Greatest Figure of Our National Game

The Man With the Eternal Smile -
Twenty Years With a Batting Average of Over 300

By PEPE CONTE, Amsterdam News 1927

A BROWN skin man of athletic constitution, a veritable giant beside whom Jack Dempsey's bulk would appear almost diminutive, and who first saw the light of this world in 1884 in the city of Jacksonville, Florida.
     We shall endeavor to tell the fans something about this marvelous athlete, John Lloyd, loved and admired by all baseball fanatics regardless of the team on which he plays. Our humble attempt to write his biography must include every truthful detail in his noteworthy career, as only by that means can a true portrait of the man's service and character be reproduced.
A Surprising Career
     John Henry Lloyd began his professional career as a baseball player in 1906 with the Cuban X Giants, managed by L. Lamar, who was at the time to Negro baseball in American what Abel Linares was to the same phase of the game here in Cuba.
     In view of the fact that Negro players were afforded no consideration in the white leagues of American, regardless of their ability, L. Lamar undertook to organize a formidable team composed entirely of Negroes. Abel Linares, a hustling manager, full of enthusiasm and spirit, was quick to size up the situation and organize another Negro team which, accompanying the Lamar group, abandoned the shores of Cuba to win the respect and consideration of all, here and abroad.
Lloyd first came to Cuba in 1907, playing as shortstop for the Philadelphia Giants, brought to this country by Linares and captained at that time by another baseball great, our dear friend, Tinte Molina.
It was in the baseball campaign of that year that Lloyd became the idol of Cuba to such an extent that in 1908 Molina again brought him to Cuba to play with the Havana club. Strange though it may seem, that was the year in his long and honored career in which he did not attain a batting average of .300.
From thence on he visited us frequently, playing with the Fe club where he attracted considerable mention by retrieving the spotlight on a fading luminary of the game, Figarola. At that time the latter was playing his last days as a catcher for the team and he could not throw with his usual exactitude and precision to second. Lloyd soon nullified this fault by his tremendous reach in retrieving Figarola's uncertain shots and tagging out the runner with a dexterous sweep of the arm that was all one motion, leaving it unperceived by any but the most expert eyes that the brilliancy was not on the part of Figarola, but on Lloyd's.
Lloyd always played at short until 1914 when his throwing arm began to lack some of its precision and speed, then he began to play at the keystone position where he won immediate acclaim as a marvel, just as he had glorified himself while playing at the other position.
Among the many records compiled by this famous player is his life-time batting average of .300 and in 1923 he surprised himself and the world in general while maintaining an average of .417 throughout the season.
An Example of Good Deportment
If the record of this man, whose admirable playing we watched the other day is great, then greater still is his record of service as an honest athlete and a gentleman. Unbelievable though it may sound, Lloyd has never been disciplined in his twenty-one years as a professional player.
We were interviewing this marvelous athlete the other day in regards to his exemplary behavior, and Lloyd with his everlasting smile, said, “I have always believed that an umpire's decisions are within reason and that when they make mistakes they do so in good faith, and that the “squabbles” and fighting will never develop anything good for either the game, the public, or the players.”
As Lloyd sat in my office, other players came in, both white and colored, who upon noting the presence of my guest, hastened to place their arms about his shoulders, and these were some of the exclamations of greeting I heard: “My good Lloyd,” “the greatest Lloyd,” “the gentlemanly Lloyd,” - there is in truth few who can compare with him.
Lloyd has now attained the age of forty-three, and so well has he preserved his condition that he can still cope in agility with the youngest stars in the profession. As he himself relates, he has never imbibed a drop of liquor, or even smoked a cigarette, and 9 o'clock in the night seldom finds him awake.
Luque, Linares, Molina, Miguel Angel, and in fact, all who have had his services under contract, have always spoken of him with the deepest respect and admiration. Rafael Conte, my aged brother, and the dean of sport chroniclers in Cuba has predicted that this athlete will pass into history as the greatest player of all time to be produced by the national game.