Baldomero Pedro "Merito" Acosta Fernández (May 19, 1896 – November 17, 1963) was a Cuban

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to catch ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

who played five seasons for the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, they became the Oakland ...

and Washington Senators. Acosta played winter baseball in the

Cuban League The Cuban League ( Spanish: ''Liga cubana'') was one of the earliest and longest lasting professional baseball leagues outside the United States, operating in Cuba from 1878 to 1961. The schedule usually operated during the winter months, so the ...

from 1913 to 1925 and was also a long-time manager and part-owner of the

Havana Cubans The Havana Sugar Kings () were a Cuban-based minor league baseball team that played from 1946 to 1960. From 1954 until 1960, they belonged in the Class AAA International League, affiliated with Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds. Their hom ...

. In the 1918/19 season, Acosta made an unassisted

triple play In baseball or softball, a triple play (denoted as TP in baseball statistics) is the act of making three out (baseball), outs during the same play. There have only been 739 triple plays in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1876, an average of ju ...

while playing center field. With the bases loaded, he sprinted in to catch the ball, then continued to touch second base before the runner could return and tagged the runner from first base. In his first season as a manager, 1922/23, he led a brand new franchise,

Marianao Marianao is one of the 15 municipalities or boroughs (''municipios'' in Spanish) in the city of Havana, Cuba. It lies 6 miles southwest of the original city of Havana, with which it is connected by the Marianao railway. In 2022 the municipality had ...

, to a championship. Acosta was elected to the

Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame The Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame (''Salón de la Fama del Béisbol Cubano'') is a hall of fame that honors eminent baseball players from Cuban baseball. Established in 1939 to honor players, managers, and umpires in the pre-revolution Cuban League ...

in 1955.Figueredo 2003, pp. 143, 509.

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1896 births 1963 deaths Atlanta Crackers players Baltimore Orioles (International League) players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Habana players Major League Baseball outfielders Major League Baseball players from Cuba 20th-century Cuban sportsmen Cuban expatriate baseball players in the United States Marianao players Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players Minor league baseball managers Philadelphia Athletics players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players People from Bauta, Cuba Baseball players from Artemisa Province Dayton Aviators players {{Cuba-baseball-outfielder-stub