Andrés Tanaka of Palaú

 I was paging through The Mexican League encyclopedia by Pedro Treto Cisneros when I chanced upon the exquisite name of Andrés Tanaka, outfielder for three seasons between 1949 and 1958.

Researching further, I found that Tanaka had played in many different Mexican summer and winter leagues over his 20-year career. As a coach and manager, he led the Saraparos de Saltillo to three straight Mexican League finals, losing all three times, before he died in a tragic car crash in 1974, at 49. 

Andres Tanaka in the Mexican League, May 4, 1952. Currently for sale for $135 shipped on eBay. 

The lack of a good Mexican newspaper archive means that it's hard to find anything more than second-hand scraps about old-time Mexican baseball players. I did the best I could and gathered together everything about Tanaka I could find. 

Andrés Tanaka Arredondo was born on February 9, 1925, in Palaú, a town in the municipality of Múzquiz in the state of Coahuila. According to Wikipedia, Palaú "is located on the eastern boundary of the Chihuahuan desert." "Temperatures in the summertime can easily reach 45 degrees Celsius [113 Fahrenheit] and the winters are mild but wet. The main industry is coal mining."

Tanaka was the third of four children born to Kakutaro Tanaka (also known as Arnulfo Tanaka; born in Japan in 1886) and Rebeca Arredondo Gonzalez (born 1892).

There is a short biography of Tanaka on an archived site devoted to the history of his hometown Palaú, which I will cite with a parenthetical (Palaú).  (https://web.archive.org/web/20160406183947/http://palau.mx.tripod.com/fpalau.htm#C)%C2%A0Deportes). According to it, Andrés father, Arnulfo Tanaka, was a baseball player and Andrés inherited his love of baseball from him. In translation, the article says that Andrés "didn't have a very powerful arm, but no one could match him as a left fielder." 

Tanaka began playing for the Palaú team in 1945 and was "one of the most illustrious baseball players in the Coahuila Northern League," according to a syndicated article about his death.

The Palaú team at that time was called Carbonífera Unida Palaú and the team won the Northern Coahuila League (Liga del Norte de Coahuila) championship in 1947-48. (Palaú)

On August 21, 1948, Tanaka married Irenea (Irma) Lopez, born 1932, in Palaú. They would have ten children together: Andrés, Rosa María, María del Socorro, Mario Alberto, Juan Ramón, Irma Deyanira, María Alejandra, Abel, Ariel Kakútaro and Adán. (Palaú)

Tanaka first played professionally in 1948-49 with the Ébano team of the Gulf League (Liga del Golfo), (Palaú) and the next summer he broke into the Mexican League as a backup outfielder for the San Luis Potosi Tuneros. As of June 24, 1949 he was 10 for 28, good for a .357 average, but he went 13 for 68 (.191) for the rest of the year to finish with a .240 batting average, 0 homers, 13 walks, 11 RBIs, and 14 runs scored in 96 at-bats in 56 games.

Jalisco El Informador, 1949-6-24

Tanaka played for a team in Nueva Rosita in the summers of 1950 and 1951. (Palaú)

Tanaka next returned to the Mexican League in 1952 with Nuevo Laredo. He batted .167 (8 for 48) with 3 doubles in 23 games. 

Here's part of a 1952 box score with him: 

Jalisco El Informador, 1952-5-18

Tanaka appears twice in Texan immigration records in 1952. On March 6, 1952, he came to Laredo, Texas. On his immigration manifest (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9GG-HSJT?) his occupation was listed as "Baseball player" and his height was listed as 5'6". 

On August 6, 1952, he was issued both a passport and a border crossing card. His border crossing card listed his height as 5'8" and his weight as 140 lb. His present address was listed as Calle P. de las Cassas 197 Nte. Piedras Negras. His "purpose in coming to United States" was listed as "local crossings to Eagle Pass, Texas. (Piedras Negras stands on the border of Mexico and Texas, just across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass.) His "visible distinctive marks or peculiarities" were "some small-pox scars."

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C9BY-SW5N?

In 1952-53 Tanaka played with Ciudad Mante in the Veracruz Winter League. 

The Sporting News, 1952-11-12, p.20

Note long-time Cleveland Indians second baseman Bobby Avila playing for Cordoba. 

In a game in late November, Tanaka made the winning hit for Ciudad Mante in the tenth inning of a 4-3 game against the Mexico City Aztecas off of long-time Washington Senators pitcher Alex Carrasquel, who was 40 at the time. 

TSN 1952-12-10, p.24

Tanaka played for Durango in the summers of 1953 and 1954. (Palaú)

In 1954-55 Tanaka played with Cordoba in "la Liga Invernal Veracruzana," also known as the Veracruz Winter League. (It's not clear in this game account whether he played for Aztecas or Cordoba, but I found another Cordoba game in which he was mentioned.)

