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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 12-4-2014 12:00 AM Beyond the Sports Page: Baseball, The Cuban Revolution, and Rochester, New York Newspapers, 1954-1960 Evan K. Nagel The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Robert K. Barney The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Kinesiology A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Evan K. Nagel 2014 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Sports Studies Commons Recommended Citation Nagel, Evan K., "Beyond the Sports Page: Baseball, The Cuban Revolution, and Rochester, New York Newspapers, 1954-1960" (2014). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 2564. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2564 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BEYOND THE SPORTS PAGE: BASEBALL, THE CUBAN REVOLUTION, AND ROCHESTER, NEW YORK NEWSPAPERS, 1954- 1960 Monograph by Evan Nagel Graduate Program in Faculty of Health Sciences: School of Kinesology A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Evan Nagel 2015 i Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………….........ii Glossary of Frequently Used Terms……………………………………iii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………..iv Chapter 1: From the Straits to the Lake…………………………………1 Chapter 2: ‘Nocout’ on a Walkoff……………………………………..25 Chapter 3: Just One More Step………………………………………...43 Chapter 4: Off the Cuban Cuff…………………………………………90 Chapter 5: Diplomatic Footnote: A Conclusion……………………...154 Bibliography………………………………………………………….162 Curriculum Vitae……………………………………………………..165 i ii Abstract In the 1950s, the Caribbean island of Cuba underwent a series of emphatic and revolutionary changes, culminating in Fidel Castro's regime coming to power in early 1959. A year later, relations between the Cuban government and their American counterpart had deteriorated rapidly to the point of rhetoric, economic sanctions, and covert military actions. Yet, both nations laid claim to the same national pastime: the sport of baseball. Since the 1860s, America's game of choice had been played passionately by Cubans, helping facilitate their social assimilation into the U.S. economic sphere. There was arguably a cultural sporting bridge between the two nations, and during the Cuban Revolution this relationship was arguably at its most important stage. In fact, the Havana Sugar Kings played in the highest tier of minor league baseball, the International League, from 1954 to 1960. By examining local newspapers from Rochester, New York, another IL city, this study portrays how this shared pastime impacted American front section media coverage about their southern island neighbor during the Cuban Revolution. ii iii Frequently Used Terms Page IL-International League D & C- Democrat and Chronicle T-U- Rochester Times-Union MLB- Major League Baseball NLB-Negro League Baseball OB- Organized Baseball CWL-Cuban Winter League AP- Associated Press UPI-United Press International FIL-Florida International League M-26-7- 26 th of July Movement. DR- Directorio Revolucionario iii iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank: • Kathy and Roman Lesiv for housing me during several research expeditions. • Jacqui Saunders for helping organize my defense and for not charging me everytime I locked myself out of my office. • Kaeli Wolf and Tami Enlow for always being there when I needed someone to talk to • Dr. Kevin Wamsley for giving me a second chance, serving on my thesis committee, and for giving constructive criticism that helped me immensely. • Stacey Lorenz for mentoring me during my undergraduate years and for lighting the spark that drove me to Western. • Dr. Ken Kirkwood and Dr. Andrés Pérez for serving on my thesis examination board. • Erin Fray for being a great friend and colleague. • The staff at D.B. Weldon Library and RACER for all their help with obtaining resources and forgiving late fees. • The staff at Rundel Memorial Library in Rochester, New York for the workspace and for allowing me “just five more minutes” after closing hours to finish collecting data. • Jesse Morse for taking time out of his schedule to help me scan microfilm when my flashdrive erased days of research. • My aunt Delane Richardson and cousin Hayley Benz for housing me over the summer, and teaching me there is nothing stronger than the bond of family. • My parents Geoff and Sharon Nagel whom without I would not be here typing these words. Their love, funding, patience, and support has truly blessed my life. iv 1 Chapter 1 From the Straits to the Lake 1 “The Cubans were such a slick and speedy ball club, and so colorful . but I guessed they were just a little too hot-blooded, as a people, to play in the International League . O those crazy Cubans!”