The Top 10 of Discord - Traveling In Cuba | Can American Travel To Cuba

A journey of more than 100 years. Hundreds of feats and records. Thousands of baseball players… The richness and history of Cuban baseball and its protagonists goes beyond our imagination, transcending borders, time, race, and ideologies.

That’s why it is so complicated to sit before a blank sheet of paper and make a list of 10 names, 10 of the island’s heroes of the diamond, 10 representative figures of the sport of balls and strikes, which has frequently been the victim of fractionalization.

Yes, when talking about Cuban baseball and the selection of its best players, many only refer to the participants only in the National Series, while others are exclusively in favor of professional players, as if wanting to deny in each case what has been achieved on the other shore.

This unfortunate situation has persisted for decades, and is so rooted that in the discussion about the best all-time Cuban pitchers that a fan of Braudilio Vinent or of Rogelio García may not even mention Camilo Pascual or Luis Tiant, and vice versa.

How then to choose the 10 best players in history without unleashing a controversy?

How to reject in a selection Tony Oliva’s three batting titles with the Minnesota Twins, the precursor figure of Esteban Bellán, the 600 stolen bases and the three home runs in a row of Bert Campaneris, the 2,000 strike-outs and the electric curve of Changa Mederos, or the “immortality” of José de la Caridad Méndez and Cristóbal Torriente?

How to explain the absence of Enrique Díaz and his long list of records, or of Willy Miranda, Conrado Marrero, Félix Isasi, Wilfredo Sánchez? How to explain that Luis Giraldo Casanova, Antonio Muñoz, Víctor Mesa, Pedro Luis Lazo, José Ariel Contreras (and so on) are not on the list?

It’s impossible. There isn’t a formula that brings us to a perfect selection, basically because the lists are too personal, almost always worlds apart given tastes, affiliations, passions…

Those are precisely the details influencing this list, whose principal feature is that it doesn’t recognize dividing lines, or distinctions between those who left and those who stayed, between pitchers and batters, between amateurs and professionals, between whites and blacks. But let me warn you, just like any selection, it is marked by my personal view. Don’t hate me.

Note: For this list we did not take into account current players or players who have been linked
to steroid use.

1. Martín Magdaleno Dihigo LlanosSHOW +

Martín Magdaleno Dihigo Llanos

(Martín Dihigo “The Immortal”)

May 25, 1905 (Cidra, Matanzas) – May 20, 1971 (Cruces, Cienfuegos)

James “Cool Papa” Bell, a front-line witness to the Cuban’s greatness, used to say that Dihigo was the most complete player he had seen, a superstar in whatever position he played. We’ll never know what he would have achieved in Major League Baseball (MLB) since he couldn’t play with them given the color of his skin. However, because of his development in the Negro Leagues and his career in the Caribbean, some compared him to Babe Ruth. Others, like Buck Leonard, affirm he was “the best all-time player, white or black.”

* He won more than 100 games in the professional leagues in Cuba and Mexico, and was three-time homerun champion in the Negro Leagues.
* During the 1935-36 Cuban season he headed the Leopardos de Santa Clara, which won the championship. He also won the titles in batting (358) and pitching (11-2).
* He gave the first no-hitter in the history of the Mexican professional league on September 16, 1937.
* He was the leader in both batters (387) and pitchers (18-2 and ERA 0.90) in the 1938 Mexican season with the Aguilas de Veracruz

2. Adolfo Domingo de Guzmán Luque(Adolfo Luque)SHOW +

Adolfo Domingo de Guzmán Luque(Adolfo Luque)

August 4, 1890 (Havana) – July 3, 1957 (Havana)

Adolfo Luque combined his energy with a higher intelligence, which allowed him to become the first Latino pitcher to win two ERA titles (1923 and 1925) in MLB, a league in which he scored 194 wins, the second largest amount for a pitcher from the island.
He was also the first Cuban and Latin American to play and triumph in a World Series during the 1919 version, remembered for the victory of the Cincinnati Reds and the scandal of the Black Sox. Later, in 1933, he repeated his crown with the New York Giants.