On April 4, 1955, the Corpus Christi Times reported that Tanaka was on the roster of the Galveston Whitecaps of the Big State League. The Sporting News said he played for Galveston in 1955 in their obituary of him but I can find no other contemporary source to confirm that. The Corpus Christi article said that Tanaka hit .363 in the 1954-55 winter league, finishing second only to Bobby Avila. Bobby Avila had won the American League batting title in 1954 with a mark of .341, and after the 1954 season became part-owner of the Mexico City Reds of the Veracruz Winter League. (https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Bobby-Avila/)

Durango joined the newly formed class C Central Mexican League in 1955, playing as the Alacranes de Durango, and Tanaka went with them. There he was a teammate of Hall of Fame first baseman Buck Leonard with the Alacranes, who was 47 at the time.

In 1955-56 Tanaka began his Veracruz Winter League season with Cordoba, where he was a teammate of Hall of Fame first baseman Harmon Killebrew, 19 years old at the time. 

He really was acquainted with both age extremes of Hall of Fame first basemen in the space of a few months. 

El Informador 1955-10-22

Killebrew was called 'Harmond Killobrex' and 'Killobrew' in this article, but The Sporting News of 1955-11-30, p.17, confirms that it was good ol' Killebrew. (I did not expect to find Harmon Killebrew when I began writing this post.)

On December 14, 1955, The Sporting News reported that Cordoba had released Tanaka, but he soon signed with Puebla. 

El Informador, 1956-1-7

The Gene Collins mentioned in the article was 5-5 for the Kansas City Monarchs in 1947 and 1948. In 1948 he led the Negro American League in hits/9 (5.3), homers/9 (0.0), and strikeouts/9 (10.0), but also walked 60 batters in 56 innings. He was 7-2 with a 3.27 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 77 innings for the Waterloo White Hawks of the class B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League in 1951, but walked 93. He mostly played the outfield after that. Playing in the Mexican League from 1955 to 1961, he hit .297 with 82 homers and 365 RBIs in 710 games. On the mound he had a 14-15 record with a 4.29 ERA and 218 walks in 241 innings. Collins was hitting .336 (45 for 134) with 19 runs and 19 RBIs for Jalapa close to the time of this game, according to TSN (1956-1-11, p.18).

In the first game of a series against the league-leading Mexico City Reds, who were managed by Bobby Avila, Tanaka made the game-winning hit, a pinch-hit single in the tenth inning off future Detroit Tigers starter Paul Foytack. Because Jim Bunning also pitched for the Mexico City Reds that winter, one-half of the 1961 Detroit Tigers starting staff (which I am well acquainted with via Strat-o-matic) was on that Mexico City Reds team. (The 1961 Tigers' ace-reliever Terry Fox played in the Veracruz Winter League in 1957-58.) 

In 1956 Tanaka didn't play ball but instead moved back to his home town of Palaú, where he worked as a coal miner. (Palaú)

In 1956-57 Tanaka played for the Puebla Pericos of the Veracruz Winter League where he was teammates with Negro Leaguer and baseball patriarch Sam Hairston., who was the father of two major leaguers and the grandfather of two more. Hairston batted .362, second overall, and Tanaka finished a hair behind him with a .360 average. 

TSN 1957-3-13, p.31

(Notice future Dodgers base-stealer supreme Maury Wills far down the batting list.)

In the summer of 1957, Tanaka played for the Tigres de Aguascalientes of the Central Mexican League and hit .304 with 6 homers, 71 runs batted in, 73 runs scored, 20 stolen bases, 49 walks, and 18 strikeouts in 101 games. 

Tanaka played again for Puebla in the Veracruz Winter League in 1957-58. As of November 20, he was hitting .387 (36 for 93) with 19 runs scored and 22 driven in.

TSN 1957-11-27, p.50

(His name was not Joe.)

slowed down the rest of the year but still finished the year with a triple-crown line of .319/7/51 with 109 hits in 342 at-bats, according to BR. 

Tanaka returned to the Mexican League for his third and last time as a player in 1958, batting .324 (12 for 37) with two doubles, two triples, three walks, and one strikeout in 16 games. 

Tanaka played for Navajoa in the Mexican Pacific League (Liga Mexicana del Pacifico) in 1959-60 . He is listed in the LMP encyclopedia as having hit .302 with no homers, 19 walks, 9 strikeouts, and 23 runs scored in 182 at-bats over 47 games. 

Tanaka coached for the Mexico City Reds of the Mexican League in 1963 under manager Tomas Herrera,  a former Pacific Coast League and Veracruz Winter League pitcher. He merited a sticker in the album "1963 Gran Coleccion de Jugadores de Beisbol de la Liga Mexicana." 

                                            

The picture of Tanaka's autographed sticker is taken from a nearly complete sticker album currently on sale on eBay for $25,000. 

Tanaka managed the San Luis Potosi Reds of the class A Mexican Center League to a 62-58 record in 1964, playing 29 games himself.

He again coached for the Mexico City Reds in 1966 and managed for part of the season while Tomas Herrera was ill. 

In the winter of 1966-67, Tanaka managed the Diablos Rojos de Tepic of the Northwest Winter League (Liga Invernal de Noroeste). (https://tecualasuhistoria.blogspot.com/p/equipo-de-beisbol-la-voz-de-tecuala.html)

In 1967 and 1968 Tanaka managed the Las Choapas Diablos Rojos of the class A Mexican Southeast League to records of 54-52 and 40-48. El Informador interviewed former New York Yankee relief star Luis Arroyo for their May 27, 1967 issue, asking him for his opinion on Mexican baseball. He said he wished more attention was paid to morals, citing Tanaka for having been suspended for disrespecting an umpire. 

