Ramón "Mike" Herrera was an infielder in Major League Baseball, playing mainly as a second baseman for the Boston Red Sox in part of two seasons. 261 hits and 1 home run in 5 MLB seasons.
Long before Jackie Robinson and Larry Doby, Herrera was one of the first men to play in both the major leagues (1925-1926) and the Negro leagues (1915-1928). He played for the Cuban Stars (West) of the Negro National League in 1920 and 1921, and for the Cuban Stars (East) of the Eastern Colored League in 1928. He joined the Boston Red Sox in September 1925, appearing in 10 games. He was enshrined in the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963.
From Herrera's SABR biography: Were the Boston Red Sox the last major-league team to sign a black player? Or were they one of the first? Did the Red Sox actually have a black ballplayer long before Pumpsie Green and 22 years before Jackie Robinson debuted with the Dodgers? Havana’s Ramon “Mike” Herrera totaled 276 at-bats in 1925 and 1926 while serving as a second baseman for the Red Sox (an even .275 batting average). He also played for Negro League teams both before and after his stretch with Boston, one of just 11 players who played in both the Negro Leagues and major leagues before World War II.
Before joining the Red Sox, Herrera had played for Almendares in Havana, as well as with La Union, All Leagues, and the (Cuban) Red Sox. The Boston Red Sox purchased him from their Springfield (Eastern League) club. The Boston Globe termed him a “splendid prospect” and he did go 2-for-5 in his first game.
Negro Leagues historian Todd Bolton, asked about Herrera’s history in the Negro Leagues, replied: “In the pre-Negro League years he barnstormed in the US with the Long Branch Cubans and the Jersey City Cubans. When the first Negro National League was formed in 1920, Herrera was a member of the Cuban Stars (West), one of the inaugural teams in the league. He stayed on with the team in 1921 when it became the Cincinnati Cubans. Herrera returned to the Negro Leagues for one final season in 1928 with Alejandro Pompez’ Cuban Stars (East).”
Photographs of Mike Herrera seem to show that he could easily “pass” for white, and for those who want to measure such things, he may have been more white than black. So did he have to “pass for black” when he was in the Negro Leagues? Not really, Bolton explained. There were a number of light-skinned players in the Negro Leagues and even more “white” Cubans. These players were used to playing together in Latin America. It was only in the United States that they were segregated.
Herrera was one of 16 Cubans listed by Pete Bjarkman as having played in both the major leagues and the Negro Leagues. [Bjarkman, A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006, McFarland, 2007, p. 134] Ocania Chalk, author of Pioneers of Black Sport: A Study in Courage and Perseverance, states that Herrera “has been verified as a black“ – however this is determined. [Unattributed clipping in Ramon Herrera player file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame]
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