The Cuban Players

There were at least seven different Cuban players on the Union Giants over the years, including one Hall of Famer.  For most seasons, starting in 1922, Gilkerson had one or two Spanish-speaking players on his roster at a time.  In 1929 and 1930, he had three.  In 1935, shortly before the team folded, Gilkerson even briefly changed the name of his team to the Cuban Giants.

Robert Gilkerson's connection to the baseball-loving island went all the way back to his playing days.  In October 1910, while Gilkerson was still playing for the Chicago Union Giants, the Benton Harbor News-Palladium reported that Gilkerson and the team had just "returned from a trip to Cuba, where they played a series with the Havana team."  

In 1911, the Escanaba Daily Press reported in November that Gilkerson himself was preparing to leave for Cuba where he played for a Cuban team during the winter months.  How much time he actually spent on the island however, is not well documented.  Once he became a team owner, it would be years before Gilkerson signed anyone born on the island.

The Cuban player that spent the most time with Gilkerson's Union Giants was Rogelio Crespo (pictured above, on right).  He was with Gilkerson for a total of ten seasons: 1922-1925, 1928-1930 and again from 1932-1934.  During his long run with the Union Giants, Crespo likely helped bring other Cuban players to the team.  When he wasn't barnstorming with the Union Giants, Crespo played for various teams back in Cuba as well as the Cuban Stars (East).   In fact, several of the Cubans that eventually played for Gilkerson also spent time on the Cuban team from New York.

The reason that Gilkerson kept bringing Crespo back year after year wasn't his connections however, it was his versatility and his reliability.  Most seasons, Gilkerson had him playing at different spots in the infield, either second base, shortstop or third base.  In 1923, 1925 and 1933 however, he was primarily an outfielder for the club.  While other players came and went over the course of a season, Crespo rarely missed a game.

One rare exception was in August 1924 when Crespo was spiked at third base in a game against the Twin City Red Sox of Sauk City, Wisconsin, a team that featured Happy Felsch, former member of the Chicago Black Sox.  The hard slide split Crespo's leg open "from knee to ankle."  According to the Fennimore Times, "Crespo was taken to the Cunningham hospital, where eight stitches were put in to bind the wound."   He was back on the field in a couple of weeks. 

In later years, the Union Giants traveled to Canada regularly, sometimes multiple times a season.  Crespo and the other Cuban players generally went along without incident.  In July 1932 however, having already visited Canada once that season, Crespo refused to travel north of the border.  The Bellingham (WA) Herald reported, "Al Crespo, Giant second sacker, stayed here last night, refusing to go to Vancouver with the team.  Crespo, it appears, was born in Cuba, and fearing any 'foreign entanglements' arising from questioning by the immigration authorities of Canada, he decided to stay here while the team was across the line."   Even though the Union Giants continued to travel to Canada the next two seasons, Crespo doesn't appear in any Canadian box scores after this point.

In 1923, Gilkerson added a second Cuban to the squad when catcher Frank Cárdenas joined the Union Giants.  Cárdenas was behind the plate from May until October of that year.  Cárdenas did not return in 1924 but pitcher David Gómez joined the Union Giants, pitching for the team that entire summer.  Gómez also stayed just one season.  He would go on to pitch for the Cuban Stars (West) for the next several years.

In June of 1925, the Union Giants briefly had an outfielder and backup catcher by the name of Abreu, sometimes spelled Abrew, Abru, or Abrean in box scores.   I originally thought this could have been Eufemio Abreu, however Eufemio was playing pretty consistently for the Cuban Stars (West) in June of 1925.  Perhaps a young Juan Abreu?  For now, it remains a mystery.  Whoever he was, he only stayed with Gilkerson's club for about a month.

Crespo left the Union Giants in '26-'27 to play for the Cuban Stars (East) once again.  When he returned in 1928, he was joined in the infield by Pelayo Chacón, a teammate from the Stars.  Crespo played second base and Chacón was at third for almost the entire season for the Union Giants.

Ogden Standard-Examiner
July 27, 1931

Chacón left in '29 but Frank Cárdenas returned to the team as catcher that year.   The big addition in 1929 however was Cristóbal Torriente.  Torriente stayed with the team, on and off, for three years, primarily as a pitcher but also playing the outfield.  The veteran player was well past his prime at this point in his career but he could still pitch and hit and was often billed as the star attraction on Gilkerson's squad.  

With Cárdenas behind the plate and Torriente on the mound, the Union Giants had a distinct advantage, which was pointed out by the Sioux City Journal, "When the Cuban battery is working they talk over the situation in Spanish, much to the discomfiture of opposing hitters."  The Sioux City newspaper however also reported that Cárdenas had been on the injured list for part of the 1929 season.  