 In 1969 he managed the Tampico Pirates of the Mexican Center League to a 60-66 record, a record which would have fitted the Diablos Rojos better. 

Just as he had with Mexico City, Tanaka coached under Tomas Herrera for the Saraperos del Saltillo of the Mexican League from 1970 to 1972, managing in Herrera's stead when Tomas was suspended. I've found that Herrera was suspended for a month in 1970 for assaulting an umpire on May 3, and for five games on June 11, 1972 after throwing punches at an umpire, so Tanaka got at least a few chances. Saltillo was a top team in 1971 and 1972, putting up records of 86-59 and 89-51 and losing the league finals both years. 

https://x.com/MuseoPresidente/status/1755995095634174398

                                              
Tanaka became Saltillo's manager in 1973 and kept the team at .600 for another two years, with records of 86-45 in 1973 and 83-53 in 1974. Saltillo lost a third consecutive league championship in 1973 and lost in the Northern final (the 2nd round of the playoffs) in seven games to the Algodoneros de Union Laguna. 

Tanaka died on August 26, 1974, just two days after Saltillo was eliminated from the playoffs. (Many sources incorrectly list his death date as March 26 of the same year.) 

Tanaka had gone shopping with his wife in Eagle Pass, Texas, just across the Rio Grande from his home in Piedras Negras. As he drove home in light rain his car skidded on the wet road and ran straight into the number 56 Anáhuac Line bus. The bus ran right over his car, and both Tanaka and his wife died instantly. 

El Informador, 1974-8-27

Google Translate renders the article thusly:

Tragic Death of Andrés Tanaka
PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Coahuila, August 26 (Excélsior [Express?]). Andrés Tanaka, manager of the Saraperos de Saltillo, tragically died this afternoon in a car accident when his car crashed into an Anáhuac Line bus. His wife, Irma López de Tanaka, also died in the collision.
    The collision occurred at 6:40 p.m. at the site known as the "El Infante" snack bar between Nueva Rosita and Allende, 25 kilometers from the latter city.
    According to reports from the Coahuila State Highway Police, Andrés Tanaka was driving his green 1973 car with license plate EUK-760 after shopping in Eagle Pass, Texas, on his way to Piedras Negras.
    It is estimated that Tanaka and his wife had left Eagle Pass around 5 p.m., having traveled nearly 85 kilometers at the time of the accident.
    Some witnesses claim the collision occurred on a curve. It was raining moderately, and Andrés Tanaka, the driver, reportedly lost control of the steering wheel due to the wet asphalt. The car zigzagged and collided head-on with the number 56 Anáhuac Line bus, driven by 24-year-old driver Reinaldo Treviño Peña, who lives in Salinas, Coahuila.
    Experts claim the bus was traveling at over 100 kilometers per hour and completely ran over the small car in the collision.
    The wife of the deceased manager was decapitated, and both died instantly.
    There were only two injuries among the bus passengers, who were immediately sent to a hospital in Nueva Rosita.
    The car was owned by teacher Rosa María Tanaka López, the player's daughter.
    Tanaka was born in Palau, Coahuila, in 1925.
    Considered one of the most illustrious baseball players in the Coahuila Northern League, he began playing in 1945 with the same Palau team.
    After retiring as an active player, he moved to the Mexican League in 1970 [sic] as an assistant to Tomás Herrera, first with the Diablos Rojos de México and later with the Saraperos de Saltillo.
    In 1937 [sic], upon the departure of Tomás Herrera as manager of the Saraperos, Andrés Tanaka succeeded him as head coach.
    He managed Saltillo as a regular for two full seasons. In the 1973 season, Tanaka led his team to the title in their division. In the corresponding playoff, the Saraperos were eliminated in the final by the Dibalos Rojos of Mexico.
    This season, Saltillo took first place in their division and faced Monterrey in the first playoff, emerging victorious. They then played against Unión Laguna, the winner of Tampico, and were eliminated.
    The remains of Andrés Tanaka and his wife were transferred tonight to the city of Palau, his hometown, where his burial is expected. Rest in peace, Andrés Tanaka."

Amen. 

https://www.facebook.com/ga2mx/photos/andr%C3%A9s-tanaka-naci%C3%B3-el-9-de-febrero-de-1925-en-palau-coahuilaicono-y-leyenda-del/10171012394725626/?_rdr

To view my sources, consult https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oStScz6Vpj2YvH9M8nSFKjBKIHoEaO_5ilmJSvLmIo0/edit?tab=t.0

Juan Padron in Florida

 Juan Padron was one of the best pitchers in black baseball from 1916 to 1925, pitching for the Cuban Stars, the Chicago American Giants, and other teams. Seamheads credits him with a career record of just 83-82, but a career ERA+ of a phenomenal 133. (All stats in this post are from Seamheads.) A big lefthander, his best seasons were probably 1916, 1917, and 1924.

