Few people can say they saw Joshua Gibson, Johnny Bench, and Ivan Rodriguez play. One of those lucky ones is Freddie Thon Jr. A family member with solid roots in Puerto Rican baseball, his father, of the same name, was a prominent pitcher and ranger with the San Juan Senators. He also managed the championship …
Freddie Thon Jr. saw Joshua Gibson, Johnny Bench and Iván Rodríguez! Read More »
On December 16, 2020, baseball commissioner Rob Manfred announced that seven Organized Negro Leagues active between 1920 and 1948 constituted Major League Baseball. These seven new major leagues joined the six established in 1968 by the Special Committee on Baseball Records, bringing the total to thirteen. José “Gacho” Torres Puerto Rican baseball history changed because …
The Puerto Rico Professional Baseball League was established in 1938. Since then, 16 of the 37 (43%) Negro Leagues legends in the Hall of Fame, played in the Island. 1. Roy Campanella (Caguas, Santurce and San Juan)-1969 2. Satchel Paige (Guayama and Santurce)-1971 3. Joshua Gibson (Santurce)-1972 4. Buck Leonard (Mayagüez)-1972 5. Monte Irvin (San …
A conversation with Jorge Colón Delgado—Official Historian, Puerto Rico Professional Baseball League, and long-time Negro Leagues researcher—sheds some light on why he developed a website titled negroleaguerspr.com focusing on more or less 217 Negro Leaguers who played professionally in Puerto Rico. “There is a lack of awareness of what these players accomplished in Puerto Rico,” …
