Late Bloomers: Dolf Luque

Before Jackie Robinson broke the major league color barrier in 1947, any player whose skin was just a touch too dark to satisfy the racist views of team owners was effectively banned from the major leagues. That included almost all Black players from the United States, obviously, but also many players from Latin America as well. Some teams tried to get around that, signing players from the Caribbean or elsewhere and promoting them as “pure Castilian” to emphasize that they weren’t of African descent, but for the most part Latin players found themselves as banned from the major leagues as Black players.

That placed enormous pressure on the very few Latin players who did have complexions deemed worthy by American owners and fan bases. They not only had to earn their contract with their play on the field, but they had to play with the knowledge that if they failed they could be slamming the door shut behind them for all other Latin players who might want a chance to play in the major leagues. This has been spoken and written about in regard to Jackie Robinson, as it should be, but you don’t see it as much with some of the pioneer players for other ethnicities.

Players like Hall of Fame pitcher Charles Bender, a member of the Chippewa tribe who had to endure a lifetime of being called “Chief" because that was how anyone with Native blood in their veins was referred to by White Americans in those days.

And the same applied to Adolfo “Dolf” Luque, a small, scrappy pitcher from Cuba who endured years of racist abuse, lengthy stints in the minor leagues well beyond the point he’d earned promotion, and refusal by his club to use him in their rotation until he was 29. He was not the first Cuban player in the major leagues, but he was the first major league star from that country, and before his career was over he had earned the nickname “The Pride of Havana.”

It absolutely fit.