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Joe P.That's a great looking card of G. C. Alejandro, one of the first Latino pitchers to play Pro ball.
Before I go any further, and before anyone might start believing that I'm serious about any of this.
Let me just say that this is a fun thing with Nick in Vegas.
It's a running put on between the two of us.
There appears to be a slight difference of opinion as to who were the first Cubans or Latinos to play professional ball in the good old US of A.
There are two schools of thought here.
The term Major Leagues, is a term that evolved just like baseball evolved from townball to the first paid 1869 redstockings to the likes of the Troy Haymakers, Mutuals, Atlantics, Eckfords, Etc to the NL, then to the Jr Circuit of 1901, and so forth.
It's still evolving.
Now a days, the goal of a ball player is to want to play professionally for one of the teams of what we call the major leagues.
Back in the late 1860's and '70's the goal of the pro ball player was to play for a team like the Troy Haymakers just like Bellan did in 1871.
The early pro teams were not called the mayors, the terminology hadn't come into play yet, it evolved much later.
Nick considers the Cuban or Latino pro ball players that started playing in the very early 1900's as the first major league ball player to play in this country.
To a certain extent he's right, but he's having difficulties accepting the fact that when Bellan played for Troy in 1871, and Nava played for Providence in 1882 '83 '84, they were playing for what was recognized as top professional baseball teams of that time.
The word and terminology of the majors was still in the future.
In order not to get totally away from initial idea of this thread, I would love to get a thought on this from Ghost Marcelle, or anyone for that matter.
Always interested in getting a view from the Bridge.
Joe P.