In 1939-40, George Scales managed his first team, Aguadilla. Among its members was future Hall of Famer Leon Day.

George Scales, born in Talladega, Alabama, on August 16, 1900, was the first manager of the expansion 1939-40 Aguadilla Sharks in the Puerto Rico Winter League (PRWL) and a “rock star” manager, in the 1940s and 1950s leading the Ponce Lions to five PRWL crowns, 1941-45, and 1946-47, plus Santurce to the 1950-51 championship and February 1951 Caribbean Series (CS) crown, in Caracas, Venezuela. Mako Oliveras’s eight PRWL titles as a manager surpass Scales’s six. Coincidentally, 77-year-old Mako manages the 2024 Aguadilla Sharks in PR’s Double-A Superior Baseball League, the same municipality where Scales was posthumously inducted into the PR Professional Baseball Hall of Fame on October 20, 1996. This blog focuses on his PRWL managerial career, 1951 Caribbean Series (CS) success, plus PR barnstorming (1925-26), Cuba’s Winter League (1927-1930), 1937 Dominican Republic (DR), 1937 Denver Post Tournament, and the Negro Leagues (1921-1946). Scales played at 5-11, 195 pounds.

Negro Leagues (1921-1946)

The versatile Scales played second, third, shortstop (1925-26 and 1928), first (1942-46), and right field, posting a .326/.422/.511 slash line, and .933 OPS in 26 seasons. With the 1927 New York Lincoln Giants, he slashed  .419/.526/.624 (a 1.150 OPS). Charlie Smith’s (Brooklyn Royal Giants) .457 BA and Jud Wilson’s .422 BA (Baltimore Black Sox/Lincoln Giants) surpassed Scales. Oscar Charleston’s .399 BA for the Harrisburg Giants was fourth; his 1.195 OPS surpassed Scales’s 1.150. Scales mentored Jim “Junior” Gilliam (Baltimore Elite Giants) in the mid-1940s. Coincidentally, Scales managed Gilliam with the 1950-51 and 1951-52 Santurce Crabbers.

Caribbean Playing Career and 1937 Denver Post Tournament

A 25-year-old Scales first came to PR in December 1925 with the Brooklyn Royal Giants, featuring pitcher Dick “Cannon Ball” Redding. They played 17 contests versus Ponce between December 1925 and January 1926, with Ponce prevailing, 7-5 and 5-2, on January 26, 1926, to win it. José “Gacho” Torres, PR’s first big leaguer with the 1926 Newark Stars, Eastern Colored League (ECL), played for Ponce. (On December 16, 2020, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred awarded, retroactively, “major leaguers within the historical record status” for players in seven Negro Leagues between 1920 and 1948.) He traveled to PR for an October 1926 barnstorming trip with the New York Lincoln Giants, who swept All-Borínquen in a three-game weekend series, followed by sweeping Ponce on October 30-31, 1926. Ponce had 17-year-old rookie Francisco “Pancho” Coímbre—who Scales later managed with the PRWL Ponce Lions—and Millito Navarro at second base. Pedro San (1926-28 Cuban Stars East) pitched for 1926 Ponce, captained by Pedro Miguel Caratini, “father of Dominican Baseball,” and a superb mathematician who relocated to the DR.

