[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 3159-3160]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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                       REMEMBERING MINNIE MINOSO

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, on Sunday, America lost a baseball legend 
when Saturino Orestes Armas Minoso Arrieta passed away. We knew him as 
the Cuban Comet, as Mr. White Sox, as the heart and soul of Chicago 
baseball on the South Side, and a beacon of hope for Cuban athletes 
everywhere. It is with great sorrow that Chicago loses its South Side 
White Sox champion only days after the North Side Cubs lost their 
champion, Ernie Banks.
  Before Minnie was Major League Baseball's first black Latino star, he 
was the son of a sugarcane plantation worker in Perico, Cuba. He 
started his professional baseball career in Cuba, playing for $2 a game 
with the Ambrosia Candy team in Havana for the 1943 season. He also 
worked in the company garage for $8 a week. But within a couple of 
years, he made it to Havana's

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Marianao team, making $150 a month, which soon became $200 a month to 
keep him from moving even more quickly in his career.
  By 1946, Minnie's talent couldn't be kept away from bigger leagues. 
He signed a $300 deal to play for the New York Cubans of the Negro 
National League. Minnie played third base for the Cubans, batted .294, 
played in the All-Star Game, and helped them win the pennant. They 
would beat the Cleveland Buckeyes in the World Series.
  The Cleveland Indians hired Minoso in 1949, but the Indians barely 
used him. He spent the next 2 years in the minor leagues. In 1951, the 
Indians made a three-team trade with the White Sox and Philadelphia 
Phillies, and Minnie arrived in Chicago.
  Minnie Minoso was the first Black player to wear a Chicago White Sox 
uniform. His first at-bat was a home run. That first year, the fans 
gave him his own day, and he was selected for the All-Star Game. He 
drove opponents mad with his ability to get on base and steal bases. He 
unabashedly crowded the plate and was hit by a pitch 192 times--just so 
he could steal second.
  Minnie Minoso played 12 seasons with the White Sox over five decades. 
The seven-time All-Star was The Sporting News Rookie of the Year in 
1951, he won three Gold Gloves in left field, and finished in the top 
four in American League MVP four times. His number was retired in 1983. 
Minnie had a wonderful career. He is one of two players ever to appear 
in a major league game in five decades. During the 1950's, two players 
had 100 homeruns, 100 stolen bases, and batted .300. Those two were the 
legendary Willie Mays and Minnie Minoso.
  But his life was bigger than numbers. He brought optimism to all 
those around him. Nothing made him happier than when the White Sox won 
the World Series in 2005 with fellow Cubans Jose Conteras and Orlando 
Hernandez playing pivotal roles.
  Minnie Minoso was a great treasure to Chicago. He used to cruise the 
Chicago streets in his big car with a White Sox flag flying and his dog 
Jewel on the front seat. Through all the decades he spent in Chicago, 
he helped make the town, the White Sox, and the sport of baseball a joy 
for thousands of fans. He will be missed.

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