Carlos Paula -- First Black Washington Senator

[GeoPoto]

We have previously highlighted some of the lives and baseball cards of the players who became the first black men to play for one of the 16 MLB franchises. Several of these men have been inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame. Several others also had MLB careers long enough for them to appear on a substantial number of baseball cards, photographs, and other memorabilia. Today we focus on another player whose time in MLB was brief, resulting in a limited number of collectable items. Today's focus is on: Carlos Paula Conill. Right fielder for Washington Nationals in 1954-1956. 124 hits and 9 home runs in 3 MLB seasons. First black player in Washington Senators history. His best season was 1955 for the Washington Senators as he posted a .332 OBP with 6 home runs in 351 plate appearances.

Over the next several days, I will borrow excerpts from Paula's SABR biography and show the few items I have, which are interrelated. If anyone has Paula items in their collection, I would love to see them. For anyone interested in more on Carlos's life and MLB career, I recommend the excellent SABR biography written by Darren Gibson.

Cuban outfielder Carlos Paula parlayed an all-star tour in the United States into a full-time minor-league role in the early 1950s. With his chiseled frame and stylish flair, he became the man who integrated the Washington Senators on September 6, 1954, making the Senators the 12th of the original 16 major-league teams to do so. However — dogged by perceptions of suspect fielding — Paula never fulfilled his promise. Eventually he was jailed by revolutionary forces back in his homeland but returned to live a largely anonymous life in the States. . .

. . . At the turn of 1954, Paula, the “cocky Cuban-Negro,” was sold to the Washington Senators, netting Paris (Texas Indians of the Class B Big State League) owner Gonzalez, who still retained his rights, $1,500. Paula was signed by the team’s longtime super scout in Cuba “Papa” Joe Cambria, who provided the Senators a rich pipeline of talent from the island. Cambria touted Paula as “a player who can do everything well enough to be in the majors.” This raised the total “to four Negroes who will be in the Orlando (Florida) training camp,” following outfielder Angel Scull, first baseman Julio Becquer, and shortstop Juan Delis. Cuban pitchers Connie Marrero, age 43, and rookie Camilo Pascual were also with the Senators. Washington had been importing Latino players for decades, some who possessed “skin as dark as many Negro League players.”

During the Senators’ spring training, Paula and Scull were being thought of as the best bets to be “the first Negro players to crack the roster,” with Scull having the inside track. Scull stood just 5-foot-6, in contrast to Paula, who at 6-foot-3 and 195 pounds, was “built like a blacksmith” and “a railroad section hand.” Sportswriter Shirley Povich, contributing to The Sporting News, wrote that Paula “has the build and face of an old heavyweight of the trail-horse type,” but also that “he speaks better English than most of the Cubans.” Paula became “the first Negro ever to crash a Washington lineup on March 8 when he pinch-hit, fouling out to opposing catcher Earl Battey with the bases loaded.” Carlos was soon labeled potentially as the “Senators’ best rookie in years.” Paula’s third exhibition game was also the spring debut of Elston Howard, the “first Negro ever to play with the (New York) Yankees.” Paula was labeled as “uncertain” in the field, but, as coach Heinie Manush noted, “That’s the least of our worries. If he keeps hitting, we can teach him to field.”

Senators' manager Bucky Harris commented regarding Paula, “He can whack that ball. He has size and power. Even more impressive, he’s not only fast for a big man — he’s fast for a man of any size.” Harris also intoned that Paula “runs like a deer, hits like hell, (and has) great power.” But Harris also lamented that he thought Paula “had a hitch in his swing.” The Spanish Miami-based newspaper Diario las Américas was taking notice of Senators prospects Paula, Scull, and Becquer in camp. Paula was further identified as the “flashiest dresser” in camp, with a hat “wide enough to provide shade for Griffith Stadium’s bleachers.”

However, Brooklyn scout Al Campanis, who managed the Cienfuegos club in the Cuban Winter League, was bullish on Scull, but hesitant about Paula’s future. “Paula can hit a ball a mile, but I don’t know where Bucky Harris can play him. I’ve seen him at first base and in the outfield and he’s not too hot at either spot. His power is to right-center and he’s liable to hit one over the rightfield wall at Griffith Stadium, but, like I say, he’s no fielder.”

