Leo Najo

Leo Najo (born Leonardo Alanis, 1899; died 1979) was one of the most outstanding baseball players of the early 20th century. The tale of a young immigrant from an impoverished background who rose to prominence in American professional baseball seems interesting enough. However, the fact that Najo, a Mexican native of dark complexion, accomplished what he did amidst the prevailing racial prejudice and social injustice of his time makes his story seem like imaginative fiction.

Najo was a lightning-fast outfielder who lit up scoreboards and set records wherever he played in the 1920s and 1930s. Born on February 17, 1899 in La Lajilla, Nuevo Leon, Mexico but transplanted to the border town of Mission, Texas, when he was 10, Najo played baseball at a time in American history when the game was lily-white and neither Latinos nor African-Americans were welcomed. Given the racial discrimination of the time, his successes as a ballplayer are breathtaking.

Najo was one of the first native-born Mexicans to play professional baseball in the United States, appearing with the San Antonio Bears of the Class A Texas League in 1924. He electrified San Antonio crowds with his amazing speed and astonishing catches in the outfield. In one game with San Antonio, he set a Texas League record by making twelve outfield putouts in a single game. On several occasions he also stole second, third, and home in a single inning, and he was especially well-known for dramatic leaping catches that turned numerous potential home runs into outs.

Najo had such an outstanding first two seasons in the minor leagues that the Chicago White Sox drafted him in the winter of 1925, and he became, in all likelihood, the first Mexican-born player ever taken by a major league team. A November 8, 1925 Washington Post article refers to Najo as “one of the greatest baseball players of all time.”

When he participated in spring training games for the White Sox in 1926, he was, it is believed, the first Mexican native to wear the uniform of a major league club, predating by seven years Baldmero Melo Almada, who is commonly recognized as the first Mexican-born major leaguer. Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, baseball’s first commissioner, watched him play in a White Sox uniform that year. Decades later, in 1973, another baseball commissioner, Bowie Kuhn, attended his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame of Mexico.

Although his dream of finding a permanent spot in the majors was cut short by an untimely leg injury in the summer of 1926, Najo went on to an outstanding minor league career that spanned more than twenty years. A quiet, reflective, and unassuming man, Najo took everything that happened to him in stride. Rather than dwelling on the misfortunes of the past, he moved on to accomplish the spectacular.

His career actually soared after he left the White Sox, and he wrote himself into pro baseball’s record books as a member of the 1932 Tulsa Oilers team that has been rated one of the top 100 minor league teams of all time. Unfortunately, the peak of his career coincided with America’s Great Depression, during which the industry of professional baseball, like most others, was in economic shambles. Had it not been for this, he would likely have made it back to the majors.

Unofficial Minor League Statistics for Leo Najo

In 1939, he was in the first group of players elected to the Mexican Professional Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1973, he became the first player inducted into the Mexican baseball shrine. A bronze statue of Najo sits in the Temple of Baseball’s Immortals in Monterrey, Mexico.

After his playing days were over, Najo used his regional fame to promote the game of baseball for the remainder of his life. An ambassador for the game on both sides of the Rio Grande River, he continued playing, managing, coaching, and umpiring at all levels for decades. Many South Texas residents fondly remember his patience in sharing his baseball wisdom with generations of young ballplayers.

After a lengthy battle with cancer, Najo died on April 25 1978 at the age of 79, following complications resulting from gall bladder surgery.

References

* Noe Torres: "Baseball's First Mexican-American Star: The Amazing Story of Leo Najo", 2006, Llumina Press. ISBN 1-59526-579-1.