BREAKING BASEBALL'S COLOR BARRIER

Submitted by ub on

While most record books name Jackie Robinson as breaking the color barrier in baseball in 1947, many forget others who became the first black players.

Cuban star Orestes 'Minnie' Miñoso is certainly one to look up in the history books. His real name is Saturnino Orestes Armas "Minnie" Miñoso Arrieta.

He was a Cuban professional free agent baseball player playing for Cleveland Indians in the late 40's. The Cuban Comet is still alive and working in baseball for Chicago.

Minnie Miñoso enjoys a progressively responsible career which lasted over seven decades on the field with considerable statistics. He is a nine-time All-Star and a three-time American League Golden Glove winner, with a batting percentage of .298. Despite all of this available data, Minnie has not yet been inducted to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

City Island Images reached out to Hall of Fame officials, as well as members of Chicago White Sox organization to ask about steps are being taken to secure Minnie's place in the history of baseball.

Major League Baseball’s racial diversity today roughly mirrors US population,but % of blacks has declined since 2012 http://pewrsr.ch/1eJoMiC

MLB: Puig's journey from Cuba http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/10781144/no-one-walks-island…