By mid-March, the Senators were hitting less than .200 as a team in camp, although Paula was posting a .267 average. Still, with a week left in camp, it seemed as if Scull would be the player kept by the Senators, mainly as a defensive replacement. Even baseball card company Topps thought so, and included Scull, but not Paula, in their upcoming 1954 card set. Harris was ambivalent, saying, “We don’t know yet whether Angel Scull or big Carlos Paula can hit big league pitching, but I suspect they can and we will probably carry them.”

Within two weeks, neither player would be with the Senators.

[GeoPoto]

. . . (In) The Sporting News, news of Angel Scull leaving the team surfaced. Ossie Bluege, Washington farm club director, had been told by an official in Winter Garden, Florida, where the Senators’ farmhands were training, to “get his Cuban Negroes out of town.” The Cuban players were incensed. Scull played in a couple more exhibition games but was then sold on April 10 to the Havana Sugar Kings of the Class AA International League. He would never reach the majors in a regular-season contest.

When pressed as to why he didn’t pull all of his farm teams out of Winter Garden, 84-year-old team president Clark Griffith remarked, “That would be as discriminatory as the people who started this in the first place. You don’t solve anything by running away from it. Negroes have demonstrated that they have a place in baseball and the Washington club will go all-out in giving them fair treatment.”

In even further irony, the same TSN edition touted the precedent of Nat Peeples of the Atlanta Crackers being the first Black player under contract within the Southern Association. The league’s prior segregation had made it impossible for Paula to go to the Senators’ Class AA affiliate in Chattanooga.

Paula was sent down to the Class A Charlotte Hornets of the South Atlantic League at the end of camp. He became the “first Negro to wear a Hornets’ uniform.” First baseman Becquer was sent to Havana, as was shortstop Delis. Paula was thus the sole Black player in the organization playing for a team domiciled in the United States. Paula collected the Hornets’ first homer and triple, along with two singles, in the team’s sixth game of the season, a 13-inning win against Jacksonville. By the end of the first month, it was reported that Paula was “thumping the ball…and will be recalled at the first sign of compelling need for him.”

As the Senators floundered, Paula languished in Charlotte. In May, Paula blasted a homer against Montgomery, estimated by two sportswriters to have traveled 559 feet. As the month ended, Paula led the Sally League with 33 RBI, two more than 18-year-old rookie Frank Robinson of Columbia (South Carolina). Heading into June, Paula had a 13-game hitting streak for the seventh-place Hornets. Meanwhile, the parent Senators were 10-and-a-half games back, mired in fifth place.

Even with Paula boasting a .352 average with nine home runs and 43 RBIs in June, Senators Vice President Calvin Griffith was leery of promoting Paula. “We’ve been debating the possibility of bringing him up right away. I don’t know if it would be a good gamble. He might be able to help us. On the other hand, if he isn’t ready, we rush him along too fast and he fails with us, it could wreck his confidence. We’ll wait until we get a complete report from Sherry (Robertson) before deciding.”

Two days later, Robertson — ex-major leaguer, nephew of Clark Griffith, and assistant to farm director Ossie Bluege– recommended that the Senators keep Paula in the Sally League rather promote him. Robertson claimed he was skeptical about “Paula’s ability to hit major league pitching now and feels he needs more seasoning.”

A local Black sports organization, the Charlotte Fullback Club, honored Paula, the “star Negro outfielder of the Hornets,” before a Charlotte home game in mid-June. Paula batted third, played the whole game, and collected two hits as the lone Hornet representative in the South Atlantic League All Star game on July 5.

Paula batted .309 at Charlotte with 14 home runs, 83 RBIs, and 51 extra-base hits, good for a .495 slugging percentage. He was finally promoted to the Senators on September 2, along with outfielder Jim Lemon, second baseman Roy Dietzel, and catcher Steve Korcheck. With Washington now 39 games out of first place, Carlos Paula became “Baseball’s First Black Senator,” making his debut on September 6, in the same Griffith Stadium that had previously housed the Homestead Grays, the Washington Pilots, the Washington Black Senators, and the Washington Elite Giants.

