Esteban Bellán

Esteban Bellán. First Cuban and first Latin American to play in a major baseball league.

He was born in 1850, in Cuba. He learned the game as a student at Fordham University between 1863 and 1868 with the Fordham Rose Hill Baseball Club which had been founded in the late 1850s and which was the first team to play with a complete nine-man roster in the USA against St. Francis Xavier College on November 3, 1859.

After having played in the USA he also became the first great baseball manager on our island.

By 1868 he begins to play with the Unions of Morrisania, New York and he was already known as "Steve".

In 1869 Bellán joins the Troy Haymakers team playing third base until 1872.

This team in 1871 joins the National Association which later becomes the Major Leagues in 1876. The Haymakers change their name to the New York Giants, which are currently known as The San Francisco Giants.
After playing with the Haymakers, Bellán played one year with the New York Mutuals and returned to Cuba and on December 27, 1874 he participates in the first organized baseball game in Cuba.

From 1878 until 1886 he played for and was manager of the Habana team which had been recently founded and he led them to win the championship in the years:
1878 – 1879
1879 – 1880
1882 – 1883

Bellán died on August 8, 1932, but he left behind sports work that has already become a legend within baseball in Cuba and in the Major Leagues.