Pedro Pagés (pagespe01)

Pedro Armando Pagés
(Gamo)

• Bats Both, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 180 lb.

• Debut 1939
• Final Game 1947
• Born February 23, 1914 in Matanzas Cuba

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Biographical Information

Pedro Pages was a star in Cuba and Mexico who played in the Negro Leagues for a couple of years. Pages was the prototypical leadoff man - good contact, good batting eye, good speed, little home run power. He debuted in 1935-1936, going 2 for 6 for the Santa Clara squad. He went 2 for 10 for Tigers in 1936-1937, then missed a couple of years.

In 1939, Pages played first base and hit second for the New York Cubans; he batted .250. He hit .261 and slugged .300 for Cienfuegos in 1939-1940. His 11 steals were second in the circuit behind Henry Kimbro. The Matanzas native went to the Mexican League in 1940 and hit .299/.396/.439 for the Mexico City Red Devils, with 50 walks, 27 doubles and 23 steals in 78 games. He scored 80 runs, averaging over one per game.

Pedro hit .281 and slugged .354 for Cienfuegos in 1940-1941, leading the Cuban Winter League with 37 runs. With the Tampico Lightermen in 1941, he hit .288/.362/.365 with 77 runs in 98 games. Back in Cuba in the winter, he batted only .220/?/.254 for Cienfuegos. In March 1942, he went 3 for 12 in an exhibition against the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played for the Puebla Parrots in 1942 and put up a .365/.445/.503 line with 8 triples and 68 runs in 81 games. He led the Mexican League with 30 steals and was third in average, behind only Monte Irvin and Agustin Bejerano.

In 1942-1943, Pages hit .245 and slugged .303 for Cienfuegos. In 1943, he hit .353/.419/.529 with 29 doubles for Puebla, two two-baggers behind leader Alejandro Crespo. He was fourth in average, just .001 behind #3 Ray Dandridge, a future Hall of Famer. In 1943-1944, Pedro batted .286/?/.357 for Cienfuegos and surporisingly led the league with 30 RBI, one ahead of major leaguer Roberto Ortiz. He made the CWL All-Star outfield alongside Ortiz and Bobby Estalella.

Pages' batting line for Puebla in 1944 was .347/.413/.500 with 80 runs, 11 triples and 78 RBI in 90 games. In 1944-1945, he hit .309 and slugged .346 for Cienfuegos. Despite no homers and only two steals, he won league MVP honors and joined Crespo and Claro Duany as the All-Star outfielders. He was second in average to Duany. Back with the Parrots for the summer, he batted .269/.412/.391 with 78 runs, 75 walks (to 16 strikeouts) and 25 swipes in 92 contests.

Pedro hit .276 and slugged .385 for Cienfuegos in 1945-1946, joining Roland Gladu, Lloyd Davenport and Crespo as the All-Star flyhawks. His last season with Puebla came in 1946 and he still did well at age 33, hitting .296/.396/.424 with 83 runs in 97 games. In 1946-1947, he was back with Cienfuegos and hit only .247/?/.329 but stole 14 bases (one behind leader Hector Rodriguez) and scored 45 runs (one behind leader Avelino Cañizares). He made his fourth straight (and final) All-Star team, joining Ortiz and Santos Amaro as the outfielders selected.

The veteran returned to the Negro Leagues for a second season in 1947, ending seven straight summers in Mexico. He hit only .237 as a starter for the New York Cubans but helped the team to the Negro National League title. They went on to win the 1947 Negro World Series, the only national championship the Cubans won in the Negro Leagues' history.

Pages hit .279/?/.341 for Cienfuegos in 1947-1948 then .204/?/.218 in 1948-1949. In 1949-1950, he moved to the bench for the first time in 10 years, backing up Crespo, Bob Addis and Lloyd Gearhart for Cienfuegos. He hit .276/?/.345. He returned to Mexico for 1950 and went 17 for 72 with two doubles, a triple, two steals and 14 walks for the Veracruz Eagle. In 1950-1951, he concluded his career in Cuba, hitting .239 and slugging .315 for his longtime Cienfuegos club. He hit .244 and slugged .306 for the 1951 Sherbrooke Athlétiques.

Overall, Pages hit .313/.402/.443 in 8 seasons in the Mexican League, with 128 steals, 160 doubles, 536 runs and 365 walks while only striking out 171 times in 2,510 at-bats over 639 games.

Sources

• The Mexican League: Comprehensive Player Statistics by Pedro Treto Cisneros
• The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues by James Riley
• The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues by John Holway
• Cuban Baseball: A Statistical History by Jorge Figueredo

Related Sites

• BR Minors page