Padron in the early 1920s. Picture provided to Gary Ashwill by the departed Brian Campf. https://agatetype.typepad.com/agate_type/2013/07/settled.html

                           
In 1916, pitching for the Chicago American Giants and Cuban Stars West, Padron led Western Independent Club pitchers with 151 strikeouts (no other pitcher had more than 89), a 1.58 ERA, a 200 ERA+, six shutouts, and a 2.90 K/BB ratio (the only pitcher who even came close to his K/BB ratio struck out 31 batters). Strangely, his record was just 11-11 though he wasn't playing for bad teams: the Chicago American Giants and Cuban Stars West combined for a 68-51 record that year. 

In 1917, pitching again for Cuban Stars West, he struck out 78 batters and had a 1.55 ERA and 176 ERA+. In all three of those categories he was second among Western Independent pitchers only to the legendary pitcher Cannonball Dick Redding, and his 2.60 K/BB ratio was highest. But his win-loss record was 8-8, .500 for a second straight year - this time his record could be blamed on a bad team behind him, as the Cuban Stars West were 11-19 when he was not pitching. 

In 1924, pitching for the Chicago American Giants of the Negro National League, he had a 2.04 ERA (1st), a 172 ERA+ (2nd), and a league-leading three shutouts. For a third time, his win-loss record was unduly low, just 10-7. It wasn't the team; the Chicago American Giants were 53-25 that year, and his teammate Buck Miller was 10-2 with a 2.92 ERA. A mystery. 

Padron was born Juan Padron Acosta in Key West, Florida, on October 20, 1892. (The cigar factories of Tampa and Key West attracted many Cuban workers.) Whenever Padron played for the Cuban Stars, he was the only American-born player on the roster. 

Being from Key West, Padron spent much of his early baseball career in black/Cuban Tampa baseball. (The Key West Citizen has hardly been digitized for the years Padron might have pitched there, so I don't know how much baseball he played in Key West.) The top Cuban baseball players from Key West usually ended up playing in Tampa. 

The earliest game of Padron's I've found was on April 15, 1912. Pitching for a team named the Cuban Stars versus the New Tampas, Padron (spelled Padrone by the Tampa Tribune) struck out 16 batters and allowed just three hits while Corcho, his opponent for the New Tampas, struck out 15. (The battery for the New Tampas, A.P. Corcho and Charley Sorondo, was a long-time fixture in Tampa baseball. Corcho pitched for Tampa in the class D Florida State League in 1919 and 1920. Tampa played in strong semi-pro Florida State Leagues in 1909 and 1914; Sorondo played for Tampa in 1909 and both Corcho and Sorondo played for Tampa in 1914.)

Tampa Tribune, 1912-4-16, p.4

(Since the minor leaguer Nilo Leon was manager of the New Tampas, Ramuro Padrone must have been the Cuban Stars' manager. Juan Padron's 1910 census record (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MVKH-4PX?lang=en) lists him as living with his brother Romiro Padron, so the manager of the Cuban Stars must have been his brother.)

On May 23, the Tribune said the battery of the Cuban Stars was made of southpaw pitcher Padrone (Juan Padron was left-handed) and catcher Mitchell, and identified the team's manager as C.H. Gibson of 1008 Ashley Street. 

Padron would continue to pitch to Mitchell through 1914. 

On June 5, 1913, Padron beat the Dunnellon Red Sox 2-0 while pitching for the St. Petersburg Giants to his catcher Mitchell. 

St. Petersburg Tampa Bay Times, 1913-6-06, p.6

The next game of his I've found was played almost exactly a year later with the same team and catcher: On June 22, 1914, he beat Jacksonville 7-1 while pitching to Mitchell for the St. Petersburg Giants. The Tampa Bay Times said that St. Petersburg's battery “Padrone and Mitchell" were "both well known in the colored section of the city as a dangerous pair on the ball lot.” Two days later, on June 24, Padron and Mitchell again beat Jacksonville, this team 5-3 in 11 innings. We next find Padron in September 1914, when he was pitching in the Florida Negro League. The Florida Negro League was organized in late August. It planned a schedule of 30 games to be played by three teams: the Tampa Giants, the All Colored Cubans (to be managed by Juan Padron), and the Plant City Favorites. (Plant City is 25 miles from Tampa.) Games were played on Mondays and Thursdays at Plant Field. The Tampa Tribune noted that the Plant City Favorites had recently posted a 28-2 record on a tour of the south and that the Tampa Giants were 16-4 on their tour of Florida.

Tampa Tribune, 1914-8-30, p.10

The battery of Padron-Mitchell was mentioned as an attraction in a game ad for the September 10 game in the Tribune:

The game was a 1-1 14-inning tie between Padron and "Hot Dog" Wylie/Willey of Plant City, who won the league's opener on August 31 3-1 against the Tampa Giants. Padron allowed two hits and Willey allowed three. The only run Padron allowed was an unearned run in the first inning. On September 12 the Times said that “The fans who saw this tie game admit that it was the best they have seen on Plant Field for a long time. It has been proven that the Florida Negro League is a success so far as the playing of good games go.”  The Tribune noted the play of "Mason, the speedy little shortstop," whose stellar fielding twice saved the game for Padron.