* He won 27 games with the Cincinnati Reds in 1923, a record in the most victories for a Cuban pitcher in MLB.
* He pitched at least 200 innings during nine consecutive seasons, and in 14 straight seasons he surpassed a hundred pitched innings.
* In 1933, when he was 43, he became the oldest Latino pitcher to participate in a World Series. The record of the oldest player in the Major Leagues had been set by Jack Quinn (47), in 1930.
* He combined his brilliant career on the mounds with successes as a manager, since he led the Almendares and Cienfuegos teams to championship on numerous occasions

3. Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso (Minnie Miñoso)SHOW +

Saturnino Orestes Armas Miñoso (Minnie Miñoso)

September 29, 1925 (Havana) – March 1, 2015 (Chicago, Illinois)

Miñoso died waiting for an induction to Cooperstown that never came, although he always knew about his fans’ unconditional support, among them Barack Obama: “Minnie may have been passed over by the Baseball Hall of Fame during his lifetime, but for me and for generations of black and Latino young people, Minnie’s quintessentially American story embodies far more than a plaque ever could.”

* He was the first black Latino to make a debut in MLB, and the ninth black player to cross the already-broken color divide. Moreover, he was the first black player in the Chicago White Sox.
* He participated in nine All-Star Games and won three Golden Gloves.
* He registered a 298 average in 17 seasons, with 1,963 hits, 336 doubles, 83 triples, 186 homeruns, 1,023 RBI and 1,136 scored runs.
* After hanging up his spikes in 1964, he reappeared in 1976 and 1980 to take turns as designated hitter, allowing him to play in five different decades (’40s, ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s), a feat only achieved by Nick Altrock

4. Atanasio Pérez Rigal (Tany Pérez)SHOW +

Atanasio Pérez Rigal (Tany Pérez)

May 14, 1942 (Camagüey) – aged 76

The Reds were one of MLB’s most notable dominators in the 1970s, with four disputed World Series and two consecutive wins in 1975 and 1976. During that time Tany was a mainstay with his bat, an unquestionable idol.
So it’s not strange that at Crosley Terrace of the Great American Ball Park, the Reds’ home field, there is an enormous bronze statue of Tany, whose number 24 was also retired by the club.

* He is one of the four Cubans in Cooperstown, but the only one that has been inducted (in 2000) for his merits in MLB. He has also been in the Caribbean Hall of Fame since 1998, when the Cincinnati Reds also included him in their Hall of Fame.
* He batted in 90 or more runs for 11 consecutive seasons and in seven he batted in more than 100, including the 129 of 1970. This won him a total of 1,652, the second highest amount for a Cuban, only surpassed by Rafael Palmeiro (1,835).
* He participated in seven All-Star Games, and was the MVP in the 1967 edition, when he decided the game with a homerun in extra innings.
* His 379 homeruns are the third best record for a Cuban, only surpassed by Rafael Palmeiro (569) and José Canseco (462), both linked to doping scandals and steroid use.

5. Luis Clemente Tiant Vega (El Tiante)SHOW +

Luis Clemente Tiant Vega (El Tiante)

November 23, 1940 (Marianao, Havana) – aged 78

From 1972, when he won the Comeback of the Year award in the American League, until 1979, he was one of the predominant MLB pitchers, since he achieved 134 wins (with 82 defeats), 27 shutouts, 117 full games, 1,120 strikeouts and a 3.36 ERA. However, from 1980 to 1982 he stretched his trajectory too far, sullying his record (12 victories, 16 defeats and a 4.76 ERA, with no shutouts in those three years). This was a setback for his entry in the ballots for the selection to Cooperstown and limited his chances to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

* He is the Cuban with the most MLB victories (229) and the Latin American with the fourth-most wins, surpassed by Bartolo Colón (247), Denis Martínez (245) and Juan Marichal (243).
* He was a two-time leader in ERA, in 1968 (1.60) and in 1972 (1.91). In addition, he was the leader in shutouts on three occasions, and ended his career with 49, ranked 24 in MLB.
* He had a standout season in 1968 (21 victories, nine shutouts, 264 strikeouts). However, that year he was overshadowed by the 1.12 ERA of Bob Gibson and Denny McLain’s 31 victories.
* In 1975, he came close to lifting “The Curse of the Bambino” in Boston, winning two games in the World Series, but the Cincinnati Reds later imposed themselves in seven games

