Bobby Maduro

Roberto Maduro de Lima

• School Cornell University
• High School Asheville School

• Born June 27, 1916 in Havana Cuba
• Died October 16, 1986 in Miami, FL USA

Biographical Information

Bobby Maduro was a major figure in professional baseball in Cuba. His father, who was born in Curaçao, moved to Cuba and did well as a sugar planter. The family fortune really expanded, though, after Salomón Maduro became involved in the insurance business. Young Bobby was educated in the United States, including some time at Cornell University, though he did not graduate. He always enjoyed baseball and played as an amateur.

He gave $2 million to help build Estadio Latinoamericano as the home of the Cuban Winter League in 1946. The first ballclub he owned was Cienfuegos in the Cuban Winter League; he and two friends bought the team before the 1949-50 winter season.

In May 1953, Maduro bought out Clark Griffith and became majority owner of the Havana Cubans. After the 1953 season, however, he obtained the rights to the Springfield franchise in the International League and moved it to Havana. The club became known as the Havana Sugar Kings. Maduro's greatest hope was that someday Havana would be a major-league city. However, the International League moved the club to Jersey City, NJ in 1960, the year after Fidel Castro rose to power. Maduro was also forced to emigrate to Miami, FL after the Castro regime nationalized the family's extensive holdings. He owned the Jacksonville Suns after the IL dropped Jersey City as a location in October 1961. He also served as their general manager after divesting his majority ownership stake. He then went to work in the Commissioner's office with the title of "Coordinator of Inter-American Baseball", from December 1965 through December 1978.

Shortly after he left the Commissioner's office, Maduro organized the Inter-American League, although it proved to be a short-lived failure. He was an eternal optimist who continuously saw a golden era just around the corner for Latin American baseball, something which may have clouded his business judgment at times. He was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985 and the Latin American Baseball Hall of Fame in 2010.

Miami Stadium was renamed Bobby Maduro Stadium in his honor in 1987. It was demolished in 2001.

Further Reading

• John Cronin: "When a Dream Plays Reality in Baseball...: Roberto Maduro and the Inter-American League", in The Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 40, Number 1 (Spring 2011), pp. 88-93.
• Lou Hernández: Bobby Maduro and the Cuban Sugar Kings, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2018. ISBN 978-1-4766-3482-1

Related Sites

• Bobby Maduro at the SABR Bio Project