Plant City and the All Colored Cubans were supposed to play on September 14. Both the Times and the Tribune published previews of the game - on September 12 the Times said that “Juan Padron, the big Cuban left-hander, will do the pitching for the Cubans” and on September 13 they said Padron is "said to have some of the best line of stuff on his ball that has ever been used by a pitcher in this city"- but neither published an account of the game itself, curse them. I can infer from the standings that the Cubans won but I can't confirm that Padron pitched. The Cubans played the Tampa Giants on Thursday, September 17. Popieta, who started instead of Padron, was hit hard; Padron relieved but could not stem the Giant tide, and the All Cubans lost 9-3. Mitchell caught for the All Cubans. The Tribune called Padron 'Pardon' in its game preview. The All Cubans were scheduled to play a doubleheader against the Plant City Favorites on September 24 and the Tribune expected Padron would pitch both games, saying "For the Cubans the big and mighty Padron will shoot them over and he is confident that he can pitch a double victory and with good support can make them both shutouts.”  Padron did not pitch in the first game, which the Cubans lost 8-3, and the second game was called after three innings due to darkness. Though no announcement was ever made of their withdrawal, the All Cubans did not play another game in the league after September 24. On September 28 Padron pitched for the Tampa Giants, tying Smith of the Plant City Favorites 3-3 in 11 innings. The Times said that “The game was brilliantly played, many sensational catches being made throughout the game. The Giants should have won the game but for an error made by Padron, the big left-handed speed marvel, when he spoiled Mason’s chance to get an easy assist that would have retired the side.” The Times called Mason "'Tango,' the Giants' prancing shortstop."

Pitching for the Tampa Giants, Padron rematched against Smith of Plant City on Monday, October 5, in the second game of a doubleheader and lost 2-0; both pitchers threw two-hitters. The Tribune noted that "Smith was invincible and proved to be the sensation of the game."

Padron was supposed to pitch again for Tampa on October 12 but the Tribune said it might be his last game; the Tampa Giants had sent for four players from Cuba weeks ago and were expecting them any day. One of them was a pitcher (as the Times noted on September 26) who might replace Padron.

I can find neither a report of the game of October 12 nor record of any further games. The standings printed above seem to have been the final standings. On June 26, 1915, the Tribune reported that the Tampa Giants had been champions of the Florida Negro League. The next game of Padron's I've found was a spectacular one: On April 18, 1915, pitching for a Tampa semi-pro team called the Cuban Reds, he threw an 8-1 17K no-hitter against Roberts City. Batting 4th, he went 2-for-5 with a homer and two runs scored. The Cuban Reds' double play combination of Nilo Leon (ss) and Felipe Alvarez (2b), batting 2nd and 3rd respectively, combined for nine hits. Nilo Leon, who managed the New Tampas team which lost to Padron in 1912, played in the Georgia State League in 1914, the Georgia-Alabama League in 1915, and the Florida State League in 1919. Felipe Alvarez pitched one game for Columbia in the South Atlantic League in 1915. Playing 1b for Roberts City was Manuel Villarin, a long-time Tampa semi-pro who batted .290 in 67 games for the Tampa Smokers of the class C Florida State League in 1924 (listed on BR as Villarino) and who I am almost certain is the M. Villarin who played five games for Atlantic City in the 1920-21 Cuban Winter League.

1915 was the year Padron broke into black baseball, as he won three games and lost eight (with a 105 ERA+, of course) for the Almendares Cubans (1-0), the New York Lincoln Stars (0-1), and the Cuban Stars of Havana (2-7). The Cuban Stars stopped off in Tampa on their way back to Cuba in the fall, and Padron pitched for them against his old team the Tampa Giants, winning 10-1 as he struck out 11 and allowed just two hits. The Hall of Fame outfielder Cristobal Torriente was in the lineup for the Cuban Stars; both Torriente and Padron scored two runs on one hit. Just 300 fans saw the game as "a heavy shower immediately before kept the crowd away," according to the Tribune.

Note that "Tango" Mason played 2b for the Tampa Giants. Padron pitched again for the Cuban Stars in Tampa the next year, September 28, 1916, when he beat a picked team of Tampa Cubans 10-0.

I presume that F. Alvarez is the minor leaguer Felipe Alvarez. Padron's career in Florida was not yet finished; in 1916-17 and 1917-18 he played in the Florida Hotel League which consisted of two teams representing two Palm Beach hotels, the Royal Poinciana Hotel and the Breakers Hotel. The 1916-17 league was star-studded with Hall of Famers such as Pete Hill, John Henry Lloyd, and Oscar Charleston for the Royal Poinciana and Louis Santop and Smokey Joe Williams for the Breakers. Padron completely dominated the Breakers in 1916-17. He had a 5-2 record, 50 strikeouts in 73.1 innings, a 0.61 ERA, and a 383 ERA+. He was so good and the league was so small that he made every other pitcher average or below average; the highest ERA+ besides his was the 107 of Smokey Joe Williams. (His win-loss record was worse than it should have been, as always. Stringbean Williams had a better record than him for the Breakers - 4-1 - with a 2.84 ERA.) Padron was much less successful in 1917-18, going 1-3 with a 2.42 ERA with the Breakers (good for an 87 ERA+ in that pitchers' league).

