban Stars East (1933), independent teams whose statistics are sadly incomplete.4 (Latin American statistics are likewise patchy.) When not on the mound, García often played right field and was a good hitter, especially in 1927 (.349/.374/.517, including five home runs in 156 plate appearances).

While many teams billed themselves as “Cubans,” the 1935 New York Cubans were true representatives of the “Pearl of the Antilles.” Besides García, a dozen Cubans including player/manager Martín Dihigo, Luis E. Tiant, and Alejandro “El Caballero” [The Gentleman] Oms donned the uniform – a veritable “who’s who” of the island’s baseball talent.5 García was ineffective in 11 games (1-6 with a 6.13 ERA), and the team lost a seven-game Negro National League II (NNL 2) Championship Series to a star-studded Pittsburgh Crawfords team led by Josh Gibson, James “Cool Papa” Bell, and Oscar Charleston.

Dominican Republic

In 1929, García played exhibition games for a Cuban squad in the Dominican Republic and joined the Tigres (Tigers) of Licey after the series.6 He returned in 1934 for the Trujillo Cup, a three-team tournament (Concordia and Escogido were the other entries) in honor of dictator Rafael Trujillo.7

In 1937, he played for the Estrellas Orientales (Eastern Stars), one of six Cubans on the team along with first baseman Carlos Blanco, third baseman Luis Pedro Arango, pitcher Ramón “El Profesor” [The Professor] Bragaña, catcher Julio Rojo, and outfielder Oms. When not pitching, García played left field and hit .254 (16-for-63).8 As the team’s ace, he won five games and lost three others. While the Estrellas were a powerful squad, the “championship” was a thinly veiled endeavor to boost public support for Trujillo. The Generalissimo’s handpicked Dragones (Dragons) of Ciudad Trujillo (the capital of Santo Domingo, renamed in his “honor”) won the title.

García returned to the Dominican Republic in 1951 with the Estrellas and Licey. Despite playing against men half his age, the 46-year-old won one game, lost another, and sported a 4.73 ERA in 13 1/3 innings. He went 4-for-14 at the plate, proving he was still productive.9

Cuba

García dominated Cuban competition for more than a decade. He debuted as a fresh-faced 20-year-old with Almendares in 1926, boasting to his manager Alfredo Cabrera, “Do you know who I am?  I’m the great ‘Cocaína!’ My good man, anyone who knows about baseball has heard about me!”10

In 1938-39, he played the outfield and pitched (11-4, league-leading three shutouts) for Santa Clara.11 In 1941-42 he went 10-3 with a .340 batting average12 and had 12 straight victories in 1942-43, including the league’s fifth-ever no-hitter.13 He reached double-digit wins a record four times, including 1946-47 when he was 41 years old.14

He led the league in winning percentage (1942-43, 1946-47), victories (1942-43, 1944-45), and complete games (1945-6). In the “professional period” of Cuban baseball, he is fifth among pitchers in victories with 85, tenth in games pitched with 222, and fifth with 93 complete games).15 (The “Professional Period” of Cuban baseball extended from 1878 until 1961, when Fidel Castro abolished professional sports. Since then, the National Series has been an “amateur” affair, though players receive considerations from the government in lieu of pay.)

A possibly apocryphal anecdote reveals the 41-year old García toying with feared hitter Roberto Ortiz: “Since he was easy to annoy and quick to grow desperate, I would take a long time between pitches. Knowing how well he hit the fastball – which by then, I’d lost – I’d throw junk. More than once, he dared me to throw a fastball, saying he’d show me where the ball would end up … one night, after we won by a lopsided margin … I told him I’d throw a fastball on his next at-bat, so he better be ready. Apparently he didn’t believe me, he took that pitch, which was right down the middle. Blind with rage, he kicked home plate, slammed his bat to the ground, and once the umpire called him back to the box, he said if I had guts, I’d throw another one. Smiling, I replied, ‘Sorry, compadrito. That was the last one I had left in my arm.”16