6. Tony Pedro Oliva (Tony Oliva)SHOW +

Tony Pedro Oliva (Tony Oliva)

July 20, 1938 (Pinar del Río) – age 80

He arrived in the United States in the early 1960s. Baseball scout Joe Cambria had found a diamond in the rough. He didn’t know English, but he soon started communicating through his bat. In the Minors, wearing the Wytheville Twins uniform, he had an average of 410, with 10 homeruns and 81 RBI in the first 64 games he played.
In his first eight seasons Oliva consistently participated in the All-Star Games, won a Golden Glove (1966), was a five-time hit leader and four-time doubles leader, and he was runner-up for MVP in 1965 and 1970.

* During his rookie season he led the American League in hits (217), scored runs (109), doubles (43) and batting average (323). He batted 32 homeruns, had 94 RBI and was the Rookie of the Year.
* He reached 1,000 hits in less than six full seasons. He connected a total of 1,917 singles, and in 11 of his 15 seasons he surpassed 100 uncatchable balls.
* He was the first all-time batter to win two batting titles (1964: 323-1965: 321) during his two initial seasons with MLB. In 1971 he added a third offensive title (337).
* The Twins retired his number 6 and he was voted to the Hall of Fame of Latino Baseball in 2012.

7. Miguel Ángel Cuéllar (Mike Cuéllar)SHOW +

Miguel Ángel Cuéllar (Mike Cuéllar)

May 8, 1937 (Las Villas) – April 2, 2010 (Orlando, Florida)

In 1971, Cleveland manager Alvin Dark said that Cuéllar’s fastball could be caught with a bare hand and he added that Cuéllar didn’t hide his pitches from anyone at a distance of one meter, therefore he saw no reason why they couldn’t win.
In reality, the mystery was in his screwball, which put him at the top and allowed him to participate in four All-Star Games, lead the American League in victories (24) in 1970 and be among the Top 10 candidates for MVP in the 1969 and 1974 seasons.

* He will be remembered as the first Latin American winner of the Cy Young, in 1969 with the Baltimore Orioles, a team that included him in its Hall of Fame in 1982.
* He played with the former Cuban Sugar Kings and is the all-time leader in ERA with 2.86 and 10 shutouts.
* He won more than 20 games in four seasons, three of them consecutive. Together with Jim Palmer, Dave McNally and Pat Dobson he was part of the rotation of the Orioles that was able to achieve 81 victories (each one with more than 20) in 1971.
* He has the lowest ERA (3.14) among all the great Cuban pitchers who made a career in MLB for over a decade

8. Antonio Pacheco Massó (Captain of Captains)SHOW +

Antonio Pacheco Massó (Captain of Captains)

June 4, 1964 (Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba) – age 54

“He is one of the three most complete players in the history of Cuban baseball. He has always been a respected baseball player, not just because of his quality as a player, but also because of his human quality off the field. Pacheco is a great human being,” Danilo Valiente, coach in Cuban tournaments for almost two decades and current coach of the Yankees, said about him.

* Together with Pedro Chávez, Jorge Trigoura and Alfonso Urquiola, he is one of the men who won more than one title as a player (four) and as manager (three).
* For many years he was Cuban baseball’s leader in hits (2,356 in 1,853 games) until Enrique Díaz (2,378) surpassed him.
* He is one of the three Cuban players who achieved more than 1,300 RBI, and one of the six (Orestes Kindelán, Omar Linares, Antonio Muñoz, Lázaro Junco and Frederich Cepeda) with more than 700 extra bases.
* His multiple international laurels include two Olympic titles, several world titles and five Pan American trophies, the most for a Cuban player. In addition, he is the only one who has won Olympic medals both as player and as manager

