I recently learned something about the Reds I had never heard of before: A black man played for the Reds in 1944, three years before the Dodger’s Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color line. The black man was from Cuba and his name was Tomas de la Cruz. He was a pitcher who went 9-9 with a 3.25 ERA in 191 innings for the Reds in 1944.
In no way does this diminish the monumental achievement of Jackie Robinson, who officially broke the color line in 1947 by becoming the first African-American to openly play for a major league team since the 1880’s.