Paula collected a double and single in nine at-bats as the starting left fielder in both games of a doubleheader against the seventh-place Philadelphia Athletics. Paula played in nine games for the Senators in September 1954, hitting .167. The initial reports were enthusiastic for Lemon, but “less impressive has been the showing of Paula, who still bears traces of the over-eagerness he showed in the spring camp, when he went groping for bad balls, to the detriment of his average.” Some thought that Paula’s promotion was simply a token gesture, or “giving in to agitators.”

[GeoPoto]

. . . After the Senators hired Charlie Dressen as their new manager, off-season reports indicated that team brass was warming to the idea of Paula becoming a starter for 1955. Clark Griffith remarked “that big galoot could be a good player for us, with a little more preparation.” Another consideration was the potential gate attraction. With a “colored population of nearly 400,000,” Griffith yearned for the day to “give the fans a standout colored player.” Nonetheless, Griffith stated that “Dressen wants to go in with more than him (Paula) in spring training.” Five Black players joined the 1955 Nats training camp roster: Paula, Becquer, Delis, Panamanian pitcher Vibert “Webbo” Clarke, and infielder Curtis Hardaway. During camp, Dressen viewed Delis, not Paula, as “the colored player most likely to make good with the Senators.” Still, Dressen and coach Cookie Lavagetto worked tirelessly with Paula in spring training on refining his hitting stroke.

Paula broke camp with the Senators but was mainly a pinch-hitter the first month of the season. In mid-May, he replaced the slumping Roy Sievers (.128, 0 for his last 24) in left field. The advanced age of the 26-year-old rookie, as well as other Black major-leaguers of the time, drew comment from esteemed writer Sam Lacy of the Baltimore Afro-American. “For reasons that are all too apparent, the colored players who made the grade were not considered until far beyond the age of the white recruit.” It was suggested that owner Griffith’s and the franchise’s “Anybody but a Negro” policy had evolved to “Anybody but an African-American.”

Writer Povich commented that Paula was considered “something of a crudity in the field, but his bat has been working smartly for Dressen.” Povich also added flattering writeups on Paula’s fielding. “As an outfielder, the fellow is one of the better ones despite his great size. He has both agility and judgement, and there is no complaint with his speed. His throwing arm, too, is an asset.” He continued, “In the outfield, Paula never has been any problem. His startling speed for a 200-pounder has always been heavily in his favor and so has his throwing arm. He is learning to play the hitters and charge ground balls, but there is still a bit to be desired with his base running.”

On September 2, Paula broke up New York Yankee Whitey Ford’s no-hit bid with a seventh-inning single. During a 22-game stretch in August and September, Paula hit .450 with 36 hits, raising his average to .326. A late slump dropped his season-ending average to .299, good for second place on the team to Mickey Vernon . Unfortunately, he also ended the year with the lowest fielding percentage (.941) among American League outfielders by a “considerable margin.” Delis and Becquer, along with Clarke, had joined the Senators during the 1955 season. Paula would sometimes employ fellow Cuban and rookie shortstop José Valdivielso as an interpreter. Paula did not play in the final five games of the last-place Senators season, possibly to head back to Cuba to prepare for the Blues’ October 7 opener. Paula, Valdivielso, and Elston Howard were among those who made The Sporting News’ All-Rookie team for 1955. . . .

. . . In the middle of the Senators 1956 spring training, Paula was forced to return to Cuba to care for his mother, who had suffered a heart attack. Despite the circumstances, the team threatened to fine him when he did not return when expected. He did not break camp with Washington, instead being optioned to a Yankees farm club, the Denver Bears of the American Association, subject to a 24-hour recall. Paula tore up the AA in April, batting .481 with 13 hits over his first 27 at-bats. He was recalled to Washington in mid-May after hitting .375 with six home runs in 22 games for the Bears. Paula belted a pinch-hit three-run homer on June 11 against Kansas City — his last round-tripper in the majors. He hit just .183 in 33 games for Washington and was sent to the Louisville Colonels, also of the American Association, in late June. He never played again at the top level.

[Marckus99]

He is not BLACK.

He is Cuban.