Seamheads.com updates Negro Leagues Database with 1920-21 Cuban Winter League stats
We’re pleased to pass along this update from SABR member Gary Ashwill at Seamheads.com on August 11, 2014:
The latest addition to the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database covers the 1920/21 winter league season in Cuba. Heading the bill that off-season was none other than the biggest name in baseball at the time, one George Herman Ruth, fronting the New York Giants.
The Babe was a little late, showing up only for the last half of the Giants’ schedule against Habana and Almendares (see his passport application here). Most famously, this series saw Ruth get upstaged by Cuban slugger Cristóbal Torriente, who smashed three home runs in one game (albeit these were off George Kelly, not normally a pitcher) while Ruth went hitless. Torriente also added a double off Ruth himself, driving in six runs as Almendares beat the Giants 11 to 4. It wasn’t until Ruth’s seventh game that he finally provided the Cuban fans with a home run. The Babe ended up hitting well for the series anyway (.345/.525/.828), and the Giants won 9, lost 4, and tied 4, despite only outscoring their opponents 69 to 62.
The Giants left Havana in mid-November, and their place was taken by the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants of the Negro leagues. The team’s trip was organized by its secretary, Edward B. Lamar, for many years a well-known promoter in black baseball circles and founder of the Cuban X-Giants. Lamar was actually the instigator of the first trips to Cuba by black American teams in the 20th century, sending his X-Giants to Havana severaltimes in the 1900s. For this trip the Bacharachs brought the core of their regular team, captain and ace pitcher Dick Redding, shortstop Dick Lundy, pitcher Red Ryan, and catcher Julio Rojo, and added superstar Oscar Charleston and infielder Morten“Specs” Clark from the Indianapolis ABCs, slugger Charlie Blackwell and infielder Joe Hewitt from the St. Louis Giants, and a trio of stars from the Hilldale Club, catcher Louis Santop, spitballer Phil Cockrell, and fancy-fielding first baseman Toussaint Allen. Oliver Marcell, the Bacharachs’ star third baseman, also applied for a passport, but for some reason did not make the trip.
To read the full update, click here: http://seamheads.com/2014/08/10/negro-leagues-db-update-192021-cuban-league/
To view the award-winning Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, visit http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php
Related links:
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updates with 1935 Negro National League stats (July 18, 2014)
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updates with 1923-24 Cuban League stats (May 12, 2014)
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updated with 1922-23 stats (July 24, 2013)
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updated with 1933 stats (April 9, 2013)
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database updated with 1899-1900 stats (February 4, 2013)
- Little-known players from the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database (February 2, 2012)
- Read our Q&A with Gary Ashwill about the Negro Leagues Database (September 14, 2011)
Originally published: August 12, 2014. Last Updated: July 16, 2020.