Martín Dihigo Llanos

Versatile Negro Leagues player who played in summer and winter championships. Known as "The Immortal" or "The Master." He stands out for obtaining more than 260 victories as a pitcher, and was capable of playing in different positions, achieving a .400 average. He also stands out as a manager in various eras. Considered the best Cuban baseball player of all time. Glory of Cuban sports.

He was born in the town of Cidra, province of Matanzas. He attended public school No. 8 of José Tomas. His father, Benito Dihigo, a veteran of Cuba's War of Independence, worked in a sugar mill, while his mother Margarita Llanos performed household duties. From a very early age he was interested in baseball and since he was poor and had no money to buy sports equipment, he made cloth balls and güira bats to play in the empty lots of the neighborhood.

The number he wore on his jersey was 11 and they called him The Immortal or The Master. His first game as a professional was on January 23, 1923, when he was accepted as third base for the Rojos del Habana team.

A few weeks before the start of the season, Miguel Ángel González, once a stellar catcher in Major League Baseball, received information about a 16-year-old youth from the province of Matanzas who had all the qualities to succeed in professional baseball.

Immediately, the owner of the Habana Club sent for him and conducted several tests with the young man at bat and as a defender of third base, a position in which he excelled due to his movements and powerful arm. After a few years and having become a true star in Cuban winter tournaments and in American Negro Leagues, Martín Dihigo told one of the reporters of the time about what happened on his debut day, January 21, 1923:

"We faced the Marianao Team, then managed by Baldomero Merito Acosta; with the game practically decided in favor of the Marianenses, Miguel Ángel sent me to cover third base. In fact, the three outs of the inning were on easy grounders to my hands, thus, without any doubt, the triumphant career began"

Some time later it was learned that he had participated in several youth category championships from the age of 13 until 1921 when he played shortstop for the Piratas de Matanzas team in a semi-professional tournament held on weekends at the Palmar de Junco field.

Over nearly two decades, Dihigo delighted fans from Cuba, the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, both as a pitcher and as a player, demonstrating mastery of all nine positions.

The best example to corroborate this claim is found in the statistical summaries of the 1935-1936 Cuban championship, in which he wore the Santa Clara uniform and won both the batting title (.358) and the pitchers' title with 11 wins and two losses.

Due to the color of his skin he was never able to perform in Major League Baseball; but at the end of the first season in the Cuban professional tournament, businessman Alejandro Pompéz already included him in the roster of the Cubans Star.

During 12 campaigns (between 1922-1947) he played alongside players of the caliber of James Cool, Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Joshua Gibson, Leroy Satchell Paige, Sam Lloyd and many others in various teams of the Negro Leagues of the United States. While it is true that Martín Dihigo never achieved his aspiration to play with the best stars of the Major Leagues, he was sometimes able to face players of the stature of George Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Grover Cleveland Alexander, among others, in exhibition games and many came to know the exceptional qualities of the Cuban player.

When asked, the then vice president of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Al Campanis, who was the most complete player he had ever seen, he answered without thinking twice: Martín Dihigo. Campanis was not alone in this assertion, as other great figures in baseball such as John Mc Graw, Satchel Paige, Hilton Smith, Buck Leonard, Doc Cramer and Johnny Mize said similar things about Dihigo. After seeing Dihigo in action to explain what kind of player he was, Leonard expressed:

"He was the best of all time, white or black. You can choose Ruth, Cobb and DiMaggio, but I'll stick with Dihigo"

Another Major League player, Johnny Mize, who had the opportunity to play with Martín in the Dominican Republic around 1937 commented once:

"On several occasions during the championship the pitchers preferred to give him an intentional walk to pitch to me"

When he returned from playing in Venezuela in 1935, outfielder Doc Cramer of the Boston Red Sox commented that he had faced players like Joshua Gibson and Oscar Charleston in exhibition games, but if the racial barrier that existed at that time had been broken, Dihigo would have been the best to jump to the Major Leagues.

