MADRID, Spain.- On March 19, 1887, one of the greatest Cuban baseball pitchers was born in Cárdenas, Matanzas: José de la Caridad Méndez Báez, nicknamed the “Black Diamond” for his speed and control of the pitches.
Méndez Báez was the first Cuban baseball player recognized as a great star in American baseball. He shone on par in the Cuban Professional League and in the Negro Leagues of the United States.
He began his career on the land of the Foundry, in his hometown. There he played with the La Majagua team.
He made his debut in the Professional League in 1907, and very soon he was the main pitcher for Club Almendares, one of the most renowned teams on the island at the time. In 1908 he participated in the Cuban championship with nine wins without losses, with six complete games and 58 strikeouts in 15 games. During his years in the Cuban League he accumulated 72 wins and 26 losses, for a .735 average.
In the Negro Leagues in the United States, he competed for the Cuban Stars and the Kansas City Monarchs. In these leagues, of which he was one of his best pitchers, he had 87 wins against 31 losses.
With the Kansas City Monarchs, in addition to being a player, he was a coach; and he led the team to three consecutive crowns between 1923 and 1925, including a World Series.
José de la Caridad Méndez Báez died in Havana on October 31, 1928, at the young age of 41, a victim of bronchopneumonia.
In 2006 he was inducted into the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame.
The “Black Diamond” is one of the most great figures of sport in Cuba in the first decades of the 20th century, at the level of other baseball players such as Martin Dihigo and Adolfo Luque, the boxer “Kid Chocolate”, the fencer Ramón Fonst and the chess player José Raúl Capablanca.
