The Havana Cuba Sugar Kings

Partido de béisbol. from Memoria de Cuba on Vimeo.

This article is a continuation of my memories from Maple Leaf Stadium in Toronto. Today I will reminisce about the Havana Cuba Sugar Kings.

Not many Toronto Maple Leaf players made it to the Majors. Most were, older, journeymen minor leaguers or Negro leaguers that were past their peak. Toronto was an independent team during the late 1950s and into the 1960s. The Sugar Kings had many players that went on to play and star in the Majors. They were a Cincinnati farm club.

Of course Toronto was my favourite team but my second favourite team of all time was the Havana Cuba Sugar Kings. Can you imagine growing up in WASP Toronto in the mid fifties and all of a sudden a team comes to town with players that had such romantic sounding names associated with them. Names that I had never heard of before but I can always remember.

I can name the Sugar Kings lineup with no problems at all almost 50 years later

Catcher Enrico Izquierdo

1st Base Rogelio Alvarez

2nd Base Elio Chacon

Shortstop Leo Cardenas

3rd Base Octavio Rojas

Left Field Daniel Morejon

Center Field Angel Skull and Pompeyo (Yo-Yo) Davalillo

Right Field John Powers

Pitchers Miguel Cuellar

Pat Scantlebury

Orlando Pena

 
My two favourites though were Enrico Izquierdo and Rogelio Alvarez. Their names were so foreign but the sounds just seemed to flow off your tongue. They were followed closely by Octavio Rojas (pronounced Rohas) and Daniel Morejon (Morehon)

Havana was the farm team of the Cincinnati Red Legs and many of these players ended up in the Majors and some played for the Reds in the 61 classic against the Yanks.

Chacon and Cardenas played for Cincinnati and had solid major league careers. Octavio Rojas was probably better known in major league circles as Cookie. He had major league career for some time with the Kansas City Royals as well as being their manager.

My first ever autograph of a professional ball player came from Miguel Cuellar. I wonder what that would be worth now for Miguel became a star pitcher in a stellar starting rotation that included Jim Palmer and Dave McNally. My first autograph turned out to be Mike Cuellar a twenty game and Cy Young winner for the Baltimore Orioles.

I always wondered what John Powers felt like. Here he was the only “American” on a virtually all Latino squad. Was that a precocious thought for a seven or eight year old?

I always tried to go games involving Havana. They were one of my all time favourite teams. Alas it all ended when Fidel took over. When Toronto got knocked out of the playoffs I always hoped Havana would come through. And that they did, when they won the Junior World Series by defeating the star crossed Gene Mauch and his Minneapolis Millers in 1959.

The video below details the 1959 Little World Series between the Havana Cuba Sugar Kings of the International League and the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association.  This was just months before Castro’s rise to power .  It shows Fidel in attendance at Havana’s Gran Stadium (now Estadio Latinoamericano) as the Sugar Kings rally in the bottom of the 9th to win game 7 and the series.