Cards
Longtime collector preserving Cuban baseball heritage with large collection of cards, memorabilia from his home country
When Communist dictator Fidel Castro’s regime took over, he banned professional baseball in Cuba.
But over the last 40-plus years, Orestes Chavez has been trying to preserve the history of the game of his heritage.
Chavez is believed to possess the largest Cuban baseball card and memorabilia collection in the world. The Miami native has over 3,000 pieces in his collection, including 300 pre- and post-Castro jerseys along with pre- and post-Castro Cuban National Team jerseys.
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And there are numerous stories attached to a lot of those vintage threads.
“It means the world to have the largest collection,” said Chavez, who goes by the nickname Tico. “What happened was, I was able to recuperate the history of my country, which has been thrown away due to a different change in politics. They threw it away. My dream has always been to have a Cuban historical museum. Problem is, we fast forward, I’m a retired cop. I can’t afford a $5 million property and a $2 million building. But that’s what my dream has always been.”
Chavez is preserving baseball history in his native land as the Cuban National Team and other Latin American countries compete against the U.S., Japan and other countries in the 2026 World Baseball Classic March 5-17.
CUBAN COLLECTOR
Chavez was born in Cuba and defected to the United States with his parents at age 4. The collecting bug caught Chavez early.
“My passion’s always been collecting,” Chavez said. “I knew for sure I was a collector in 1972. I was 9 years old, we went to Pennsylvania because I had family there. We went to a museum and there was a mummy there. My mom actually still has the photograph. Most kids at 9 are afraid of mummies, and I wanted to take the frickin’ thing home. So, I knew I wasn’t normal at that time already.”
When the collecting craze started in the 1980s, Chavez—who kept all his sports cards from his childhood—wandered into a card shop in Hialeah, Fla. He ran into a guy who asked him if he collected Cuban baseball cards. Not wanting to disappoint the patron, Chavez told him he collected. However, he didn’t.
But that changed from that day forward. That advanced collector started selling Chavez some cool pieces from his personal stash.
“Seven or eight years later, I owned everything he ever had,” said Chavez, who was a police officer for 30 years, retiring as the assistant chief of police for the city of Miami. “I bought everything he had. He told me, ‘Look, I’ve never met someone like you.’ This is incredible. I kept going, kept going. I knew people that were going to Cuba—mind you, I didn’t go to Cuba for 49 and a half years—so I didn’t go until I was 53. You’ve got to remember the Communist thing. My father didn’t have a good experience there because he was not Communist.”
COLLECTING JERSEYS
Chavez, now 61, started to get in touch with people who were traveling to Cuba. He asked them to bring back Cuban jerseys and uniforms to add to his collection.
“I’m in my 20s at the time, a brand-new policeman, and some people that were in this business of collecting are CPAs, doctors, so they’ve got a lot more cash than I do,” Chavez said. “They’re collecting big time. I’m thinking, I’m not going to be able to afford the jerseys. They ask me, ‘How come you’re always asking for jerseys?’ I said, ‘You know me, I’m a weirdo.’ They just kept buying other stuff, and I would buy everything. But my love was jerseys.”
Chavez’s oldest jersey and pants date back to the 1920s; he has a run of uniforms all the way up until 1961 when Castro shut down the sport.
Chavez’s favorite jersey comes from the Cuban Telephone Company. Teléfonos is on the crest of the jersey and an old-school candlestick phone patch on one of the sleeves makes it a memorable piece.
“It’s in really bad condition, but I love it, because it took me almost 40 years to find it,” Chavez said.
Chavez tries to learn the provenance from every one of the jerseys he has collected. Some, of course, are easier to track down than others. One jersey captivated Chavez to dig deep to seek answers. It’s a Habana Cubans jersey with the name “McCormick” sewn in the collar. However, McCormick never played for the Havana Cubans.
“How come your jersey says McCormick and 1951, and you’re telling me it’s a ’52 Habana Cubans jersey?” Chavez said. “It’s very simple, that was a hand-me-down. That’s a Washington Senators 1951 jersey that was handed down to the Habana Cubans. They took the ‘Senators’ and you can tell where they put the ‘Cubans’ logo on the front. And, sure enough, in 1951, Mike McCormick was a pitcher for the Washington Senators, and then it was used in ’52 by the Habana Cubans.”
Another special jersey in Chavez’s collection is truly a one-of-a-kind piece. During World War II when Nazi Germany killed off millions of Jewish people, Cuba hosted a healthy Jewish population. There was a school, Centro Irealita, that also acted much like a YMCA gathering place in Cuba. The school was closed shortly after the revolution and most of the Jewish population left Cuba, noted Chavez.
