Baseball Primer Newsblog— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand
Friday, December 23, 2011
New York Times, December 23, 1911: “These Cubans,” said Mr. McGraw last night, “are only fair ball players. They are as fast as lightning on the bases and they can throw to beat the band. They have picked up all the knacks of fielding, but they cannot bat.
“Not only that, but they do not play what we call brainy baseball. Very little attention is given to brainwork on the diamond. They perform the manual part of the game very well, but the keen, crafty headwork we see in the game here is missing.”
Hey Reggie White, what about Japanese players?
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1. Jefferson Manship (Dan Lee) Posted: December 23, 2011 at 08:06 AM (#4022516)C: Victor Martinez
1B: Mike Grady
2B: Ken Hubbs
3B: Fritz Maisel
SS: Hanley Ramirez
LF: Danny Taylor
CF: Dave May
RF: Doc Gessler
SP: Jerry Koosman
SP: Sam Leever
SP: Tommy Thomas
SP: Frank Owen
SP: Tim Leary
RP: Brad Lidge
Manager: Jerry Manuel
Most likely to be mistaken for an exotic dancer: Bunny Fabrique
Most likely to be mistaken for a disease: Frank Eufemia
Most likely to attack his general manager: Shawn Chacon
Most likely to (allegedly) pass bad checks: Shawn Chacon
In real life, Uncle Vic would probably play first base and Grady would catch, but I put Grady at first because he played a larger percentage of his games there than Martinez.
Carlos Moran
Reading TFA, I get the impression that McGraw didn't get along terribly well with many of the people he met in Cuba - he had just been arrested there, after all - and that his impression of the ballplayers there was affected by his negative feelings. Clearly guys like Torriente, Mendez, Muñoz, Padron, and Moran could play for anybody.
That's the impression I get about McGraw.
DB
Unfortunately, Cincinnati chili wasn't invented until the '20s; it's interesting to ponder how culinary history might have changed if Skyline-style chili had been exported to Havana. Perhaps instead of Cuban-Chinese cuisine, we might have Cuban-Midwestern.
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