So, where does the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball League come in? Some 220 Negro Leaguers played professionally in Puerto Rico between 1938 and 1968, excluding Negro Leaguers who barnstormed in Puerto Rico in the 1920s and 1930s.
Fifteen Negro Leaguers who plied their trade professionally in Puerto Rico includes Hall of Famers Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, Leon Day, Larry Doby, Ray Dandridge, Buck Leonard, Raymond Brown, Willard Brown, Willie Wells, Hilton Smith, Jud Wilson, Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron plus Oscar Charleston as league umpire.
Negro Leaguers delighted Puerto Rico’s rabid baseball fans with their fine play. They especially enjoyed the Island’s hospitality: they overnighted at the best hotels and could dine at the finest restaurants. Players had time for fishing, socializing in town plazas, and having dinner at the homes of teammates, fans, and team officials.
Jorge Colón Delgado—Official Historian of the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball League, and long-time Negro Leagues researcher—created this website to inform global researchers of the rich history of what Negro Leaguers did on Puerto Rico’s pro baseball diamonds. This is a history that needs to be known.
Thomas E. Van Hyning, Author/Caribbean Baseball Historian
Testimonials
This website has rescued a historical treasure as to the many contributions, rich in accomplishments, of Negro League players born in the United States in relation to Puerto Rico, its professional winter league, and baseball in general.
These players, in a positive way, influenced society at cultural, educational, and inspirational levels. Their legacies are of incalculable importance as to preserving, baseball-related historical accuracy, statistics, and stories. It elevates Puerto Rico’s undisputed role—who we were and what we did—to give Negro Leaguers a chance to enjoy our Island’s amenities, and play baseball in front of an appreciative and caring audience.
These players, in a positive way, influenced society at cultural, educational, and inspirational levels. Their legacies are of incalculable importance as to preserving, baseball-related historical accuracy, statistics, and stories. It elevates Puerto Rico’s undisputed role—who we were and what we did—to give Negro Leaguers a chance to enjoy our Island’s amenities, and play baseball in front of an appreciative and caring audience.
This website is a wonderful and much-needed asset for those of us who are students of Negro League Baseball research. For too long, the contributions that African American players achieved in Puerto Rico were slighted by baseball historians. However, the players themselves would often state how integral Puerto Rico was to their play. In an era of Jim Crow terror throughout the mainland United States, Puerto Rico provided an opportunity for players such as Leon Day to feel like a human, a man, a full citizen.
I am grateful to see this repository of artifacts and documentation that will serve as a way to tell the complete stories of Negro League Baseball players. Their accomplishments in Puerto Rico are just as deserving and essential in explaining the role that these unsung heroes played in the trajectory of American baseball.
I am grateful to see this repository of artifacts and documentation that will serve as a way to tell the complete stories of Negro League Baseball players. Their accomplishments in Puerto Rico are just as deserving and essential in explaining the role that these unsung heroes played in the trajectory of American baseball.
It’s impossible to understand the careers of great Negro league players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Willard Brown without knowing about their feats in Puerto Rico. Likewise, the Negro leagues benefited from the contributions of great Puerto Rican players from Gacho Torres of the Newark Stars in 1926 to Pancho Coimbre of the New York Cubans in the 1940s. There is no better place to learn about this history than the Negro Leaguers in Puerto Rico website.
Would baseball be baseball without the contributions from the Puerto Rico Winter League? It provided an opportunity to Negro League players where opportunity did not exist during apartheid baseball. This new lens provides insight into more than 200 tan stars and their impact on island baseball. Here, I learned so much about authentic Puerto Rican Béisbol in my first at-bat. I look forward to my next visit to the plate. Batter Up!
