Rafael Almeida

Who was Rafael Almeida?

Rafael D. Almeida was a Major League Baseball third baseman from 1911 to 1913 with the Cincinnati Reds.

Almeida and Armando Marsans debuted together with the Reds on July 4, 1911. They are sometimes named the first major league players born in Cuba, which is disputable because Cuban-born Steve Bellán played from 1871 to 1873 in the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, a league whose status as a major league is disputed.

Six years before Cincinnati, Almeida and Marsans both played "Negro baseball" in the United States as 1905 members of the integrated All Cubans.

Almeida played winter baseball in the Cuban League from 1904 to 1925 and was one of ten players elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in its 1939 inaugural class.