Noted Cuban baseball expert Peter C. Bjarkman stated, “The numbers alone suggest there was no better hurler on the entire island than the stocky Club Havana righthander with the eye-catching nickname. The case for Manuel García was further advanced when he earned instant immortality by tossing the fifth-ever no-hit, no-run effort in Cuban League history, a December 1943 5-0 whitewashing of Club Marianao.”17 After his retirement, García coached for Havana in the 1950s, and was enshrined in the island’s Baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.18

Puerto Rico

García is believed to have first visited the island in 1932 as part of a Cuban team that included Dihigo and Oms.19 However, he pitched on February 11, 1933, for the White Star team against the mostly Cuban Almendares squad. Harmed by his team’s eight errors, he lost, 8-4 (only two of those runs were earned).20 Six months later, El Mundo marveled about his three-hitter against Bay Parkway at Brooklyn’s Erasmus Field, where he bested New York Yankees ace Lefty Gómez, 7-0.21  García returned to Puerto Rican pitching mounds in early 1934 but left in May to play in Venezuela. He returned in March 1936 as Almendares played exhibition games against Puerto Rican clubs and the visiting Cincinnati Reds.22

García joined the Ponce Leones (Lions) in 1941 during the third season of the Puerto Rican Winter League (PRWL). He debuted on February 16 and defeated the Mayagüez Indios (Indians) 8-5.23 A ballyhooed February 23 duel against Satchel Paige was instead a 13-9, 10-inning slugfest victory for the Guayama Brujos (Warlocks).24 García rebounded on March 1 against Aguadilla but lost a hard-fought 2-1 decision to Leon Day.25

Mexico

García was a fixture of Mexican baseball in the 1940s. He compiled a 95-68 record (3.82 ERA, 538 strikeouts and 519 walks in 1,415 innings) with the Veracruz Águilas (Eagles, 1941 and 1949), the Ángeles of Puebla (Angels, 1942-44 and 1948), the Alijadores of Tampico (Dockworkers, 1945-46 and 1948), and the Tecolotes of Nuevo Laredo (Owls, 1949).26 At bat, he hit .281/.339/.374.27

At 44 years old, he no-hit Veracruz on April 10, 1948.28 The gem – one of the seven he pitched during his career – marked the third country where he’d accomplished the feat (beside Cuba and Venezuela).29

Venezuela

Cuban historians acknowledge that Venezuela was the stage for García’s greatest exploits: “(He) accomplished incredible feats such as his game April 17, 1932 against the Valencia Águilas (pitched a no-hitter and scored five of his team’s 21 runs while hitting for the cycle). That season, the “Bitter Drug,” (as he was also known), won both the pitching and batting triple crowns. It was truly an unforgettable and historic performance.”30 Remarkably, “the Venezuelan Baseball Association had to nullify the game due to a few altercations, some against pitcher ‘Cocaína García’ and others against the fans, requiring police intervention.”31

Pitching for the Caribes (Caribs) of Caracas, he followed his 1932 no-hitter with two 20-strikeout games: August 4 against the Royal Criollos (Creoles) and August 14 against Universidad (the latter a 13-inning no-hitter).32 Eight years later, he tossed another no-hitter, this time against the Cardenales (Cardinals) of Lara.

In a career that spanned 12 non-consecutive seasons, he led the league in strikeouts, complete games, and wins four times, ERA twice, RBIs three times, and twice in hits (batted, not allowed).33 Besides the Caribes, he also played for the Centauros (Centaurs, 1934), Santa Marta (1934, .378 average, 7-5, 1.24 ERA), Senadores (Senators, 1936), Deportivo Caracas (1937), Venezuela (1938-40), and Magallanes (1943-44, 1946-47).34

His 60 wins, 680 strikeouts, 1.56 ERA, and .354 batting average stand unparalleled in the country’s “golden era of baseball,” before the birth of the Liga Venezolana de Béisbol Profesional (Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, LVBP). 35 García is a member of the Venezuelan Baseball Hall of Fame, where his online biography captures his greatness with five words: “Ace pitcher and cleanup hitter.” 36 He was also enshrined in the Venezuelan Sports Hall of Fame by the Círculo de Periodistas Deportistas de Venezuela (Venezuelan Sport Journalists Circle) in 1992. 37

Recap and Life Beyond the Field

Bjarkman noted that García is “today remembered by old-timers as one of the true legends of Cuban professional baseball: accomplished as a hurler in three quality leagues (Cuba, Mexico, NNL), he was also as colorful a figure as island baseball has ever produced.”38