- Howard Senzel 2 Introduction When you look at Rochester, New York on a map, it seems about as far from the tropical Caribbean and Castro’s unique brand of communism as one can get. I should know, I was born there. Januarys of bitter cold, the wind whipping in off Lake Ontario, a collection of upper middle class suburbs surrounding a large capitalist metropolitan area where votes carry more weight than the punch of an AK-47, Rochester, Havana is clearly not. But, in the 1950s these two communities were linked to one another through the All-American institution of Triple AAA baseball. The Rochester Red Wings have a long and extensive history with the sport. The city’s professional diamond legacy itself dates back to 1886 and the founding of the International League (hereafter referred to as IL) and the Rochester Maroons.3 In addition, baseball has been 1 The Straits of Florida is a body of water which seperates Cuba from the mainland United States. Lake Ontario seperates Southern Ontario from Western New York. 2 Howard Senzel, Baseball and the Cold War: Being a Soliloquy on the Necessity of Baseball (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977). Senzel, a graduate of Brighton High School (my alma mater), was an avid Rochester Red Wings fan during the time period of this study. After graduating from college, he returned to his hometown searching for why those “Crazy Cubans” were forcibly removed from the International League, and rediscovering the role baseball played in his childhood along the way. 3 Jim Mandelaro and Scott Pitoniak, Silver Seasons and a New Frontier: The Story of the Rochester Red Wings (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2010). Other minor league teams Rochester fielded between 1886 and 1928 (many times it was the same franchise under a different name) include: the Jingoes, Broncos, Hop Bitters, Flour Cities, Browns, Blackbirds, Brownies, Patriots, Bronchos, Hustlers, Colts, and Tribe. 1 2 well documented in Cuba, both historically and sociologically, in the national narrative since the 19 th century, including the IL Havana Sugar Kings, whose brief existence began in 1954.4 Both cities, Rochester and Havana, shared the IL spotlight together from 1954-1960. Frequently, baseball reporters from both Flower City (Rochester’s nickname) dailies, The Democrat & Chronicle and the Rochester Times-Union, made the trip south to the Cuban capital to cover games between their hometown Red Wings and Havana’s Sugar Kings. However, AAA baseball was not the extent of newsworthy events in Havana. From 1953-1959 revolutionaries of the 26 th of July movement under the command of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, waged a campaign across Cuba. Needless to say, the paths of rebellion and baseball aligned before the eyes of beat- writers George Beahon and Al C. Weber, and on the front pages of their respective newspapers. The cross-hairs of a lens embellishing baseball and a revolution featured outside the sporting pages is the examination herein pursued. From 1954 to 1960 the IL “truly” featured international baseball. During that period, franchises located in three countries were members: the United States, Canada, and Cuba. The Havana Sugar Kings, formed during American-patronized President Fulgencio Batista’s reign, were an anomaly in the history of baseball. Though affiliated with American professional clubs and featuring numerous American players, the franchise, for all intents and purposes, was a Cuban production. The club, padded with Cuban baseball veterans such as Rafael Noble and Angel Scull, was owned by Havana businessman Roberto “Bobby” Maduro. The nation’s leaders treated the Sugar Kings with great deference. For instance, Batista kept the “Cuban Mafia” from extorting money from the club. Later, Fidel Castro’s communist regime allowed 4 Roberto Gonzalez Echevarría, The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). The island had been a scouting outpost for the Washington Senators Major League Baseball franchise since the turn of the 20 th century. The Sugar Kings were also not the first “organized baseball” franchise in the capital city, the Havana Cubans of the Class C Florida International League, existed from 1946 through 1953. 2 3 Maduro to remain in operation even though many American enterprises were seized and “nationalized” by the Revolutionary government.5 Castro, an avid baseball fan and mythologized former player, allocated funds for games to be broadcast on the national radio station as one measure to keep the Kings financially stable. However, in midsummer of 1960, the team departed Cuba and moved to Jersey City, New Jersey due to increasing pressure from the other IL club owners. Even though Havana won the 1959 league title over Minneapolis, AAA baseball under a Caribbean sun had set. 6 Purpose of the Study This study examines how Rochester’s local newspaper coverage of minor league baseball factored into its overall portrayal of the Cuban Revolution.

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