Rogelio Linares

Rogelio Linares
(Ice Cream, Mantecado)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 19", Weight 180 lb.

• Debut 1940
• Final Game 1946
• Born September 20, 1909 in Havana, Havana Cuba

BR page

Biographical Information

Rogelio Linares was an outfielder and first baseman who played pro baseball for over a decade. He was noted for his fine outfield arm.

Linares debuted in 1936-1937, hitting .283/?/.319 for Almendares and Santa Clara in the Cuban Winter League. He went 13 for 55 with four doubles as a backup for Almendares in 1937-1938. With the same club the next season, he moved to first base and hit .231/?/.302 with a league-best five triples. Rogelio was just 2 for 31 as a backup flyhawk for Almendares in 1939-1940. He started at first base for the New York Cubans in 1940, hitting only .196.

Linares returned to Cuba and hit .222/?/.287 in 1940-1941, backing up Alejandro Oms, Cool Papa Bell and Manuel Salvatierra in the outfield and Lazaro Salazar at first base. He was 9 for 47 as a backup outfielder for Habana in 1941-1942. He next surfaced with New York in 1943, backing up Showboat Thomas at first base. He was 16 for 57 with a double and a triple as Habana's fifth outfielder in 1943-1944, then backed up Thomas in New York in 1944 while backing up an outfield of Pancho Coimbre, Tetelo Vargas and Claro Duany.

Rogelio hit .215 and slugged .248 for Habana in 1944-1945 as a regular outfielder. He hit .250 for the New York Cubans in 1945. In the 1945 East-West Game, he backed up Wild Bill Wright in right field for the East. In a 9-6 loss, he went 0 for 3 with a walk and the team's first run. In the 7th, he drew a walk from Booker McDaniels, advanced on a Murray Watkins single and an infield out and scored on a hit by fellow Cuban Horacio Martinez.

Mantecado hit .214/?/.286 as a starter for Habana in 1945-1946, joining Pedro Formental and Rene Monteagudo in the outfield. He fell to .210 in 1946, his last season in the Negro Leagues. He hit .294 as a OF-1B for Oriente in the 1946 Cuban National Federation. In 1947, he batted .254/.325/.365 as a first baseman for the Mexican League's Tampico Lightermen.

Linares ended his Cuban career with the 1947-1948 Cuban Players League's Alacranes, hitting .191 and slugging .270 as the 4th outfielder behind Roberto Ortiz, Ducky Davenport and Santos Amaro. Rogelio was 6 for 53 with a double and 7 walks for the 1948 Mexico City Red Devils.

There is some uncertainty about how he batted and threw. It is BL, TL as per Black Baseball's National Showcase and The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues, and BR, TR as per The Mexican League: Comprehensive Player Statistics. Similarly, according to Black Baseball's National Showcase, he was born on September 20, 1909, but The Mexican League: Comprehensive Player Statistics gives the date as March 4, 1916. Both agree that he was born in Havana Cuba, however.

Notable Achievements

• NNL All-Star (1945)

Sources

• 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
• The Mexican League: Comprehensive Player Statistics by Pedro Treto Cisneros
• Black Baseball's National Showcase by Larry Lester