Padron's career in black baseball lasted until 1926. After it was over, he pitched a number of years in white semi-pro leagues in Michigan. In 1928, for example, he pitched for Utica of the Tri-County League and had a 9-2 record with 79 strikeouts, 13 walks, and an ERA of 1.59 in 96 innings. Frank Okrie, who was a reliever for the Detroit Tigers in 1920, pitched for St. Clair in the same league and was 4-2 with 40 strikeouts, 16 walks, and an ERA of 2.47 in 62 innings.

Port Huron Times-Herald, 1928-9-14, p.25

Padron died in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on December 7, 1981, at 89. Here are a couple of pictures of Padron in his later years, provided by his family to Gary Ashwill (https://agatetype.typepad.com/agate_type/2008/06/juan-padrn-phot.html)

If you're interested in reading more about Padron, Gary Ashwill, "Co-Creator and Lead Researcher" of the Seamheads Negro Leagues database, has written about him a number of times: https://agatetype.typepad.com/agate_type/juan-padr%C3%B3n/. One thing he did was disentangle Juan's career from that of Luis Padron, whose career was winding down as Juan's was beginning, and who was conflated with Juan in encyclopedias for many years. It's still very easy to confuse the two; I almost did so a couple of times while researching this piece.

I plan to research Padron's semi-pro career in Michigan so look for a post about "Juan Padron in Michigan" sooner or later. 

Appendix: 

All the newspaper articles I used for this post may be found at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FcuVgnts918kxd9dlvS2oAfPy-0gTcNf0ggkGva8W7w/edit?tab=t.0

This includes all my research on the 1914 Florida Negro League. I found the line score for every league game but one.

When Ty Cobb played for San Francisco

 The 1921 California Winter League was unique among winter leagues. Every other American winter league I've ever seen was distinct from the local pro leagues of summer, with different franchises and different players. The 1921 CWL was made up of Pacific Coast League franchises: Los Angeles, Mission, San Francisco, and Vernon. (Actually, Mission did not have a PCL franchise until 1926, but three out of four is still unprecedented.) 

The rosters were primarily made of Coast Leaguers with a sprinkling of local semi-pros. There were Coast League stars such as Jigger Statz, Willie Kamm, Walt Leverenz, Earl Sheely, Lefty O'Doul, Harry Krause, Truck Hannah, Chet Chadbourne, and others. 

But the teams' real stars were their managers. Each team signed one superstar major leaguer to serve as player-manager: Rogers Hornsby managed Los Angeles, Harry Heilmann managed Mission, George Sisler managed Vernon, and Ty Cobb managed San Francisco.

The season began October 8 and the teams played every day through December 8. Here are the final standings, as reported by the San Francisco Examiner on 1921-12-09: 

Mission and Vernon staged a "little world series" after the season's close. Mission beat Vernon 11-5 on December 10, but the Vernon Tigers took both ends of the December 11 doubleheader before a crowd of 8,000 to win the title. Vernon received $3,000 in prize money, which was divided among its 19 players. 

It's very strange to some of the greatest players of all time in what were essentially Pacific Coast League lineups. 

San Francisco Journal and Daily Journal of Commerce, 1921-12-03

Los Angeles Evening Post-Record, 1921-12-03

Worthpoint provides scans for a score card from the league at https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/1920-21-ty-cobb-roger-hornsby-1815240979 - really cool. 

Here's a closer look at the batting averages listed in the program: 

I've only done very preliminary research on this league; I just want to get this little note out there. (I hope to research the league more fully in the future - maybe even compile stats.)  You'd think that a league with Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Harry Heilmann, and George Sisler would have been written about, but I can't find a single article devoted to it; the only mention of it at all that I can find is two paragraphs in a 2011 National Pastime article by Geri Strecker called "Winter Baseball in California: Separate Opportunities, Equal Talent" - it's essentially just a footnote in an article devoted to the integrated California Winter Leagues. 

People deserve to know that Ty Cobb once played for San Francisco.

Pie Traynor before he was a pro

Future Hall of Famer Pie Traynor tried out with the Boston Red Sox in the spring of 1920. The Red Sox were impressed enough to recommend him to the Portsmouth Truckers of the class B Virginia League, a team they had an unofficial relationship with.

Already 21 years old, Traynor starred with Portsmouth in his professional debut in 1920, hitting .270 and finishing in a three-way tie for first in home runs, with eight. He also finished second in fielding percentage among shortstops, with a mark of .947. 

The Red Sox thought Traynor was nicely tucked away for them in Portsmouth but Portsmouth owner H.P. Dawson had other ideas, and sold Traynor to the Pittsburgh Pirates for $10,000 on September 11, 1920 - the highest price ever paid for a Virginia League player at the time. 

Traynor hit .336 for the Southern Association Birmingham Barons in 1921, became the Pirates' regular third baseman in 1922, and went on to a Hall of Fame career with Pittsburgh, hitting .320 over 17 seasons. 

                                             

For a while I've wondered: what was Traynor doing in 1919? He was 20 years old and not in college - he must have been starring somewhere. 

