Did You Know the Reds Had a Black Player Before Jackie Robinson?

Tommy De La Cruz 2I 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. He faced tremendous racism and abuse throughout his career but endured it bravely and triumphantly. Robinson won the very first…