Sandy Nava

American baseball player

• Born: April 12, 1860
• Birthplace: San Francisco, California
• Died: June 15, 1906
• Place of death: Baltimore, Maryland

Nava, a catcher, was the first known Mexican American and second Hispanic baseball player to play in the National League. In an era when defense won low-scoring games, Nava was an aggressive catcher, highly durable, and skilled at throwing out base stealers.

Early Life

Sandy Nava (NAH-vah) was born Vincente Simental on April 12, 1860, to Josefa Simental, a Mexican single mother living in San Francisco. He gained a reputation playing baseball in San Francisco as Vincente Irwin and Vincente “Sandy” Nava. He made his major league debut for the 1882 Providence Grays.

Nava’s history in professional baseball highlighted the arbitrary nature of color lines in baseball. Historian Adrian Burgos asserts that Nava was among the first, if not the first, to openly straddle the line between races in the major leagues—clearly identified by the fans and all in the game as “nonwhite.” It also explains the confusion over his name. Although the identity of Nava’s father is left to conjecture, he may have been a next-door neighbor named Nava. Shortly after Sandy Nava’s birth, his family returned to Mexico; when Nava was seven years old, his family returned to San Francisco. His mother soon married an Englishman named William Irwin, and her son became Vincent Irwin.

Life’s Work

When he began playing baseball, Nava tried to hide his Mexican heritage and often went by such names as “Irwin Sandy” or “Vincente Irwin.” Nava played in California’s first professional league, the Pacific Base Ball League, which was formed in 1878. Nava played in the league from 1878 to 1881 for the Renos, the Stars, the Athletics, and the Oakland Knickerbockers. Though only eighteen, Nava gained a reputation for working with the hardest throwers on the West Coast, such as Charlie Sweeney.

It was a far different game in the 1880’s. The number of pitched balls required for a walk was seven. The game was more violent, with fights on the field and in the stands. The catcher also served as enforcer. In an era of rudimentary gloves and masks, a tough, durable catcher was valuable. At the time, the catcher typically played well back of home plate, perhaps upward of twenty feet. In an 1881 twelve-inning game between the Renos and the Nationals, Nava recorded nineteen put-outs and six assists without an error. In 1881, Jerry Denny, who grew up in a San Francisco orphanage, joined the Providence Grays of the National League. The following winter, he returned west on a barnstorming trip with several other major leaguers, including one of Providence’s aces, John Montgomery Ward. Ward had been with the club since 1878 and was one of the main reasons Providence won its first championship in 1879. In January after seeing Nava play, Ward petitioned the club directors on behalf of Nava and a couple other California players to join the Grays.

The Providence directors had to mull over the subject. Some believed a Latin player would be a liability; others cited Nava’s potential drawing power. Providence had witnessed an influx of thirty-one thousand Portuguese immigrants over the previous decades. The team finally agreed and brought Nava and Sweeney east for tryouts. The club wired its potential new catcher fifty dollars to cover his expenses. The team capitalized on Nava’s heritage and advertised him as “the little Spaniard.”

Nava made his major-league debut on May 5, 1882, in a 17-2 victory over Worcester. He went 3 for 6 with a double and two runs scored but made two errors. He broke his finger in the sixth inning and left the game. Nava had difficulty negotiating the tougher expectations of the major leagues. On May 26, club directors fined Nava ten dollars for pulling out as the game neared with an undisclosed injury. On July 27, Nava was fined one hundred dollars by the club for “conduct prejudicial to the interests of the association.” It was rumored that the excessively large fine was for drunken behavior at the club’s hotel. Public drunkenness was a chronic problem for major-league players during the 1880’s.

In 1882, Nava served as a backup catcher and appeared in only twenty-eight games. He also hit a meager .206. His defensive work behind the plate was still impressive, and Providence signed a contract with him for the following year before the season ended. Nava stuck with the club the entire 1883 season but appeared in only twenty-nine games, batting .240. During the off season, Henry Lucas courted Nava for his new Union Association, offering the catcher $2,500 to jump leagues. Nava turned down the offer and rejoined Providence in March 1884. In 1884, Nava caught for thirty-four games, many of them for pitcher Sweeney. Sweeney was one of the fastest pitchers in baseball history. On June 7, 1884, Sweeney, with Nava catching, struck out nineteen Boston batters to set a major-league record. This record would stand for 102 years. However, on July 21, 1884, Sweeney was released from the team after a drunken refusal to leave the mound. He then left for the St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association. On August 22, Nava received a telegram from Lucas offering the catcher six hundred dollars to join St. Louis. The message even carried a personal plea, “Sweeney says come.” Nava rejected the offer. Nava then proceeded to hit an anemic .095, managing only eleven hits, all singles, in 116 at bats.

Providence won the pennant by 10.5 games, but Nava missed it. With Sweeney gone and Nava’s weak hitting, he had become expendable. His last appearance occurred on September 5. Instead of telling Nava of its decision, the team left him behind when it took off on September 13 for a month-long road trip. Nava joined the Fort Monroe, Virginia, military team at the beginning of October.

Nava also played some games for the Old Point Nationals, a Norfolk, Virginia, club. During one exhibition contest, the Nationals loaned him to the Baltimore Orioles. Nava impressed the Orioles, and in December he joined the Baltimore squad of the American Association for the 1885 season. Nava quickly became a favorite in Baltimore in 1885 but was released in July after appearing in only eight games. In August, he was driving a taxi. He also found a slot playing for a local amateur club called Patterson. Unsigned as the 1886 season approached, Baltimore needed a catcher at the end of June, so Nava joined the club for two games. With that, his professional baseball career ended.

In February, 1887, Nava was signed by Danbury of the Eastern League but was released before the season started. He settled down in Baltimore where he worked as a bouncer at a saloon located near Hamilton Pier, a tough part of town. On June 15, 1906, Nava passed away at age forty-six from uremia, an illness accompanying kidney failure, at City Hospital. He was interred at the local Trinity Cemetery, a segregated “nonwhite” burial ground.

Significance

In the late nineteenth century, Nava became the first known Mexican American and second Hispanic baseball player to play in the National League. A brilliant catcher, he was noted for holding onto the ball, even when aggressive runners were trying to throw him off balance as they slid into home plate.

Bibliography

Burgos, Adrian. Playing America’s Game: Baseball, Latinos, and the Color Line. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007. Burgos examines an era in baseball history largely ignored by historians and sports fans until now: Latinos in professional baseball pre-1947.

Regalado, Samuel O. Viva Baseball! Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2008. Thoroughly researched and well written history of Latinos in baseball from the 1800’s to the 1990’s.