Yesterday I stumbled upon the answer. He played for two Boston-area semi-pro teams: the Somerville B.B.C. and the Oak Bluffs/Falmouth team. It's just that his play for them has been mostly unnoticed - partly because of the general neglect of semi-pro history and partly because the Boston Globe almost always misspelled his name as Trainor or Trainer. 

Pie Traynor sits third from left in the back row. Boston Globe, 1919-9-15, p.7

The Somerville club was one of the best teams in Greater Boston as well as one of its oldest. It also happened to represent Pie Traynor's hometown of Somerville which, according to his SABR bio, stood "three miles northwest of downtown Boston." Traynor was born in Framingham, MA., but his family moved to Somerville when he was five. It was Somerville where Pie played neighborhood games of baseball as he grew up, Somerville where he attended high school (though it doesn't seem like he played for its baseball team) - and Somerville where he acquired his nickname of murky provenance, Pie. 

The Globe noted in their article on the Somerville Baseball Club that "Pie" Traynor was "another clever all-around player" and had done "particularly good work with the bat." 

At the same time, Traynor also played for the Oak Bluffs club. 

Traynor sits second from right in the back row. Boston Globe, 1919-9-06, p.7

Oak Bluffs is and was a small town on the northeastern tip of Martha's Vineyard. The 1919 Oak Bluffs team played three games a week representing Oak Bluffs and another three games a week representing Falmouth. (Traynor's SABR bio does mention that he played with Falmouth in the Cape League - it just doesn't have the full story. Also, I can't confirm that a Cape League even existed in 1919.) 

Oak Bluffs had an excellent season in 1919, winning 28 games and losing 8, and their shortstop Hal Trainer [sic] hit a stunning .510. (At least according to the Globe. I found box scores for six of Traynor's Oak Bluffs games and two of his Falmouth games, and he hit .276 (8 for 29) between them.)

I'll conclude with a 1919 box score from each of his teams: 

Boston Globe, 1919-6-22, p.16

Boston Globe, 1919-8-12, p.11

Boston Globe, 1919-8-29, p.7

A hard wind blows in Dalton

Gaylord Anderson, the catcher for Dalton, Nebraska, caught three outfield flies in a game on May 22, 1932. I learned this in John Hix' Strange As It Seems cartoon of August 20, 1932, displayed alongside human interest notes about monstrous Czechoslovakian carpets and human leopards from Liberia who attacked other humans with iron claws. 

A note below the cartoon explained that, incredible as it might sound, the wind was blowing in so furiously that fateful day in May that three Sydney [sic] batters' towering flies hit past second were driven back home, into the tender waiting catcher's mitt of Anderson.

Classic Great Depression. 

With a little searching I found that Dalton played in the Wheatbelt League in 1932, centered in Cheyenne County, Nebraska. Dalton's population of 453 was about par for the league, to give you an idea of its scale. But in those days even villages in middle-of-nowhere Nebraska had staunch weekly newspapers, and Dalton's team was covered by the Dalton Delegate.

While its account of Dalton's game of May 22 doesn't mention Anderson's great feat, it does note that "the game was played in a high wind from the southeast that made playing almost impossible, and anything but enjoyable for spectators." I am sure.

Dalton lost that game 11-6 to Sidney as the two teams combined to make 25 errors in the tempest. The devil was in these details:

I want to take a moment to acknowledge that Sidney's shortstop was named Clinginpeel.

The wind had been just as bad the previous Sunday: in that game, while Dalton and Gurley combined to make just 18 errors, don't go thinking it was some kind of pitchers' duel - Gurley won 23 to 22.  In case the apocalyptic winds weren't enough, it was so cold "the players had difficulty in holding the ball." The Delegate admitted the game was "everything disagreeable." The only bright spot was the umpiring (!). (The decisions had to have been good - there were four umpires.)

I feel really sorry for whoever had to put this box score together. 

Dalton's 1932 season was more grotesque than great; the team would finish with a 1-13 record. Anderson scored two runs in its lone win (a 5-4 squeaker).


With a little sifting on Family Search I found that Gaylord's full name was Gaylord LeRoy Anderson, and he was born on March 22, 1911, to Oliver Francis Anderson and Ellen Caroline Iverson. Anderson's father died in Exeter, Nebraska, in 1917, and his mother was remarried in 1918 to a Robert C. Shannon. 

Gaylord came to Dalton in 1927 after his mother died to stay with his uncle and aunt and their six children. His step-father died in 1930. 

Gaylord would himself die in January 30, 1971, in Los Angeles. 

That's his life as told by records. A kind of pointillist portrait of a period in his life can be built with scraps from the Dalton Delegate; having to fill eight pages every Friday with the doings of 450 people, the news had to be scraped thin. The Delegate told tales of visits and minor ailments and the other small excitements of ordinary lives. Being unused to that kind of reporting I find the normalcy of their notes kind of surreal. 

Here's a crazy quilt of "news" about Gaylord Anderson, strange to me by its very prosaicness. 

