The 1931 Doble Aguila cards depict the Venezuelan League. They are black and white, and typically show more than one player on the card. The backs show a description in Spanish of the action shot on the front.
Key Players:
Martin Dihigo
Martin Dihigo was born in 1906 in Cidra, Cuba. He receieved two awesome nicknames: “El Immortal” (the immortal) and “El Maestro” (the teacher).He began his career in 1922 at the ripe age of only 16 as a backup outfielder. Dihigo became an amazing hitter, but originally couldn’t hit curveballs very well. He played year-round and worked hard to become one of the best curve ball hitters in the game.
Dihigo earned the nickname “El Maestro” for his ability to learn different positions on the baseball field. he started out playing the outfield where he would throw people out at the plate. He also played second base at the start of his career. Dihigo also excelled at third base, but really shined as a pitcher. In fact, he threw the first no hitter in the Mexican league.
Naturally, due to all his knowledge, Dihigo became a player-manager towards the end of his career. Dihigo managed a team that featured baseball hall of famer Johnny Mize. He would go on to say that Dihigo was the best player he has ever seen.
Martin Dihigo has three different baseball cards in the Doble Aguila set. All of which are from Concordia vs. York and are card numbers 157, 191, 197, and 255. His cards are the most expensive in the set due to how amazing of a player he was. His most valuable card from this set is the #157
Fun Fact: PSA has only graded 22 cards in total from this set! 7 of the 22 copies are of Martin Dihigo.
Tetelo Vargas
Vargas was nicknamed the “Dominican Deer”. He was born in Puerto Rico and brought over to the U.S. to play in the Negro leagues with the New York Cubans when he was 21. Although many stats weren’t recorded, Vargas broke One of Vargas’ biggest accomplishments is that he holds the major league record for best batting average for a single season at .471. That means he almost got one hit every 2 at bats! After his career, he was inducted into the Cuban and Puerto Rican hall of fame.
Millito Navarro
Navarro is known as the first Puerto Rican to play in the negro league. He lived till 105 and was the oldest former professional baseball player and the last living player from the negro league. He played on many teams throughout his career with the most notable being the Cuban Stars. Due to this being a lost section of baseball, there’s not many states available for Navarro but he did have a .337 BA over his career.
Manuel Garcia
Manuel “Cocaina” Garcia was a Cuban baseball player who played in the negro leagues. He earned this nickname becase batters seemed “drugged” by his pitches. He also played in the Mexican Leagues. According to Buck Oneal he, “hand a wicked curve ball which made all us hitters go numb”. Along with being an outstanding pitcher, he also had a .305 batting average.
Set Checklist
Special note: these cards don’t have player’s names on the front. They are numerical and show a particular game. On the back, the action is described. There are both baseball and boxing cards in this set, As of my knowledge, there has not been a complete checklist assembled. These are all of the cards I have found:
2 Magallanes v Santa Marta (Marcos Bolivar)
16 Malpica no llega
18 Malpica llegando
24 M. Bordon en primera
46 el pollo malpica el zurdo Nieves
56 Olimpia safe en primera
59 Royal v Magallanes
62 Milito Navarro y el cubiche Silvio Ruiz
64 Malpica de aviacion
86 placensia
87 Magallanes championship
89 Royal v Santa Marta (Anselmo Perez, Capote)
90 Magallanes v Latinos (Camaron Sosa)
91 Nieves y A Perez
92 Jimenez en primera base
95 A. Perez y Requena
97 Triunfo de Lucana
98 royal vs Latinos Placencia y Nieves
99 Silvio Ruiz Bateando
100 Silvio Ruiz es safe
104 Royals award (Carlos “Catire” Maal)
105 Momento de emocion
113 Eddie Frisco y William Dick (boxing)
115 Cacrico y Pica-Pica (boxing)
116 Eladio Ferrer y Amando Best (boxing)
124 Buell y Chavez (boxing)
140 Cacrico v Montanez
143 Martucci (boxing)
157 Concordia v York (Martin Dihigo)
158 Santa Maria v York
161 Concordia v York (Tetelo Vargas)
162 Concordia v York (Tetelo Vargas)
163 Concordia v York (Tetelo Vargas)
166 Santa Maria v York
167 Santa Maria v York
168 Santa Maria v York
170 Santa Maria v York (Silvino Ruiz)
171 Concordia v York
173 jugadores del York
174 Grupo de los jugadores del York
175 Concordia V York
176 Magallanes v York (Millito Navarro)
177 Magallanes v York
178 Concordia v York
182 Magallanes v York
184 Santa Maria v York
186 Lucana v York (Bobby Stevens)
187 Magallanes v York
188 Magallanes v York (Luis Aparicio sr.)
191 Concordia v York (Martin Dihigo)
197 Concordia v York (Martin Dihigo)
200 Royal v York Nieves
208 Cueche v Tony Villa
212 Chuco Arriaga v Mendoza (boxing)
217 Oben v Tony Martin (boxing)
220 Tony Martin v H. Chaffardet (boxing)
229 Pancho Villa v Moralito (boxing)
230 Schmelling v Greaves (boxing)
246 Royal v Caribe Nieves Hernandez
248 Concordia v Cincinnati (Perucho Velez)
254 Concordia v Caribe (Tetelo Vargas)
255 Concordia v Cincinnati (Martin Dihigo)
258 Concordia v Caribe
259 Royal v Caribe (Manuel “Cocaina” Garcia)
261 Santa Maria v Universidad
264 Universidad v Caribe
280 Concordia v Cincinnati
285 Caribe v universidad (Hernandez)
292 Caribe v universidad
293 Magallanes v Royal
298 Concordia v Cincinnati (Tetelo Vargas)
302 Concordia v Cincinnati (Tetelo Vargas)
304 Magallanes
306 Concordia v Cincinnati (Tetelo Vargas)
313 Concordia v magallanes
316 Caribe v Universid
