The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1951-04-14
FOLLOWING
THROUGH
BY PEDRO AGuILAR

/ read with interest an article
published yesterday in the sports
section of The Citizen telling of q
visit by Charles Morgan,
All of the oldtimers will remem-
Der Gunner" Morgan. / don't re.
mmber him as a player but. / dc
recall that he was an enthusiastic
fan. He never missed a ball game
l don't know who financed the
trip of the Cincinnati Reds to Key
West in 1908 but, the events and
the games of that peroid are cleai
in my mind. We had some great
sports fans in those days. George
Brooks Sr., Judge BIB. Walton,
Jese Johnson. and E. founders
sponsored the games here. AT that
time, the Key West club had five
players from the Three Il" league
playing here. Later they played
in the big leagues.
And that year, the Almendares
baseball CLUB played in the Island
City, and we went to Cuba for
some games. The locals had Cheek
for catcher, Hagerman as pitcher,
Panther Pent on first, Cuthbert
at secand, Noyes at third, Evaristo
Rodriguez at short, Tomas in left
field, Medina in center, Cheche
Mira in right. and Shannon, a
pitcher, playing center in some of
the games. ,rs
Key West went to Cuba and de-
feated the Fe club and the Banaa
Reds, but lost to Almandares by
a to 0 score. Mendez was in the
box. McGraM ciaihnedi that Mem
DEE would have been worth a mil
lion dollars if he had been white,
He called him The Black Dia-
mond. .. SD, -4s.. e''1 s5se't tN
In the first game here, Mendez
shut out the locals 5 to o and Mu-
noz won by the same score in the
second. In the third game, Key
West won to to 3. Marsans play
ed second for AlmandareS, Stikee
Gonzalez was catcher, Castillo
was at first, Alemida at third,
Cabrera at short, Valdez, Hidal-
go, and Rogers were in the gar
dens, and General Sagua pitched
the last kane for the Cubans. 81.
When Cincinnati came here,
they had Mclean behind the plate.
Apade, Dubuc and Campbell in
the box, Hoblizel at first, HUI
swift at second, Hans Lobert at
third, Miller Higgins at short,
Pierce, Wingo, catcher, and one
of the pitchers played the out
field.
The oldtimers will remember
when Charles Falk was crossing
left field in fungo hitting and the
ball hit him on the head. And the
great Hans Lobert then fastest
man to circle the bases, who ran
against the best Key West had to
offer and made the scircle in "A
seconds. Tomas madesit ini4And
one fifth while Lee Pierce did it
in IA and three fifths.
In December, Hagerman and
Cheek went to Cuba and played
for the Havana Reds, who won the
pennent. They called Hagerman
"Chelito" in those days. From
there, he went to the big leagues,
with Cheek as his battery mate
on the Cups. The fans will also
remember Hoblitzel, the left
handed first baseman who hit
the ball over the right field fence
and into the yard of Luis Harris.
Gunner Morgan then was lit
tie over 40 and his playing days
were over Nevertheless, remem-
Der him very we'll at all the ball
games, at the Cato Park, Navy
yard, or barracks. He was and
still is a great baseball fan.
think those players were the
last paid players Key West had.
Not far away, however, is the
time Whens we wilis have. players
who are pad fof their efforts IN
stead of having to work five days
a week and then play on Sundays
although. we must admit, they
do fine jobsof it Joe Cambria,
when he was, told this few weeks
ago, said that it was hard to be-
lieve that they could play such a
good brand of ball and yet only
get their hands on a ball once
"a week.
Key West has had baseball for
10 wears. The first international
bali game was played here in 1892
and Felo Rodriguez brought the
first club to Key West from Cuba
to play.
MAY we have good baseball for
many years to come, and many
more good 100 percent fans like