Posted By:
Jodi BirkholmQuoting Ted Z.:
Louis Castro was born in Colombia in 1876 and has the distinction of being the first Latin player in Major League Baseball.
I would give my left, (*ahem*), ventricle for a signature of Castro.
Yes, Castro is often one of the players mistakenly identified as the first Latin-American to grace an MLB diamond. He certainly is the first Columbian (by nearly a century over the next Columbian, I believe), but nobody ever mentions this guy, the true holder of the record:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/bellast01.shtml
Jodi
Edited to add: Strangely enough, Baseball Reference now lists Castro's place of birth as NYC. Although I don't know the reasons behind the change, I do agree with their spelling his first name Luis.