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.
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.)
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| 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.)
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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:
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.
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.
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.
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| 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.
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.
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