Reflecting on his own career in 1944, García deemed three memories as his most cherished: “the first, when I beat Vernon (Lefty) Gómez in 1935 in an exhibition game played at Bay Parkway. Three New York Yankees were in the lineup alongside Double-A players. I scattered five hits and pitched nine zeroes. How did I enjoy that game! I will never forget that. We won 7-0. I was scheduled to play the outfield in the second game of the doubleheader but I couldn’t … because I had to sign autographs the entire time … the second was the no-hitter against Marianao, though I’d previously pitched one in Regla against Luis Tiant that did not garner as much attention. And the third, last year (1943) when I was the champion pitcher despite some competition from excellent hurlers.”39 (The Lefty Gómez game occurred in 1933, not 1935.)

Writing in 1947, Venezuelan sportswriter Jess Losada noted, “‘Cocaína’ is ageless. Not a single wrinkle blemishes his face. His mouth is like an ivory keyboard, reminiscent of a man in his twenties. His smooth muscles lack definition … everything about him is the opposite of athleticism. His pitching style improves with age, like fine wine. He resembles a Buddha or Falstaff, in no way the shape baseball savants prefer in a pitcher. He is neither a paragon of nutrition nor does he practice moderation; he eats what we wants, smokes enormous cigars, lives life to the fullest, does not get tired. He never has, despite playing year-round in Cuba, the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico.”40

García married the former Josefina Torres in their native Cuba.41 Their firstborn, son Manuel Jr. (Manolito), was born in Havana in 1942. Starting in the winter of 1963-64, he spent eight seasons in the LVBP with the Tiburones (Sharks) of La Guaira and the Tigres.42 Another son, Fidel, was born in Havana in 1943. He appeared briefly in the LVBP for three seasons in the late 1960s and early 1970s and later served as an umpire.43 Carlos Julio García, Cocaína’s grandson, played with La Guaira from 1996 to 1998.44

The elder García died in Caraballeda, Venezuela (a town on the Caribbean coast north of Caracas), on April 13, 1995.

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb and fact-checked by James Forr.

Photo credit: Manuel “Cocaína” García, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

Beyond the sources listed in the Notes section the author relied on Baseball Reference, Pelota Binaria, and Seamheads.

Notes

1 Jabao is a common Cuban term for a mixed-race person, much like “Lefty” for left-handed pitchers.

2 Peter C. Bjarkman, A History of Cuban Baseball: 1864-2006 (Jefferson, North Carolina, McFarland: 2007), 149.

3 Miguel Dupouy Gómez, “Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García: Estrella Latina del Béisbol,” Béisbol Inmortal, March 23, 2020, https://beisbolinmortal.blogspot.com/2020/03/manuel-cocaina-garcia-estrella-latina.html.

4 These teams appear in the Seamheads database but are not considered major-league squads because they only played independent ball.

5 Milton H. Jamail, Full Count: Inside Cuban Baseball (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000), 20.

6 Dr. Leyton Revel and Luis Munoz, “Forgotten Heroes: Manuel ‘Cocaína García,” Center for Negro League Baseball Research, https://irp.cdn-website.com/33d0c3d0/files/uploaded/Manuel-Cocaina-Garcia.pdf

7 “Forgotten Heroes: Manuel ‘Cocaína García.”

8 Averell “Ace” Smith, The Pitcher and the Dictator (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2018), 41, 43, 117.

9 Bienvenido Rojas, “Cocaína, la droga de béisbol,” Diario Libre, December 7, 2018, https://www.diariolibre.com/deportes/blogs/brv/cocaina-la-droga-del-beisbol-OM11593481.

10 Dupouy Gómez, “Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García,” above.

11 Mark Rucker and Peter Bjarkman, Smoke; The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball (New York: Total Sports Illustrated 1999), 95, 96, 97. and Bjarkman, 120.

12 Bjarkman, 122.

13 Callum Hughson, “Profiling Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García,” Mop-Up Duty, September 6, 2007, https://mopupduty.com/cocaina-garcia/.

