Bobby Estalella (outfielder)

Roberto Estalella Ventoza [es-tah-LAY-yah] (April 25, 1911 – January 6, 1991) was a Cuban professional baseball outfielder and third baseman, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators (1935–1936, 1939, 1942), St. Louis Browns (1941), and Philadelphia Athletics (1943–1945, 1949). He represented the American League (AL) in the 1945 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Estalella and the second or maternal family name is Ventoza.
Bobby Estalella
Outfielder / Third baseman
Born: (1911-04-25)April 25, 1911
Cárdenas, Cuba
Died: January 6, 1991(1991-01-06) (aged 79)
Hialeah, Florida
Batted: Right Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 7, 1935, for the Washington Senators
Last MLB appearance
September 16, 1949, for the Philadelphia Athletics
MLB statistics
Batting average.282
Home runs44
Runs batted in308
Teams

Early life

Born in Cárdenas, Matanzas, Cuba,[1][2][3] Estalella earned the nickname "Tarzan"[4][5] by his medium-frame, stocky and compact body.

Professional career

After a brief two-season stint with the Senators, Estalella led the Piedmont League in batting average two years in a row in 1937 and 1938. After that, he spent his time with the Senators and Browns between 1939 and 1942. He was sent to the Athletics in 1943 in the same trade that brought All-Star Indian Bob Johnson to Washington.

With Philadelphia, Estalella hit .298 in 1944 and .299 in 1945 (fourth in the league). He would have played many more years, but he was one of the players suspended by Commissioner Happy Chandler in 1946 for jumping to the outlaw Mexican League.[5] Chandler mentioned a lifetime suspension for them, but when the penalty was reduced in 1949, Estalella came back to the majors.

Although Estalella vigorously denied it during his life,[6] several current baseball writers now consider him to have been the first player of some African ancestry to have played in the Major Leagues.[6][7][8]

Career stats

Estalella was a career .282 hitter with 44 home runs and 308 RBI in 680 games. He also compiled a respectable 1.423 walk-to-strikeout ratio (350-to-246) and a .383 on-base percentage.

Personal

His grandson, also named Bobby Estalella, was a catcher who also played in Major League Baseball.[6]

Bobby Estalella died in Hialeah, Florida at the age of 79.

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See also

References
  1. "Roberto "Tarzán" Estalella". www.juanperez.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  2. Alvarez, Alfredo (2018-04-19). "Roberto Estalella, hombre de dinamita en sus muñecas". Con Las Bases Llenas (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  3. "Bobby Estalella Stats, Fantasy & News". MLB.com. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  4. "ROBERTO ESTALELLA: EL TARZÁN DE LA PELOTA CUBANA". Pelota Cubana. 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  5. "Bobby Estalella – Society for American Baseball Research". Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  6. Heuer, Robert. "The Cuban Slide". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  7. Kohn, Asher (2016-03-25). "How we can learn about race relations from Cuban baseball". Medium. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
  8. "Latinos in Baseball-Notes". University of Michigan. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
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