Cuban born Brooklyn Dodgers/Dodgers in Cuba

[chiefpaddy]

With all the talk about the Cuban baseball team, I was wondering how many Cuban born players were on the Brooklyn Dodgers?The ones that come to mind are Sandy Amoros, Rene Valdez and Chico Fernandez. Do any others come to mind?

[VIBaseball]

There's just one more that I can see, chiefpaddy -- Adolfo "Dolf" Luque (1930-31). I ran down the list on baseball-reference.com and didn't see any others, though I can't say I checked each and every name.

The Senators were the team with the Cuban pipeline.

[chiefpaddy]

There's just one more that I can see, chiefpaddy -- Adolfo "Dolf" Luque (1930-31). I ran down the list on baseball-reference.com and didn't see any others, though I can't say I checked each and every name.

The Senators were the team with the Cuban pipeline.

Thanks VI, Iwas sure the Dodgers must have had more. THey had spring training in Cuba, I guess thats why I thought they had more of a cuban flavor then they did. You sure are right about the Washington Senators, they could have been called the Washington Senors.

[VIBaseball]

How about Puerto Rican Dodgers? The one who comes immediately to mind is Luis Olmo. Overall, though, the team did not have that great a Latino presence (I won't get into the whole Clemente story again).

[VIBaseball]

I just ran across something I never knew. In 1947, the Dodgers formed a working agreement with the Havana Cubans, then a Class C team in the Florida International League.
It didn't go well, though -- the first time they tried to exercise an option (for $20,000) to bring three guys to Montreal, the Cubans didn't want to leave home!
Havana wound up having to refiund the $20K.

[KCGHOST]

Sandy Amoros
Dolf Luque
Chico Fernandez
Rene Valdez

The only Puerto Rican player was Luis Olmo.

[metrotheme]

They had a very good Cuban first baseman at AAA in the 1950's named Oscar Sierra. Look him up, he was Rookie of the Year in the Cuban league either in the late 40's or early 50's. Stuck behind Gil Hodges though at first.

[crzblue]

Thanks VI, Iwas sure the Dodgers must have had more. THey had spring training in Cuba, I guess thats why I thought they had more of a cuban flavor then they did. You sure are right about the Washington Senators, they could have been called the Washington Senors.

That would have been "The Washington Señores "

Emma

http://crzblue.mlblogs.com/

http://DodgersBlueBlog.com/

[tonypug]

They had a very good Cuban first baseman at AAA in the 1950's named Oscar Sierra. Look him up, he was Rookie of the Year in the Cuban league either in the late 40's or early 50's. Stuck behind Gil Hodges though at first.

Oscar Sierra..jpgI never knew about Oscar Sierra.

[VIBaseball]

Sierra was pretty far down the chain while he was in the Dodgers system: mostly Class B, part of one season in A ball.
He played three seasons at Triple A for the Havana Sugar Kings (1955-57), a Reds affiliate, He split time at first base with Nino Escalera, among others.
He also did some catching. It looks like the closest he came to the majors was with the Reds in spring training 1956, as a backstop.

In the past, he also played some outfield. Don Zimmer described him in his memoirs as "a big Cuban left fielder who couldn't run a lick but hit nothing but line drives."
They played together at Hormell, NY (Class D) in 1950. Sierra won the Silver Bat as the top hitter in the minors that year -- he hit .422 in 358 at-bats!

Oscar was in fact Cuban Rookie of the Year in the winter of 1951-52 with Cienfuegos.

[metrotheme]

Does Zimmer talk much about Cuba in his book? You are referring to "Zim", right?

[VIBaseball]

I just happened to find that snippet as I looked for info on Sierra in Google Books. I didn't look further for info on Zimmer (yes, the same lovable Gerbil) in Cuba.
I'm not sure how much Don played there. I know he was on the great Santurce team in the Puerto Rican League in 1954-55.

[VIBaseball]

Let's open up a limited thread. Various Brooklyn Dodgers played in the Cuban winter league: Al Gionfriddo and Chuck Connors come to mind off the top of my head. Who else?

Also, the Dodgers trained in Havana at times. I believe 1947 was one year, and there was another too if I recall.

[metrotheme]

Ones that played in the majors for Brookyln ...

Don Thompson
Tommy Lasorda
Ben Wade
Carl Erskine
Sandy Amoros
Morrie Martin
Dick Williams
Gino Cimoli
Spider Jorgensen
Ken Lehman
Ed Roebuck
Glenn Mickens
Rene Valdez
Bob Milliken
Charlie Kress


Billy Herman and Bobby Bragan were managers down there.


If you expand this to those who were in their farm system at one time, the list will open up alot.