Our Giants in Havana

By David Marasco

In 1907 the defending world champions the Chicago White Sox spent spring training in Mexico City. They had more problems with the trains than they did with the training. The local opposition didn't give any competition to the Sox. The defending National League champions, the New York Giants, would find quite a different state of affairs when they trained in Havana in 1937.

They arrived to spring training as did many teams, out of shape and rusty. Their manager, Bill Terry, spent a few more days in the states due to illness. The local teams had just finished their winter season and were in good form. After five days in Cuba the Giants played their first game. It was February 24, Cuban Independence Day, and 7000 saw the match. The Giants sent out Tom de la Cruz to face a team that supposedly represented the Cuban Armed Forces. It was, in fact, a picked nine. While the Giants put up a run in the first the Cuban team managed four runs off of de la Cruz with the help of some New York errors. Juan Eckelson, the Armed Forces starter, limited the Giants to but four runs. The key to the game was the eighth, when the great Dolf Luque came into pitch for New York. The proud Cuban crowd gave their hero a huge ovation. While the fans knew what to do with their hands, the Giants didn't. Two errors opened the doors for three runs, and the final was 7-3 for the locals. A naive sportswriter commented "It being Cuba's foremost holiday, the natives played inspired ball and perhaps infinitely better than their custom." The next day Bill Terry took advantage of a rainstorm to break out the chalkboard and illustrate some of the finer points of the game. The Giants had shown that they needed some refreshing.

On February 27 the Giants collided with the Havana club in front of a crowd of 8000. Once again, the New Yorkers would draw first blood. Lou Chiozza led off the game with a single and the Giants would manufacture a run. It was the only time they would cross the plate against Basilo Rosell (described as a "swarthy native"). The Giants sent out Clyde Castleman, and he did not allow a hit over his three innings. Bill Benne replaced him in the fourth and Havana jumped all over him. A single and two walks put ducks on the pond for Silvio Garcia, who responded with a bases-clearing double. Benne settled down, but the game was already lost. Cliff Melton pitched the last three innings for the Giants, giving up eight hits and six more runs. The final was a humiliating 9-1. The writer covering the game was willing to admit that the Giants play was "...no match today for the superbly trained Cubans..."

The next day the Giants spent the morning watching cock fights. They spent the afternoon losing to Almendares. A crowd of 7000 assembled for the game. It featured the hitting and pitching of Ramon Bragana. Bill Terry would later marvel over Bragana's selection, "He had speed, a wonderful assortment of curves and perfect control." If Terry had been tempted to sign Bragana, he would have run into trouble. It was 10 years before Jackie Robinson and the star pitcher was black. In any case, the Giants once again started out on the right foot, with a solo run in the second. While Almendares was baffled by Frank Gabler, John Meketi presented no mystery. Bragana himself tripled to tie up the game, and the Cubans loaded up the bases in the 7th. Terry went to his bullpen for Harry Gumbert, but he gave up a pair of runs and then three more in the ninth. The final would be 6-1. "Fears that the absence of major league competition would cause the Giants to suffer during the fore part of this bizarre training trip seem to have been well founded. Only the Giants are not suffering from any lack of competition. Rather it's a case of too much."

After a few days off the Giants were back to work. They split up into four teams and played intrasquad games. With Pancho Snyder pitching for both teams the Freddy Fitzsimmons boys bested the Carl Hubbells by a final of 7-3. Bill Terry took the mound for the second match and the Mel Otts triumphed over the Gus Mancusos 10-2. The entire affair took a little over three hours, and after most took a nap.

Since they weren't doing very well against the pros, the Giants arranged to play a game against Fortuna Sporting Club, a local amateur squad. Here they finally hit stride. They launched into Agapito Mayor for seven runs. The big blow was Dick Bartell's homer to center. Seeing as the fence was 525 feet from the plate, this was an inside-the-park job. The fans tossed boxes of cigars to Bartell to honor him. Tom Ferrick gave up three hits in his three innings, and Bill Yarewick gave up only one in three. The last three frames belonged to John Hubbell. John was a right hander, so nobody got him confused with his more famous lefthanded brother. He gave up a pair of runs in the ninth to make the final 7-2. Unlike Henry Mathewson, John never saw the majors.

