Baseball player
Alex Pompez
|
---|
|
Owner
|
Born:
(
1890-05-03
)
May 3, 1890
Key West, Florida
, U.S.
|
Died:
March 14, 1974
(1974-03-14)
(aged 83)
New York City
, U.S.
|
|
---|
|
|
|
Induction
| 2006
|
---|
Election method
| Committee on African-American Baseball
|
---|
|
---|
Alejandro "Alex" Pompez
(May 3, 1890 ? March 14, 1974) was an American executive in
Negro league baseball
who owned the
Cuban Stars (East)
and
New York Cubans
franchises from 1916 to 1950. His family had emigrated from Cuba, where his father was a lawyer. Outside baseball and numbers (illegal gambling), he owned and operated a cigar shop in downtown Manhattan. He later served as a scout and director of international scouting for the
Giants
franchise in
Major League Baseball
. He was posthumously inducted into the
Baseball Hall of Fame
in 2006.
Biography
[
edit
]
Pompez was born on May 3, 1890, in
Key West, Florida
, the oldest of four children born to
Cuban
immigrants Jose and Loretta Pompez. His father was a lawyer and cigar manufacturer who had connections to Cuban author and dissident
Jose Marti
. Jose Pompez was on the board of directors for the Key West chapter of the
Cuban Revolutionary Party
;
[1]
he was elected to the
Florida House of Representatives
as a Republican in 1892.
[2]
He was a state representative until his death until 1897. Alex and his family struggled financially after his father willed his estate to the insurgency.
[3]
Alex Pompez owned the
Cuban Stars
of the
Eastern Colored League
between 1923 and 1928 and the
New York Cubans
of the
Negro National League
from 1935 to 1951. He also helped organize the first
Negro League World Series
in
1924
.
[4]
He signed numerous
Latin American
players for his Negro league teams, including
Martin Dihigo
,
Minnie Minoso
and
Alejandro Oms
.
Several owners in the
Negro National League
, including Pompez, were
numbers bankers
.
[5]
Pompez was one of New York's leading numbers bankers during the 1920s but was forced to join
Dutch Schultz
in 1932. His connections with Schultz's organization led to his
indictment
in 1936 for involvement in policy rackets when New York County District Attorney
Thomas Dewey
selected him as one of the targets in a crackdown on New York City racketeering. Pompez fled to Mexico after being tipped off to his arrest; he was eventually arrested by Mexican authorities, but Mexican officials refused to extradite him. Pompez decided to return to the U.S. as a state witness in the investigation. He is considered the only man who survived after turning informant against another racketeer.
[6]
In 1948, sensing that baseball's integration would change the Negro leagues, Pompez arranged for the New York Cubans to become a minor league affiliate of the
New York Giants
.
[4]
Pompez scouted Latin America for the Giants, and they signed several players through Pompez, including
Camilo Pascual
,
Tony Oliva
and
Orlando Cepeda
. In 1950, Pompez submitted a favorable scouting report to the Giants on
Fidel Castro
.
[7]
He was hired by the New York Giants to oversee their Latin American operations in 1950.
[8]
Pompez served on the
Baseball Hall of Fame
's special Committee on Negro League Baseball in the early 1970s. He died at age 83 in New York City. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in
2006
.
Pompez died in 1974 and is buried at
Woodlawn Cemetery
in
the Bronx
, New York City.
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
Burgos, p. 13
- ^
Burgos, p. 14
- ^
Burgos, p. 18
- ^
a
b
Street, Jim.
"Pompez Put Stamp on Negro Leagues"
.
MLB.com
. Retrieved
August 7,
2013
.
- ^
Rogosin, Donn (2007).
Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues
.
University of Nebraska Press
. p. 17.
ISBN
978-0803259690
.
- ^
"Alex Pompez"
. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Archived from
the original
on August 8, 2013
. Retrieved
August 7,
2013
.
- ^
"Alejandro "Alex" Pompez"
. Negro League Baseball Players Association
. Retrieved
August 7,
2013
.
- ^
"For MLB, is Cuba next Puerto Rico or next Dominican Republic? | MLB | Sporting News"
. Archived from
the original
on 2015-02-15.
References
[
edit
]
- Burgos, Adrian, Jr. (2011).
Cuban Star: How One Negro-League Owner Changed the Face of Baseball
. Hill & Wang.
- Riley, James A. (1994).
The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues
. New York: Carroll & Graf.
ISBN
978-0-7867-0065-3
.
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
Franchise
| |
---|
Ballparks
| |
---|
League affiliations
| |
---|
Hall of Famers
| |
---|
Negro World Series
championships
(1)
| |
---|
League pennants (1)
|
- Negro National League
:
1947
|
---|
Other play-off
appearances
| |
---|
|
---|
1930s
| |
---|
1940s
| |
---|
1950s
|
- 1950
· 1951 · 1952 · 1953 · 1954 · 1955 · 1956 · 1957 · 1958 · 1959
|
---|
|
|
|
---|
Pitchers
| |
---|
Catchers
| |
---|
First basemen
| |
---|
Second basemen
| |
---|
Third basemen
| |
---|
Shortstops
| |
---|
Left fielders
| |
---|
Center fielders
| |
---|
Right fielders
| |
---|
Designated hitters
| |
---|
Managers
| |
---|
Executives
and pioneers
| |
---|
Umpires
| |
---|
Italics
denote members who have been elected, but not yet inducted.
|
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|