9. Omar Linares Izquierdo (“El Niño” Linares)SHOW +

Omar Linares Izquierdo (“El Niño” Linares)

October 23, 1967 (San Juan y Martínez, Pinar del Río) – age 51

When he still hadn’t turned 20, he became the first baseball player of the National Series to attain the batting title with an average of more than 400 (409). That was just an advance, afterwards he literally unstitched the ball in domestic competitions and international events in which he won all possible titles.
“No third baseman stands out as I do in the Major Leagues, but I don’t consider myself the world’s best. The best is Omar Linares, who bats, fields, and runs more than I do. If you doubt it, I suggest you travel to Cuba to confirm it,” Robin Ventura, the MLB star third baseman who had faced Linares in amateur tournaments, once said.

* He is the only Cuban player with more than 400 homeruns, 200 stolen bases, 300 doubles, 1,500 scored runs and 1,200 RBI.
* He reached base on 3,628 opportunities with hits (2,195), walks (1,327) and hit by pitch (106), almost half of the 7,454 of his appearances, for an unreal OBP of 487.
* He averaged over 400 seven times (1984-1985, 85-86, 87-88, 89-90, 1990, 92-93 and 95-96) and was the batting leader on six occasions. He finished his career with the highest all-time average (368).
* He is one of the three players – together with Leonel Moas and Alberto Díaz – who have batted four homeruns in a game

10. Orestes Kindelán Olivares (“El Tambor Mayor”)SHOW +

Orestes Kindelán Olivares (“El Tambor Mayor”)

November 1, 1964 (Palma Soriano, Santiago de Cuba) – age 54

“El Tambor Mayor” or “El León de la Montaña,” as he was also known, is the Babe Ruth, or the Hank Aaron or the Barry Bonds… of Cuban baseball. A born homerun hitter who, thanks to his strong wrists, set the ball flying all over the field, and frequently did so in extreme situations, to extinguish any rivals’ thought of victory.
Several offensive trios have been benchmarks in Cuban baseball, but it’s difficult for any to approach the exceptional level of Kindelán, together with Omar Linares and Antonio Pacheco.

* Leading homerun hitter of the National Series (487) and the only Cuban player who surpassed the barrier of 1,500 RBI.
* Out of his 2,030 hits, 42% (853) were extra bases. He is the only Cuban player who has batted more than 800 extra bases (330 doubles, 36 triples and 487 homeruns).
* He is the last player to have won the Triple Crown in the National Series, in 1989, with an offensive average of 402, 24 homeruns and 58 RBI.
* He batted more than 100 homeruns in international events and had more than 330 RBI, numbers that demonstrate how his power had an impact beyond Cuba.

BONUS HIT. Orlando Hernández Pedroso (“El Duque”)SHOW +

Orlando Hernández Pedroso (“El Duque”)

October 11, 1965 (Villa Clara) – age 53

El Duque was one of Cuba’s best pitchers in the 1980s and 1990s. He would win very easily, he was a figure on the national team, with which he won a title in the Barcelona Olympic Games. His charisma, his strange windup when lifting his left knee to his cap, his numerous outing angles, turned him into an idol, a role model.
That’s why when he demonstrated his worth in the United States, when he became the king of the Big Apple, the MLB following in Cuba grew exponentially. On the island there were always fans of the fantastic stories that came in snippets from the United States, but such a big explosion had never been seen when El Duque got on the mound of Yankee Stadium and gave several pitching lessons.

* He is the unquestionable leader in average of won and lost games (728) in the National Series, with 126 wins and 47 defeats. In the Cuban championships he registered an ERA of 3.05 with 1,211 strikeouts in the aluminum era.
* He is the Cuban with the most World Series titles. He had three consecutive wins with the Yankees (1998-2000) and one with the Chicago White Sox (2005).
* He disputed 18 postseason series and only lost three between 1998 and 2005, always with a lead role. He was MVP of the 1999 Championship Series between the Yankees and Boston.
* He was the first Cuban champion player in the National Series (twice with the Industriales) and MLB. Later he was seconded by José Ariel Contreras and Kendrys Morales.