Scales went 33-for-118 with the 1927-28 Almendares Scorpions, .280 BA, in Cuba. Adolfo Luque (6-4 W-L) was the Scorpions (17-23) player-manager. In 1928-29, Scales had a .321 BA (43-for-134). His third (1929-30) winter season was with fourth-place (20-30) Havana, managed by Miguel A. González. Scales’s 36-for-124 performance resulted in a .290 BA. His Cuban Winter League career BA was .298. James “Cool Papa” Bell and Willie Wells starred for 1929-30 first-place Cienfuegos (32-19), managed by Pelayo Chacón. Alejandro Oms (.380 BA) earned the batting crown with the Santa Clara Leopards. Martín Dihigo, Rap Dixon, and Dick Lundy played for Almendares. In 1937, Scales reinforced the Águilas Cibaeñas (AC), in a special three-team summer tournament with Ciudad Trujillo and Estrellas Orientales. Chet Brewer,  AC’s star pitcher, pitched Game Seven of the finals versus Ciudad Trujillo’s Satchel Paige, a win by the latter when Sammy Bankhead hit a two-run homer off AC reliever Martín Dihigo. Joshua Gibson (24-for-53, .453 BA) and Cool Papa Bell starred for Ciudad Trujillo. It was another 14 years before pro baseball was played in the Dominican Republic due to financial losses from the 1937 event. Dominican strongman Rafael Leónidas Trujillo bought this 1937 title and facilitated an expensive July 29-August 9, 1937 trip to Denver, Colorado with the “Perfect Machine”—a separate Ciudad Trujillo team managed by Rap Dixon, including five pitchers (Brewer, Paige, Leroy Matlock, “Spoon” Carter, Robert Griffith); two catchers (Clarence Palm and Bill Perkins); infielders Sammy Bankhead, Scales, Showboat Thomas, Harry Williams, Pat Patterson); and, outfielders Cool Papa Bell, Ray Parnell, and Clyde Spearman. They won seven of eight games (.875 PCT).

Six PRWL Titles, February 17, 1951, Pepelucaso, and 1951 CS Crown

First championship won by George Scales in 1942-43 with Ponce.

Leon Day of the Newark Eagles was Scales’s ace for the 1939-40 Aguadilla Sharks, with 12 wins and 186 strikeouts—second to the 208 by Guayama’s Satchel Paige. Day’s salary increased more than doubled, from $20 to $50 a week between his first (1939-40) and third winter (1941-42) with Aguadilla. The 1939-40 level of play in PR impressed him. “You’re talking about Paige, [Billy] Byrd,  Coímbre, Perucho Cepeda, [Joshua] Gibson,” recalled Day. Scales was the 1939 player-manager for the New York Black Yankees (Negro National League II), before managing Aguadilla. The Sharks played home Sunday twin-bills in Parque Colón, capacity, of 2,500. Scales became the only PRWL skipper who won four straight titles (1941-42 to 1944-45). His 1943-44 Ponce squad went 37-7, .841, the best single-season W-L PCT in PRWL history. Coímbre’s .425 BA helped Ponce win the 1944-45 pennant. In 1946-47, they overcame a three-games-to-none deficit in the finals versus Caguas. Scales led Ponce to a 12-8 spring training win over the New York Yankees, on February 24, 1947, at San Juan’s Sixto Escobar Stadium. Coach Raymond Brown won with relief help from José “Pantalones” Santiago and Fernando Díaz Pedroso’s three-run homer off Joe Page. Scales managed Santurce to a 5-1 record, February 1951 CS, hosted by Caracas, Venezuela. Pantalones Santiago and Rubén Gómez won twice. Luis R. Olmo was MVP with a .417 BA, three homers, and nine RBIs. Santurce punched their ticket to Caracas on Pepe Lucas’ two-out walk-off HR, in the ninth, off Caguas’s Mike Clark, at Escobar, on February 17, 1951. Lucas homered after Willard Brown and Bob Thurman were retired.

Table I: Scales’ Regular Season, Semis, Finals PRWL Managing Record

#Include extra W-L in partial seasons: 1940-41, 1948-49, and 1958-59. Sources:

Jorge Colón Delgado, Rafael Costas, Héctor Díaz Salichs, and Tom Van Hyning,

Ten luminaries inducted in the Island’s fourth Professional Baseball Hall of Fame Ceremony included:

October 20, 1996 PR Professional Baseball Hall Induction

• Raymond Brown
• James “Buster” Clarkson
• Joshua Gibson
• Félix Mantilla
• Dr. Francisco Márquez (Aguadilla Sharks team owner)
• Satchel Paige
• Tony Pérez
• Juan “Chico” Sánchez
• George Scales (passed away in Compton, California, April 15, 1976)
• José M. Morales

Thanks to Leon Day. Jorge Colón Delgado did the editing and photo layouts.