He owns a jersey with the letters “IC”—for Centro Irealita—and a manufacturer’s tag that states “Estrella Sports.” There is a patch on the left sleeve that reads, “Champions 1943-44” in Spanish with the Star of David in the center.
“This means that during the Holocaust when the Jewish people were afraid to show who they were, in Cuba they felt safe enough to proudly show their heritage,” Chavez said.
“It’s a really, really incredible jersey.”
Chavez’s jerseys are just the tip of the iceberg of his collecting journey. He owns game-used bats dating back to the 1920s, game-used gloves, game-used caps, Cuban contracts for players, signed team balls from all the professional teams in Cuba from the 1940s to the early 1960s, and 7,000-8,000 Type 1 baseball photos.
Chavez also has a nice collection of items from the fabulous career of Minnie Miñoso. Along with one of his MLB home run balls and game-used Chicago White Sox cap, Chavez has some of Miñoso’s hardware. Miñoso received a plaque for being named the most popular baseball player in Cuba given by El Tiempo newspaper in 1957 and Bohemia magazine presented Miñoso with a trophy as the best ballplayer in Cuba 1954. Chavez owns both those items.
“He was a very good personal friend of mine,” Chavez said. “He would stay in Miami at my house when he would come for different events.”
Additionally, Chavez has two game-used jerseys from Baseball Hall of Famer Tony Oliva. One of the best pure hitters in his day, the former Minnesota Twins star frequents Chavez’s house for dinner.
“I still stay in touch with a lot of the old players,” Chavez said.
KING OF THE SPORTS KINGS
Not to be outdone by his memorabilia, Chavez boasts an impressive Cuban card collection.
Chavez earned an apt nickname from fellow collectors, “King of the Sports Kings.” In 1946, a Cuban baseball card set was released, Propaganda Montiel, Reyes del Deports. That translates to Sports Kings in English.
Collecting those cards when he was a child, Chavez was the first collector to have those cards in the United States. He was reunited with his card set in 1980 when his mom brought them from Cuba to him.
It’s an impressive 180-card set, which Chavez completed when he was younger. It features boxers, minor league baseball players and pro players—similar to the release of the 1933-34 Goudey Sports Kings sets in the United States. It includes the likes of MLB stars Ty Cobb, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio and Bob Feller. It also features renowned Cuban ballplayer Al Lopez.
Chavez has every variation of the cards in the Propaganda Montiel, Reyes del Deports set, including numerous duplicates of Babe Ruth, Cobb and Christy Mathewson.
“All these cards grade between 1 and 3, 99%,” said Chavez, who also has an uncut sheet from the 1946 Sports Kings release. “The reason is because they were in albums, so we took them out.”
The holy grail in the set is an accomplished, young hitter by the name of Stan Musial.
“The reason being that the Stan Musial is later on, there’s more interest in Cuban stuff and Cuban memorabilia, and it’s discovered that’s his true rookie,” Chavez said.
Chavez used to have three Musials, but sold one copy a few years back. In 2002, he made a bold move that bolstered his collection. Musial was taking part in a signing at a card show in New York, and Chavez wanted his autograph. Since the Musial card didn’t have a lot of value back then, Chavez mailed it to get it signed along with a self-addressed stamped envelope. He received a beautiful Musial autograph in return.
Fast forward 23 years, Chavez sent the Musial card to PSA to get it authenticated and graded. It received a 10 autograph and a 1 MK (markings) for the card itself. The Musial card has a population of just 27 with Chavez owning the only signed copy.
Chavez also has rare autographs from other 1940s Cuban baseball card sets. The 1943 Ambrosia release featured amateur players. PSA has never authenticated any signed cards from that set. Chavez owns six autographed cards. The 1945-46 Caramelo Deportivo set has had six cards graded by PSA. Chavez has a dozen signed cards, including a Miñoso. For the 1946-47 Caramelo Deportivo, PSA has authenticated four signed cards, three of which are owned by Chavez; he has another 13 cards to submit for grading.
Another one of Chavez’s favorite pieces of his collection is a 1947 Almendares team-issued card by the Regil Coffee company. The card holds significantly more importance to Chavez because it was made in the city where he is from, Guanabacoa, Havana, Cuba.
For all the great items in Chavez’s collection, he always goes back to capturing the rare Musial autographed card.
“I’m not cocky, but I feel very proud of myself that I had the foresight back then to get it autographed,” Chavez said. “We’re talking about 2002. I’m sure other people had Musial cards in 2002, but they didn’t get theirs signed. I got my Bob Feller signed. I got my Al Lopez signed. I got my Marty Marion signed. I got my Stan Musial signed. I got my Ted Williams signed.
“I’m just proud of myself that I took the time to do it, to be honest with you. I feel great to be able to say, ‘I’m the only one.’”
