Leo Najo

Najo hit well in the Chicago White Sox camp of 1926, and biographers think he could have made the team, yet on the last day he was released to San Antonio. His family suspects prejudice and says the club tried to pass him off as a Native American, calling him Chief Najo. On July 7, 1926, a collision with Ping Bodie broke his leg and ended his major league chances, and some admirers have long suspected it was no accident. No source offers proof. At 39 he came back to bat .354 for the McAllen Packers in 1938.

What the plaque says

Leo Najo (February 17, 1899 - April 25, 1978) Leonardo Alaniz, better known as Leo Najo, was one of the first Mexican-Americans to play professional baseball in the United States. Born in the Mexican community of La Lajilla, Nuevo Leon, he moved to Mission with his mother, Rosario Alanis, in 1909. As a youth, he became interested in baseball and in 1918, he helped form a team called the Mission 30-30 Rifles (later Mission 30-30s). During the early 1920s, Najo, whose nickname came from an alteration of conejo (rabbit), played for teams in Mexico and Laredo. He was known for his high batting average and baserunning speed. In 1924, Najo joined the San Antonio Bears minor league team and played for several others before the Chicago White Sox major league franchise acquired him in 1925. He did not make the lineup and was sent back to the minor leagues. Najo continued to play impressively but suffered a serious leg injury in a collision during a game, ending his major league possibilities. Najo continued to play in the minors until 1933, when he returned to Mission. He helped operate his family's tavern on West 6th Street and invested in real estate. Najo managed the Mission 30-30s from 1933 to 1937, and played and managed in Mexico for two more seasons. By the early 1940s, he married Elida Garza; the two reared eleven children. Najo continued to teach and manage baseball. In 1973, "Leo Najo Day" was proclaimed, the street in Mission where he lived (7th Street) was renamed Leo Najo Street, and the high school baseball field was renamed in his honor. In 1973, he was the first player formally inducted into the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame. Today, Leo Najo is remembered as a positive role model whose skills on the diamond were only surpassed by his character and class. (2009)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park — 3.9 mi
  A 587-acre stand of Rio Grande woodland near Mission, once part of a Spanish porción, given to the state by the Bentsen family in 1944 and now headquarters of the World Birding Center.
• La Lomita Chapel — 4.3 mi
  A small sandstone chapel on the Rio Grande levee, built by Oblate missionaries in 1865 and rebuilt at this site in 1899, the landmark that gave the city of Mission its name.
• Museum of South Texas History — 12 mi
  Edinburg's regional museum, begun in 1967 in the 1910 Hidalgo County jail and now telling the Rio Grande's story from fossils and native peoples through steamboats to the 20th century.
• Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge — 15 mi
  About 2,000 acres of river forest on the Rio Grande's north bank, the surviving part of Benigno Leal's 1834 land grant, kept as a refuge since 1943 where two bird migration routes meet.

More markers nearby

• Texas Citrus Fiesta — 0.8 mi
• Penitas — 4.0 mi
• Juan Davis Bradburn — 4.3 mi
• John H. Shary Home — 4.4 mi