In early 1896, while Puerto Rico remained under Spanish colonial rule, a quiet movement began—one that would ignite one of the most enduring cultural expressions of the Puerto Rican people: baseball. This pioneering effort was neither accidental nor the product of spontaneous collective action. It emerged from the vision and determination of a young man named Amos Iglesias Van Pelt.

Born in Brooklyn on July 12, 1879, to a Puerto Rican father, Emilio Iglesias, and a New York–born mother, Amalie Van Pelt, Amos arrived in Puerto Rico in 1895. Of mixed heritage and shaped by two worlds, he possessed the leadership, discipline, and passion that would lay the foundation for a sport destined to become a pillar of Puerto Rican identity.

While walking through Puerta de Tierra, at Stop 3 in San Juan, in an area known as La Granja, Iglesias witnessed a scene that would alter the Island’s sporting history: a man holding a bat and a ball. That man was Braulio Sánchez, a Cuban who explained that he had played baseball in Cuba—and that others on the Island knew the game as well. Among them were two brothers with the surname León, nephews of then–Captain General Cabán, and a player known as Caballero.

Iglesias expressed his interest in meeting them, sensing the possibility of something greater: the formation of organized teams. That moment marked the beginning.

A friendship soon developed between Braulio Sánchez and Amos Iglesias. Working side by side, they organized two teams. Sánchez gathered the Cuban players and named his team Almendares. At the same time, Iglesias committed himself to teaching the game to young Puerto Ricans, aided by three compatriots who shared his vision: Dr. Manuel del Valle, Engineer Manuel Saldaña, and Jesús Cabañas, who had lived in Cuba and was well acquainted with the sport.

From those efforts emerged the Borinquen Baseball Club—the first team composed entirely of Puerto Rican players. Among its early members were Amos Iglesias (P), Jesús Cabañas (C), Ignacio Carballeira (CF), Jorge C. Colombani (LF), Manuel del Valle (LF), Rafael González (1B), Eduardo Saldaña (3B), Armando Morales (2B), Enrique Gatell (3B), Luis J. Colombani (RF), José Deupí (RF), Félix Montañez (CF), D. Géigel (SS), and as reserves   Francisco Gatell, Antonio Cabañas, Severo González y José de Jesús Tizol. Their earliest practices took place on the grounds where the Carnegie Library would later stand.

With both teams established, Iglesias coordinated with Francisco de Álamo Jiménez, president of the Santurce Velodrome—located at Stop 15—to adapt the bicycle track into a baseball field. The first diamond was laid out there by David Noble and Tito Escalona, marking the beginning of formally structured baseball on the Island.

The first officially scheduled games were set for January 9, 1898, between Almendares and Borinquen. The rain suspended the contest in the third inning. A second attempt, on January 16, met the same fate, again halted by weather, with Borinquen leading 3–0.

Finally, on January 30, 1898, Borinquen defeated Almendares 9–3 in nine innings—the first complete and officially recorded baseball game in Puerto Rican history.

Games followed nearly every weekend, steadily building enthusiasm and structure. That momentum, however, was abruptly interrupted. The explosion of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor triggered the Spanish–American War, bringing the early development of baseball on the Island to a sudden halt.

Iglesias later recalled that, as relations between Spain and the United States collapsed, baseball—perceived as an American game—became a source of suspicion. Fearing reprisals from Spanish authorities, the players chose to discontinue play at the velodrome. With the arrival of war, baseball activity in Puerto Rico came to a complete stop.

In later years, Iglesias was interviewed numerous times by Puerto Rican newspapers and magazines, where he recounted in detail the earliest chapters of the game on the Island. His contributions would eventually receive formal recognition. On February 7, 1958, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Puerto Rico Sports Hall of Fame. The following day, he was invited to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Caribbean Series, held at Sixto Escobar Stadium. Decades later, in 2025, his foundational role in Puerto Rican baseball was further affirmed with his recent induction into the Puerto Rico Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.

These events mark the formal birth of baseball in Puerto Rico, made possible by the vision, leadership, and organizational discipline of Amos Iglesias Van Pelt, whose actions between 1896 and 1898 laid the foundations of a sport that would endure for generations.