In 1930, Gilkerson got a new Cuban catcher to pair with Torriente, José María Fernández.  Fernández however was only with the team during the first half of the season.   As reported in the Chicago Defender, Fernández and pitcher "Yellowhorse" Morris both left Gilkerson to join the Chicago American Giants in early July.  Torriente also appears to have left the team around the same time.  He returned in 1931 for most of the season.

The last Cuban (sort of) to play for Gilkerson was pitcher Juan Padrón during the ill-fated 1935 season.  According to Seamheads, Padrón was actually born in Key West, Florida.  The Grand Rapids Press described him as "a Cuban of Spanish and West Indian descent.  He speaks Spanish fluently.  He goes back to Cuba each winter, after playing baseball during the summer months in the United States, and plays quite a few games at Havana each winter."

St. Louis Argus, Sep 4, 1931

Padrón had been living and playing in Michigan since at least 1930.  In Grand Rapids in 1931, Padrón pitched in several exhibition games against Major League teams, including both teams in the World Series that year, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Philadelphia Athletics.  Against the Cardinals, Padrón pitched a 10-inning complete game, striking out seven batters and allowing just six hits and one run, which was enough for the win.  A month later, the Cardinals went on to win the World Series.

At the start of the 1934 season, Padrón was leading a team in Michigan called the Cuban Giants.  The team disbanded by June and several of the players, none of them actually Cuban, joined up with Gilkerson mid-season.  In 1935, Padrón joined Gilkerson as well.  The team started out as the Union Giants as usual but by June of 1935 they were now calling themselves the Cuban Giants.  The Green Bay Press-Gazette said the team was "formed out of former Cuban and Hawaiian players."  In truth, Padrón was the only member of the team with any Cuban heritage.  Gilkerson's entire operation came to a stop before the end of the summer.

The 1920's: A Decade of Winning

Fargo Forum, June 9, 1928

For more than a decade the Union Giants were known as one of the best barnstorming teams in the country.  In 1928, Robert Gilkerson was interviewed by the North Dakota newspaper, The Fargo Forum, where he defended his team's reputation, "We do not claim to be the best traveling team in the business, but if there are any teams claiming that honor, we'd like to meet them in a three game series, and we'll bet our end of the gate receipts on the outcome."

Gilkerson added, "There are plenty of strong traveling teams this season but any team that can win 95 percent of their games, playing the best aggregations in the middlewest, and barring none, is certainly worthy of consideration."

The idea that the Union Giants won 95% of their games was a bit of a stretch.  It may have been true when considering a short run of games, the Union Giants were known for long win streaks, but it simply wasn't sustainable over the course of a whole season and certainly not long term.  So, it's fair to ask, how good were the Union Giants really?  

Unfortunately, when it comes to independent traveling teams like Gilkerson's there were no official records or stats.  They did not belong to any league or conference and did not report to any governing body.  Instead, year-end totals were compiled and occasionally sent off to various newspapers by team owner Robert Gilkerson, mostly to promote the team the following year.

A century later, these records remain buried and forgotten in old sports columns, spread out over a decade and isolated in different parts of the country.   To my knowledge, no one had ever tracked them all down, compiled and publicly shared them until now. 

With this in mind, during the 1920's, the Union Giants are reported to have won 1,017 games out of 1,301 played.  This would put Gilkerson's combined winning percentage for the decade at over 79%.  The team's best overall year, according to the totals, was 1927, when they won nearly 84% of their contests.   Both are elite numbers and demonstrate clearly how the majority of their opponents were simply outmatched by the Union Giants.  Even on their worst year, the team won over 72% of their games.

Here are the totals broken down by year (sources below):

YEAR	W	L	T	PCT
1920	91	20	4	.809
1921	97	23	1	.806
1922	89	29	2	.750
1923	88	22	4	.789
1924	101	38	1	.725
1925	91	30	4	.744
1926	117	22	4	.832
1927	118	22	2	.838
1928	103	23	3	.810
1929	122	26	4	.816
TOTALS	1017	255	29	.793

The question remains, are these numbers accurate?  The totals seem almost too good to be true and there would have been nothing preventing Gilkerson from simply embellishing his wins and losses to help promote his team.  

On this point, I can offer this amateur analysis.   I've positively identified the outcome of approximately 60% of the 1,301 games the Union Giants are said to have played during this 10-year period.  I used box scores, line scores and accounts of games from a variety of newspapers that had no real interest in making the Union Giants appear better than they really were.  Of the more than 780 games I've verified for this period, the Union Giants won roughly 74% of them.  For 1927, the Union Giants' best year according to Gilkerson's numbers, I show them winning over 78% of their games.

