[aljurgela]

Thanks for all the comments. I work from home and sometimes just catch myself staring at the painting. For those of you who do not know, Santa Clara was perhaps the greatest team in Cuban League history, the Leopardos went 36-11 to win the pennant by 11 ½ games over Habana.

According to Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History, 1878-1961, seven of Santa Clara’s eight regulars batted well over .300 to set a league record with a team batting average of .331.

This painting (standing from left to right) Jose Mendez (HOF), Oscar Charleston (HOF), Oliver Marcelle (#1 3B in Courier Poll - ahead of HOFers), Esteban Montalvo (Cuban HOF), Frank Warfield (stud, but will likely fall short of HOF), Julio Rojo (Cuban HOF), (middle row from left) Frank Duncan (same as Warfield), Alejandro Oms (IMO will be elected to HOF next time the revisit this - maybe 2020, for the time being his is in the Cuban HOF), Pablo Mesa (whose nickname was Champion as he won the batting title and you can see he is much appreciated by Charleston and Oms - Cuban HOF), (sitting from left) Rube Currie (stud, but will fall short of HOF), Dave Brown (near HOFer but lived his life on the run after murdering a guy in a bar fight in 1925, but still a second team Courier poll player), Dobie Moore (near HOF, but career too short as his girlfriend shot him in the leg), Pedro Dibut (Cuban HOF), Matias Rios and Eustaquio Pedroso (stud and Cuban HOF).

Indeed, nine of the 15 players shown in this photo are members of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame: Mendez, Charleston, Mesa, Oms, Marcelle, Pedroso, Montalvo, Rojo and Dibut. This fact, combined with the elite level of Dobie Moore, Dave Brown, Rube Currie, Frank Duncan and Warfield... 14 of the 15 guys are either HOFers (US/Cuba), or truly elite negro league players. Kindof makes you feel bad for Matias Rios, doesn't it?

Thanks again Graig for putting so much time into this and documenting such an amazing team!