Cuban Stars

Cuban Stars may refer to:

See also

Cuban Stars (West)

The Cuban Stars were a team of Cuban professional baseball players that competed in the United States Negro leagues from 1907 to 1932. The team was also sometimes known as the Cuban Stars of Havana, Stars of Cuba, Cuban All-Stars, Havana Reds, Almendares Blues or simply as the Cubans. For one season, 1921, the team played home games in Cincinnati, Ohio and was known as the Cincinnati Cubans.

Eastern founding

The Cuban Stars were organized by Abel Linares and Tinti Molina as a traveling team that played only road games. For its first five years, the team competed primarily in the eastern states, near New York City and Philadelphia, although it made a famous sojourn into Chicago in 1910 and 1911, taking on the Leland Giants and numerous semi-pro teams in the Chicago area.

Move westward

By 1916, however, the team was competing primarily in the midwestern states and a competing Cuban team was organized in the New York area, which was also named the "Cuban Stars." To differentiate between the two teams, this team is known as the "Cuban Stars (West)," and the new team (organized by Alex Pompez) is known as the Cuban Stars (East). In 1919, they were the western champions, having the highest winning percentage of any Negro league team playing in the west.

Cuban Stars (East)

The Cuban Stars (East) were a team of professional baseball players from Cuba and other Latin American countries who competed in the Negro leagues in the eastern United States from 1916 to 1933. They generally were a traveling team that played only road games.

Founding

From 1916 to 1929, the Cuban Stars (East) were owned by Alex Pompez. 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; because of their ties to the region they were also referred to as the New York Cuban Stars early on.

League play and demise

From 1923 to 1928, they competed in the Eastern Colored League and in 1929 they played in the American Negro League. After the collapse of the American Negro League in 1929, Nat Strong re-constituted the Cuban Stars and they competed as an independent team until 1933.