While these winning percentages fall below what Gilkerson provided, they are still quite impressive.  With 40% of the games still unaccounted for, it is within reason to expect the gap between the two set of numbers to narrow.  I would even say, for most years, Gilkerson's totals are still plausible.  Based on my preliminary numbers alone, the 1925 team was likely a little worse than Gilkerson said.  At the same time, the 1926 Union Giants might prove to be better than reported.  

In the end, if it turns out that Gilkerson did in fact boost his numbers, it wasn't really necessary.  His team clearly lived up to their reputation as one of the great independent barnstorming teams of the decade. 

Here are the newspaper sources for each of the above totals along with some additional information.  As you will see, most years had multiple sources.  Any discrepancies or conflicting reports are also noted.

1920 (Record: 91-20-4):  The Chicago Whip, March 5, 1921.  The Dubuque Times-Journal and The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, April 10, 1921.  Both Dubuque, Iowa papers also reported their run differential and number of shutouts for 1920.

1921 (Record: 97-23-1):  The Capital Times (Madison, WI), May 26, 1922.  Grant County Herald (Lancaster, WI), May 31, 1922.  The Vernon County Censor (Viroqua, WI), June 7, 1922.  June 14, 1922.

Nearing the end of the season, The Chicago Whip on October 22, 1921 reported their record as 91-23-1.

1922 (Record: 89-29-2):  Montreal River Miner (Hurley, WI), August 10, 1923.  

The Ironwood Daily Globe (Ironwood, MI) also published the Union Giants' 1922 record on August 7, 1923.  They however listed 89 games played instead of 89 wins.

1923 (Record 88-22-4):  The Capital Times (Madison, WI), May 27, 1924.  The Bricelyn Sentinel (Bricelyn, MN), June 13, 1924.  Reedsburg Free Press (Reedsburg, WI), September 11, 1924.  The Omaha Monitor, September 26, 1924.  The Grand Island Independent (Grand Island, NE), October 2, 1924.

                           

1924 (Record 101-38-1):  The Chicago Defender, October 18, 1924.

The August 7, 1925 editions of the Daily Times (Davenport, IA) and the Davenport Democrat and Leader both listed the Union Giants' 1924 record this way:  "Last year the colored boys copped 101 of their 139 contests."  This fails to acknowledge either one of their losses or more likely, their one tie.

1925 (Record 91-30-4):  Moline Daily Dispatch (Moline, IL), October 14, 1925.  Bureau County Tribune (Princeton, IL), October 23, 1925.

The Sioux City Journal reported on April 17, 1926 one less win and one more loss: 90-31-4.

1926 (Record 117-22-4):  Winside Herald (Winside, NE), June 30, 1927.   

The Brainerd Daily Dispatch (Brainerd, MN), August 10, 1927 listed their record with two less ties, 117-22-2.  Several other newspapers that year published their record as 117 wins and 22 losses, with no mention of ties.  The real outlier however was the Daily Times (Davenport, IA), May 3, 1927 which listed the Union Giants' record for 1926 as 134-32-4.

1927 (Record 118-22-2):  The Winnipeg Tribune, June 7, 1928.

The Daily Times (St. Cloud, MN), August 24, 1928:  "The Gilkerson Union Giants copped 118 games this season and lost but 22."  No mention of ties.

Immediately following the season (October 6, 1927), The Daily Post-Tribune (LaSalle, IL) recorded four fewer losses:  "Gilkerson's outfit played 138 games.  Of these 138 they won 118, lost 18 and ended two in ties.  For those who must have statistitics [sic] and accurated figures and percentages with their baseball, it can be pointed out that Gil's team had a winning percentage of .855 of total number of games played."

1928 (Record 103-23-3):  The Albert Lea Tribune (Albert Lea, MN), June 26, 1929.

The Fargo Forum (Fargo, ND), August 8, 1929 listed the Union Giants with 105 wins and 23 losses in 1928.   During the 1928 season, the Brainerd Dispatch reported on July 9th, that the Union Giants had already played 147 games that year, winning 101 of them.  This seems to be pure fabrication.

1929 (Record 122-26-4):  The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois), Apr 19, 1930 and April 20, 1930.  The Bismark Tribune (Bismark, ND), June 4, 1930.

The Daily Times (Davenport, IA) and the Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA) on April 25, 1930 listed their 1929 record with four fewer losses:  122-22-4.  The Daily Pantagraph initially provided their record this way on April 16, 1930:  "won 92, lost 24 and played four tie games out of 122 contests waged in 1929."  (The math is clearly wrong here.)  Another early provided record that was later updated came from the Bismark Tribune.  On May 27, 1930 they wrote, "last year, the Giants played 105 games, 23 of which they lost.  Three of their games ended in ties."