14 Bjarkman, 96-98.

15 Adolfo Navas, “Number 7-Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García (P, OF, 1B),” Mi Taller de Baseball, https://baseballtaller.wordpress.com/n-7-manuel-cocaina-garcia-p-of-1b/

16 Juan A. Martínez de Osaba Goenaga, Racismo y béisbol cubano, Editorial Nuevo Milenio, (La Habana, Cuba, May 2, 2019)

17 Rucker and Bjarkman, 121.

18 Hughson, “Profiling Manuel ‘Cocaina’ Garcia,” above.

19 Christy Mathewson (pseudonym), “La poderosa novena ‘Cuba’ será la que inaugure,” El Mundo de Puerto Rico, September 18, 1931: 7, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19310918-01.1.7

20 Francis Edwards, “Los detalles de los juegos de pelota del sábado,” El Mundo de Puerto Rico, February 16, 1933: 7-8, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19330216-01.1.7.

21 “En un formidable duelo de ‘pitchers’, Cocaína se impuso,” El Mundo de Puerto Rico, October 18, 1933: 11-12, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19331018-01.1.13.

22 “El Almendares en Puerto Rico,” El Crisol, March 10, 1936: 6, https://www.dloc.com/AA00067403/00221/pdf.

23 Ricardo Villamiil, “Cocaína decidió juego con cuadrangular,” El Mundo de Puerto Rico, February 17, 1941: 10, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19410217-01.1.10.

24 Andrés Jorge Montalvo, “Duró cuatro horas juego matinal en Ponce,’’ El Mundo de Puerto Rico, February 24, 1941: 9-10, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19410224-01.1.9.

25 “Leon Day triunfó sobre Cocaína con score 2-1,” El Mundo de Puerto Rico, March 3, 1941, 11, https://gpa.eastview.com/crl/elmundo/newspapers/mndo19410303-01.1.11.

26 Juan A. Martínez de Osaba y Goenaga, Félix Julio Alfonso López, and Yasel Enrique Porto Gómez, Enciclopedia Biográfica del Béisbol Cubano: Tomo III, Editorial José Martí (Havana, Cuba: 2019), 267-8.

27 Hughson, “Profiling Manuel ‘Cocaina” Garcia,” above.

28 Revel and Muñoz, “Forgotten Heroes,” above.

29 Miguel Ernesto Gómez Masjuan, “Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García, la droga del béisbol cubano,” Habana Radio, March 14, 2014, http://www.habanaradio.cu/articulos/manuel-cocaina-garcia-la-droga-del-beisbol-cubano/

30 Martínez de Osaba y Goenaga, Alfonso López, and Porto Gómez, 268.

31 Dupouy Gómez, “Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García,” above.

32 Martínez de Osaba y Goenaga, Alfonso López, and Porto Gómez, 269.

33 “Huella cubana en Venezuela,” ESPN Deportes, May 19, 2007, accessed via archived copy https://web.archive.org/web/20200203135958/https://espndeportes.espn.com/news/story?id=559918&s=bei&type=

columna.

34 Revel and Muñoz, “Forgotten Heroes,” above.

35 “Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García,” Salón de la Fama Museo Béisbol Valencia, Venezuela, https://www.museodebeisbol.com/salon_fama_venezolano/detalles/2007/manuel-cocaina-garcia

36 “Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García,” Salón de la Fama Museo Béisbol Valencia, Venezuela, https://www.museodebeisbol.com/salon_fama_venezolano/detalles/2007/manuel-cocaina-garcia

37 https://cpdven.wordpress.com/salondelafama/.

38 Bjarkman, 149.

39 Dupouy Gómez, “Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García,” above.

40 Same as above.

41 César Temes, “Cocaína García, después de 20 años de actuación, continúa siendo un as,” Hoy, January 1, 1947: 9, https://www.dloc.com/AA00022089/02991/images.

42 Martínez de Osaba y Goenaga, Alfonso López, and Porto Gómez, 269.

43 Daniel Gutiérrez; Efraim Alvarez & Daniel Gutiérrez, La Enciclopedia del Béisbol Venezolano, Caracas, Venezuela: Fondo Editorial Cárdenas Lares (1997).

44 Dupouy Gómez, “Manuel ‘Cocaína’ García,” above.