The Cuban Stars were a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Moder ...

team that competed in the

Negro leagues The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relativel ...

in the eastern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

from 1916 to 1933. The team was largely composed of professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

players from

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

and other

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

n countries. They generally were a

traveling team In professional team sports, a traveling team (also called a road team) is a member of a professional league that never competes in a home arena or stadium. This differs from a barnstorming team as a barnstorming team competes in exhibition games ...

that played only road games. From 1916 to 1929, the Cuban Stars were owned by

Alex Pompez Alejandro "Alex" Pompez (May 3, 1890 – March 14, 1974) was an American executive in Negro league baseball who owned the Cuban Stars (East) and New York Cubans franchises from 1916 to 1950. His family had emigrated from Cuba, where his father ...

. Historians generally refer to the team as the Cuban Stars (East) or the New York Cuban Stars, to differentiate them from another Negro league team also named the Cuban Stars (the Cuban Stars (West)) that existed in the Midwest around the same time.

History

Because they carried the same name as another, contemporaneous Cuban baseball team that after 1916 primarily played in the midwestern United States, the two teams are generally distinguished as the Cuban Stars (East) and the Cuban Stars (West). From 1916 to 1922 they were an independent team that played in the New York and northeast region of the United States. From 1923 to 1928, they competed in the

Eastern Colored League The Mutual Association of Eastern Colored Clubs, more commonly known as the Eastern Colored League (ECL), was one of the several Negro leagues, which operated during the time organized baseball was segregated. League history Founding The ECL ...

and in 1929 they played in the

American Negro League The American Negro League (ANL) was one of several Negro league baseball, Negro leagues established during the period in the United States in which organized baseball was segregated. The ANL operated on the East Coast of the United States in 1929. ...

. After the collapse of the

in 1929, Nat Strong re-constituted the Cuban Stars and they competed as an independent team until 1933. In 1935, Pompez reconstituted a Cuban team in the second Negro National League that became known as the

New York Cubans The New York Cubans were a Negro league baseball team that played during the 1930s and from 1939 to 1950. Despite playing in the Negro leagues, the team occasionally employed white-skinned Hispanic baseball players as well, because Hispanics pl ...

Notable players

* Francisco Coimbre – P, RF * Martín Dihigo – 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, P, 1922–27, 1930 * Emilio Navarro – 3B, SS, 1928–29 * Alejandro Oms – OF (primarily CF), 1917, 1922–28, 1930–32 Riley, pp. 587–588. Holway pp. 169, 180, 191, 203, 214, 227, 240, 266, 278.

Notes

References

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External links

1920 Cuban Stars (East) Calendar
{{Cuban League teams Afro-Caribbean culture in the United States Afro-Cuban culture Afro-Latino culture in the United States Cuban-American culture in New York (state) Negro league baseball teams Defunct baseball teams in New York City Baseball teams disestablished in 1929 Baseball teams established in 1916 Traveling teams