Minnie Minoso, Chicago baseball legend, dies at 90

Nicknamed the "Cuban Comet", the Chicago White Sox legend was a major figure in the racial integration of major league baseball in the 1950s.

Born in Havana, Cuba, Minoso signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1948, the year after Jackie Robinson first broke the league's color barrier.

Minoso, who went onto to become a seven-time All Star player, played 17 seasons in the majors, including 12 for the White Sox, according to the league.

He was the league's first black Latino star, according historian Adrian Burgos, who wrote in an article on the White Sox website that many considered him the Latin American Jackie Robinson.

"I think that everybody has to respect his legacy because he did so much for the Latin players, for the Cubans, for everybody because when he arrived here it was a tough time because of racism and discrimination," said White Sox shortstop Alexei Ramirez, another Cuban star. "He wrote a huge legacy for all of us."

Minoso was nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame as part of an effort to consider overlooked candidates from the league's so-called Golden Era but despite a campaign by the White Sox and other prominent Latin players, Minoso never came close to making it to the Hall. His highest percentage during his 15 years on the writers' ballot was 21.1 in 1988. He was considered by the Veterans Committee in 2014 and fell short of the required percentage for induction.

"My last dream is to be in Cooperstown, to be with those guys," Minoso said in an informational package produced by White Sox for a 2011 effort to see Minoso inducted into the Hall of Fame. "I want to be there. This is my life's dream."

For Minoso's many admirers, his absence remains a sore spot. "When, at long last, he made it to the majors to stay in 1951, Minoso was already 28 years old," wrote Christina Kahrl on ESPN.com. "However, despite this late start Minoso went on a 10-year run that marked him as one of the best players in the American League. Not broadly speaking, or generously: We’re talking about Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, and Minnie Minoso."

Obama, a longtime White Sox fan, on Sunday praised Minoso for his speed, power and "resilient optimism" while helping integrate baseball in the 1950s.

"Minnie may have been passed over by the Baseball Hall of Fame during his lifetime, but for me and for generations of black and Latino young people, Minnie's quintessentially American story embodies far more than a plaque ever could," Obama said.

“I didn’t know Minnie until I bought the club in 1981, but the first time I met him I fell in love with his infectious personality and his love for the White Sox,” White Sox Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf said Sunday according to the Tribune. “He was just one of the most genuine people that you would ever want to know.”

The White Sox retired his No. 9 uniform in 1983.

Minoso visited the White Sox U.S. Cellular Field almost daily, according to the team web site. “He knew everybody in the ballpark and treated everyone with the same outgoing demeanor, respect and fondness.”

Minoso’s longevity and continued involvement with the White Sox meant “"I had gotten to the point where I really felt Minnie was going to live forever," said Reinsdorf during a Sunday conference call.

An autopsy found “Minoso died of a tear in his pulmonary artery cause by ‘chronic obstructive pulmonary disease’” according to the Chicago Tribune.

His age, listed as 90 at the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office, had long been in question, with his year of birth alternatively given as 1922 and 1925.

“When I die, I want to be playing baseball,” Minoso once said, according to his biography on the White Sox's website. “Truly. They don't bury me without my uniform.”

Al Jazeera with wire services