In 1938, in Mexico, he set an unprecedented record with Las Águilas de Veracruz, winning the batting championship with .387, while also sweeping the pitching department, capturing the titles for wins and losses with 18-2, earned run average with 0.90 and strikeouts with 184. He finished his career in Mexican territory with a record of 119-57.

In Cuba, during the 1935-1936 season, he led Los Leopardos of Santa Clara to win the championship as the team's manager. As if that were not enough, he captured 9 individual titles, including the batting crown (.359) and the pitchers' title (11-2).

He led the league in runs scored (42), tied with Willie Wells in hits (63), triples (8), and RBIs along with Bill "Cy" Perkins (38), complete games as a pitcher (13), wins (11) and shutouts (4).

He was named the Most Valuable Player. He set another world record by being inducted into the Hall of Fame of three different countries: Cuba, the United States, and Mexico.

In Cuba he won 106 of the 120 complete games he pitched, was pitchers' champion in 3 seasons; leader in games won (2), pitched (2), complete games (2). As a batter in Cuba: leader in hits 3 times, in RBIs (1), in batting (1). He batted .400 or better twice and hit 4 doubles in one game on November 15, 1928.

In his first year as a Negro Leagues player in 1923, he led in home runs (11) and repeated in 1926 and 1927, while batting averages of .421 and .370 respectively. He played in several All-Star Games among black players.

During 1932 he went to play in Venezuela, where he spent three seasons. On August 21, 1932, he shut out Cincinnati of La Güaira in the Summer League and struck out 15 batters, giving Concordia a 4-0 victory.

On September 18 of that year, he struck out 17 Caribe players in 10 innings, allowing only 4 hits and leading Concordia to a 3-2 victory. In 1933 he finished with a 6-0 record with an incredible earned run average of 0.15. On July 23, he held Caribe to one hit, a solo home run by Perucho Cepeda (Orlando's father) in the seventh. He struck out 9 and his new Universidad team won 3-1.

A month later, on September 24, he held Royal Criollos to one hit in 10 innings, defeating "Patón" Alejandro Carrasquel, 1-0. On May 6, 1934, pitching again for Concordia, he held Santa Marta to one hit, striking out 12 and shutting them out 3-0.

Subsequently, on September 9, he held Santa Marta to 3 hits, allowing Concordia to win the VI First Division Baseball Championship undefeated in 1934.

When Martín played in Puerto Rico he made his debut patrolling all three outfield positions in one game. The next day he played shortstop in the first game and pitched a complete game in the third.

He was part of the Águilas Cibaeñas team in 1937 in the Dominican Republic, where he was the team's best batter and pitcher. He finished as the league's home run leader and finished third to Joshua Gibson with a .351 average. Only Satchel Paige was able to win more than the 6 victories achieved by Dihigo during a competition that lasted only 28 games.

The Mexicans saw him win 119 games and lose only 57, with 1,523 2/3 innings pitched in 11 campaigns. He pitched the first no-hitter ever achieved in the Mexican League on September 16, 1937, pitching for Veracruz, shutting out Nogales 4-0. He was pitchers' champion in 3 different seasons and on a couple of occasions in earned run average. He struck out 18 in a 9-inning game on August 5, 1939 and recorded 34 strikeouts in 2 consecutive games on August 5 and 8, 1939. He won the strikeout championship in 4 different tournaments.

As a batter, he got 6 hits in as many at-bats against Agrario on September 18, 1936, in Delta Park in the capital.

After an intense campaign led by sports columnist Buck Canel and the Club de Matanceros Libres, it was officially announced on Thursday, February 3, 1977, that he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York on August 8, 1977, a title obtained posthumously.

He has been considered internationally as the most complete baseball player of all time, which is why he is known by the nickname of The Master, a distinction he earned through his performances on the field. He also appears in the halls of fame of Mexico and Venezuela.

Martín Dihigo Llano died in the town of Cruces in Cienfuegos on May 19, 1971, where he lived for many years of his life after getting married and having a son, whom he called Martincito, who played ball with the Marianao Club, but never joined the Professional Cuban Baseball League.