Baseball was a twelve-month a year job for most professional baseball players. No player’s salary from the Negro League season alone was enough to live on all year long. So, when the Negro League season was over, players had to earn a living playing baseball somewhere else or find a job doing something else. When the Negro League season was over, many of the ball players would go west to California or south to Latin America or the Caribbean to play winter league baseball. There was a saying in Negro League baseball “that the sun is always shining somewhere.”

Marianao Tigers Team Photo

This team-signed baseball is from the 1950-1951 Marianao Tigers of the Cuban Winter League. The baseball was signed by twenty-eight (28) players, coaches and the manager. The autographs of Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame players Jose M. Fernandez Sr. and Adolfo Luque are especially rare signatures.

The Marianao Tigers finished in third place in the league with a 36-36 record, four and a half games behind the league champion Habana Leones.

There were twelve players, a coach and the manager that had all played in the Negro Leagues that were part of the 1950-1951 Marianao Tigers team. Their season statistics for the 1950-51 Tigers were as following. 

Marianao Tigers - Pennant (c. 1950's)