Adolfo Luque holds a rare place in Cuban baseball lore, being the only one to earn even a little bit of big-league fame during the first half-century of modern major-league history.

Racial barriers had almost everything to do with the fact that the early Cuban hurling and slugging phenoms were simply too black to ever penetrate the "white" baseball establishment during the race-driven era of Kenesaw Mountain Landis. However, some of the most famous and talented latino baseball players back home in Havana, toured with black barnstorming outfits.

Dolf Luque Launched his pro baseball career in Cuba in 1912 as both a pitcher and hard-hitting infielder. He displayed considerable talent at third base as well as on the hill. A mere six months after debuting with the Cuban League Fe club, the promising youngster was promptly recruited for the Long Branch franchise of the New Jersey-New York State League.

It was a time when pro baseball was banned in New York City on Sunday, and visiting major-league clubs would often supplemented sparse travel money by scheduling exhibition contests with the conveniently located Long Branch team on Sunday afternoon open dates.

It was this circumstance that allowed Dolf to impress Boston Braves manager George Stallings sufficiently, to earn a big-league contract early in the 1914 season.

In his debut with the Braves, Dolf would become the first Latin American pitcher to appear in either the American or National League. At the time he logged only three winter-league seasons in which he had appeared in a total of 15 games for the Fe and Habana clubs, posting three complete games and only two victories in the 1913-14 season.

The Braves were still in the National League cellar when Dolf would make his big-league debut in May at Pittsburgh. His initial outing would be a moderate success, throwing an eight-inning complete game in a 4-1 defeat.

Dolf would eventually pitch 13⅔ innings for the Braves. Of the dozen pitchers who would throw during that summer, only Dolf and Ensign Cottrell failed to register a single victory.

By the time the the Braves would make their late-season surge and get to the World Series, the Cuban rookie was no longer on the active roster.