The next day would see some more intrasquad play. To make things interesting each player bet his opposite member fifty cents on the outcome (ask some old timer what half a buck could buy back in the depression). Bill Benne started for the Mel Otts and Tom de la Cruz for the Gus Mancusos. Both went the distance and the game wasn't decided until the tenth. The Otts won 7-5.

March 6 saw a rematch against Almendares. While the Cubans could only manage three hits, the Giants could tally but four. Rodolfo Fernandez was on the mound for the Cubans and he started the third with a double. Hal Schumacher spun out of control, walking the next three batters, forcing in a run. A sacrifice fly brought across another man and an ill-advised pickoff accounted for runs three and four. Fernandez would yield no runs. It is noted that Jose Capablanca, Chess master of Cuba, was in attendance. Capablanca played ball at Columbia in the early years of the century, and was a fast friend of John McGraw.

With four losses and no wins against the Cuban professionals, the Giants went to their meal ticket, Carl Hubbell. He delivered. He got a thunderous welcome from the crowd of 7000, and they cheered even more when he gave up a run in the first. The game turned into a pitchers duel in the early goings with Hubbell matching Luis Tiant Sr. In the fifth inning American League President William Harridge arrived at the ballpark. As if on cue, the Giants turned it on. When the dust settled they had scored seven runs, knocking Tiant out of the box in the process. Harry Danning's inside-the-park home run was the clutch hit in the frame. The Giants would take a victory, 7-3.

In intrasquad action a game played by the pitchers was won by the Fitzsimmons 9-6 over the Hubbells. With the stakes now at a dollar, the Mancusos shut out the Otts 3-0.

On March 11 the New Yorkers took on an All-Star team of islanders. Once again, the Giants scored a run off of Bragana in the first inning. This would be their only run. However, unlike previous games, their pitching did not implode. Al Smith threw three perfect innings, and Dick Coffman blanked the natives for his set. It was in the eighth that Tom Ferrick faltered. He gave up a walk which turned into a run when it was followed by a single and a sacrifice fly. The two teams would call it a day after twelve. In their six games against professionals, the Giants won one, tied one and lost four. Bragana would have to be awarded the MVP, holding the Giants to two runs over 21 innings. He would toil for years in the Negro and Mexican Leagues, never crossing the color barrier.

A crowd of 10,000 came on March 13 to see the Cardinals visit Havana to face the Giants. Poor play on the part of the New Yorkers gave the Redbirds a pair of runs in the first. The Giants came back for a pair of their own on the force of a Mel Ott double. Ott struck again in the fifth with a run scoring single. The game was decided in the seventh. A walk and a Dick Bartell error put two men on for Frankie Frisch. He took the first pitch he saw to centerfield for a two-run single. Bill McGee held down the Giants for the remainder and won by a final of 4-3.

Saturday's game was just the warmup for the Sunday encounter. Carl Hubbell would start against Paul Dean (Dizzy was holding out). 20,000 came to see the two teams. The Giants got a run off of Dean, and when the starters were pulled after three the score stood at 1-0. But Fat Freddy Fitzsimmons was an open book for the Cardinals. They got a run in the fourth, another in the fifth and two more in the sixth. In the seventh the the Giants got one back. They went into the bottom of the ninth down 4-2, but they went on a rampage against Bob Weiland, scoring a pair and loading the bases with none out. This brought in Nathan Andrews to the mound and his fine pitching extended the game to extra innings. But he did not have it in the tenth. He gave up a walk, blew a sacrifice, and then surrendered a single before giving up a sacrifice fly to lose the game 5-4. The Giants soon set sail for Miami, where they could take a step down and face major league competition.