One of the highlights marking the 70th Anniversary of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown this summer is Viva Baseball, Cooperstowns first permanent exhibit on Latin American baseball. Former first baseman Orlando Cepeda was the chosen speaker to represent the nine Latinos who were inducted into the Hall of Fame. In his speech, Cepeda emphasized that to be here today they had to go through some obstacles, pertaining to the racial prejudice and intolerance that they had to go through since the 19th century.

The first Latino who made it to the major leagues was third-baseman Esteban Bellan who was of Cuban descent. For seven more decades after that, MLB only allowed fair-skinned Latinos to join the majors, and even then, these Latino players weren’t exactly feeling at-home with their white peers. In 1947, Jackie Robinson integrated the game and dark-skinned Latino players began joining the league. From then, Latino players took an Anglo name or downplayed their roots. Even Ted Williams, one of the legendary names in baseball, was careful not to mention the fact that his mother was Mexican American. The first Latino to be elected to the Hall of Fame was Roberto Clemente, who was nicknamed Bob on early baseball cards of him. He did not like how sportswriters quoted his pidgin English and portrayed him as the stereotypically temperamental Puerto Rican.

While funny accents and temperament of Latino players are no longer being highlighted in print, Latino players still have to contend with an even more damaging notion that Latino players are responsible for introducing performance-enhancing drugs in the game. This image may be due to the fact that the widespread use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs were exposed by a self-confessed user and Latino, slugger Jose Canseco. Also, more than half of the baseball players caught juicing were Latino players. According to Newsweek, almost two-thirds of the MLB players who tested positive for steroid use were from Latin America. Newsweek was compelled to raise the troubling possibility, questioning if players from Latin America were simply too driven to succeed.

In many Latin American countries, steroids and performance enhancing drugs banned in the league can be bought legally or over-the-counter without prescription. Players from Latin America thus have a different notion of performance-enhancing drugs. Most people would say that using steroids is cheating, but in the history of the game, players have used various devices from corked bats to spitballs and various downers, stimulants, and booze to help them get through the pressures and stress of big league competition. Many Latino baseball players who are Hall of Fame material have been tainted by the scourge of steroids including Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Manny Ramirez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Miguel Tejada among others.

Indeed, Latin Americans presence in the Major League Baseball is a formidable force that cannot be ignored. The New Latino Viva Baseball is a good start in recognizing the importance of the Latin American players in the history of American Baseball and the induction of Latino greats in the 80s and the 90s will prove this even more.

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