"Celebrated his eighth birthday anniversary with the help of seventeen of his little friends." (March 28, 1919.) 10 boys attended a surprise party for his twelfth birthday. They "had a most enjoyable time with games." (March 30, 1923.) He was absent from school. (April 13, 1923.) He came from Chicago to visit his relatives, the Frandsens, in Dalton after his mother passed away. He saved a lot of money going by bus instead of train. (June 17, 1927.) He decided to stay in Dalton and enroll in its high school. (August 19, 1927.) He worked in his uncle's drug store when not at school. (September 2, 1927.) He was "quite ill with the flu and complications" and "had his throat lanced for quinsy." (December 16, 1927.) He played Tubby Hays in "Smile, Rodney, Smile," a "Laugh Comedy in Three Acts" put on by the "Junior Class of the Dalton High School." (March 30, 1928.) His tonsils were removed. (July 13, 1928.) His watch, a "good timepiece," was stolen from his open locker during football practice. (November 23, 1928.) 

HEALTH WARNING: If this is boring you to death, you should quit reading now because it's like this to the end and I don't want you to die too.

But if you know what's good for you, you will bask in the magnificent minutiae. 

He acted as a judge in a debate on ''Immigration'' in his 12th grade ''Democracy'' class. (December 14, 1928.) When the results for the school popularity contest came out he was the boy with the prettiest hair. (February 8, 1929.) He played second base for Dalton high. (April 12, 1929.) He graduated from high school, one of six boys out of a class of fifteen. The class motto was "Launched But Not Anchored." A sermon was preached at the graduation by the Rev. E.E. Dagley, "new pastor of the Presbyterian church," upon the theme of "Keeping Pace With the Spirit of Tomorrow." (May 10, 1929.)

He began catching for the Dalton town team, which played in the Central League that year. He turned a double play while catching on June 16, catching a foul far behind the plate and throwing out a baserunner who was trying to go from first to second. (June 21, 1929.) He was one of three Dalton players to be struck upon the head with baseballs in a 14-13 win against Angora. (July 5, 1929.) 

"See Gaylord Anderson - and let him take your order for a made-to-measure suit, made by the Becker Tailoring Co., Cincinnati. Satisfaction guaranteed. New swatches to choose from. All the new shades and weaves.

    Prices $24.50   $29.50   $34.50   $39.50

        Also a special trousers line, two pairs for $9.90. 

        Order now and have your new clothes for Easter." (March 14, 1930.)

He was assessed $25 in taxes, a figure tied for third-lowest out of the many assessed in Dalton village. I guess not many people were letting him take their orders for made-to-measure suits. (June 20, 1930.) H.C. Blome drove Gaylord and four other Dalton lads and lasses to Lincoln State University for school. (September 19, 1930.) He returned home for Christmas break. (December 26, 1930.) A group of his friends held a dance for him at Frandsen hall; as "his finances are not weighting him down... his friends decided to help him along." He was studying to be a pharmacist. (December 26, 1930.) A large crowd raised $58 for him. (January 2, 1931.) He was held up while working at a "service station." The rascals made off with $16. (March 13, 1931.) 

He got a job in Lincoln, and consequently was not expected home. (June 12, 1931.) He hitchhiked from Lincoln back to Dalton but only stayed a week; school loomed large. He had worked at a cafe in the summer, and would work there again part-time in the school year. (August 28, 1931.) Spent Thursday night at the Bill Schuler home. (September 4, 1931.) He returned to college (September 4, 1931), but he may have dropped out after the fall semester because he attended a spring-time birthday party in Dalton. (March 18, 1932.) 

He got a dual job as truck driver and station attendant for the Western Nebraska Oil Co (June 24, 1932), ate dinner at the Bill Schuler home on Thursday (August 5, 1932), and resigned from his job with the Western Nebraska Oil Co. (June 16, 1933.) Went to Denver for work. (June 30, 1933.) Rode the 200 miles back home with a friend by box car, not quite legally. (July 28, 1933.) 

He applied to the Navy and was accepted; he reported in Denver. (September 15, 1933.) He returned from San Diego where he was stationed. "Gaylord likes his work and states it is pretty much of a revelation to him." (December 12, 1933.) Both the sentiment and the prose of that quote are kind of sad.  He returned to San Diego with two local boys who were also in the Navy; they thought (hoped?) they'd "be sent aboard a battleship... with the chances favorable for a trip to the Orient." (December 29, 1933.)

Dalton's young 'uns threw a party for him at Frandsen hall before he returned to the navy. (December 21, 1934.) 

Silent-film intertitle: FIFTEEN YEARS PASS. Cut to scene. 

"Gaylord Anderson of Los Angeles, California, visited his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Frandsen and family from Thursday evening until Saturday evening when he went to Denver to join his wife and family. They planed [sic] to have a week each place, but a break down at Elks, Nev., delayed them five days. His uncle and aunt Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Schuler of Bridgeport accompanied him to Denver." (August 19, 1949.) Notice how he had become a stranger to the newspaper that had known him so intimately twenty years before? 

The Delegate wheezed its last breath in 1951, twenty years before Anderson. It was survived by 400-odd newspaper-less citizens, a number that dwindled to 284 by the 2020 census. Gaylord was survived by fewer people but I bet he got more flowers.

Long Beach Press-Telegram, 1971-2-02, p. 29

(Where'd his family go? The Delegate said he had a wife and family in 1949 but neither the obit nor his page on Family Search show any signs of them. Was the Delegate mistaken? Had it really lost touch with him that badly?)