Juan Eckelson, another Matanzas native who shined in professional baseball.

Juan Eckelson Cruz, known in the baseball world as «Sonny», was an outstanding right-handed pitcher in the 1920s and 30s.

Juan Eckelson Cruz, known in the baseball world as «Sonny», was an outstanding right-handed pitcher of the 20’s and 30’s of the last century, who is little mentioned, in spite of having good results in Cuba and abroad.

Eckelson was born in the Matanzas neighborhood of Versailles on October 20, 1904 and officially resided there until his death. As his fraternal friend
brotherly friend José Manuel Dávalos said, «he was a purebred versallero».

In this neighborhood he took his first steps in baseball at the age of thirteen, in the aforementioned field of the Mulos along with other youngsters under the leadership of the outstanding former player «Paco» Luján.

«Sonny» made his debut in the Cuban Professional League at the age of 20 in the 1924-1925 season, with the Santa Clara team, managed by Tinti Molina, who had to move his team to Palmar de Junco, Matanzas, in the middle of the season due to the low attendance at the Boulenger Park stadium in the city of Marta Abreu. From that moment on it acquired the name of Santa Clara-Matanzas.

Eckelson’s debut was a quality one, since he pitched three games in that strong team and achieved two undefeated victories.

He remained in Cuban professional tournaments for nine seasons in which he played, indistinctly, with the aforementioned Santa Clara and with the traditional Habana and Almendares, the eternal rivals of those classics.

The matancero played four years with Habana, with which he won six games and lost five. His best season with this team was that of 1925-1926, in which he pitched in thirteen games and completed four, winning four and losing two, in addition to being the leader in average of clean runs with 2.10. He was champion twice with the Lions, in the 1927-28 and 1932-33 tournaments.

His work with the Leopards of Santa Clara was outstanding, since in three tournaments he won seven games and lost four, and with the Almendares he reached a championship in the series corresponding to 1931-32, in which he was leader in won-lost average with 833, product of five wins and one loss.

In total in this Cuban Professional Baseball League he won 19 games and lost twelve, for an average of 601.

From 1935 to 1938, Eckelson pitched in the League of the Armed Forces, with the team of the Constitutional Police, where he also had good results.

These military tournaments, of which little has been said, had the presence of a mixture of top quality professional and amateur players, who played in the teams called Regiment 6, from the Columbia camp, number 5, from La Cabaña and the Fourth Regiment of Matanzas; together with the Police and the Navy.

In the first competition, the shooter from Matanzas was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the Championship.

It is with a selection of that military contest, when in 1937, Juan Eckelson reaches one of his most brilliant performances when he defeated, in La Tropical stadium, the American team, New York Giants, to become the second player from Matanzas to win in the so-called American Series against a Major League team; the first one had been in 1908 José de la Caridad Méndez, when he beat Cincinnati with a score of one run for zero in the Almendares Park grounds.

In that 1937 Series, which lasted about a month, the Cuban teams Habana, Almendares, Fortuna (amateur) and the Armed Forces team faced the visiting New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.

February 25th was the date of the game in which Eckelson, from the military box, beat the major leaguers seven runs by four. That Giants team had in its roster outstanding figures of the National League of the United States such as Mett Ott, Gus Mancusso, Dick Bartelet, Carl Hubbell Hall Shumacher, Hank Leiber and the Cubans Adolfo Luque and Tomás de la Cruz.

Juan Eckelson’s performance in the United States took place in the Little League teams Lynn, Massachusetts, Manchester, Charlotte. Samping Bay. With Lynn he managed to pitch a zero-hit, zero-run game in 1926.

He spent those years in training camp with the National League’s Boston Browns and even participated in several training games, but was excluded from the official roster at the last cut.

After his retirement from professional baseball he continued to play in local tournaments in his hometown, as entertainment, until the age of 53.

His son, Juan Eckelson Hernández, stood out in minor tournaments and in the Provincial Series and even made two Matanzas teams in the National Series, in which he acted as relief pitcher.

Written by Francisco Soriano.