"[1] During their existence, the Leopardos featured several of the biggest stars of Negro league baseball, including Oscar Charleston, Satchel Paige, and Josh Gibson.
[2] In addition, the team featured outstanding performances from Cuba's own baseball stars including Alejandro Oms and Martín Dihigo.
[3] In the fall of 1921, with a depressed economy and political instability, the Cuban League fielded only two teams, Almendares and Habana, and played a shortened schedule.
As manager of the Cuban Stars (West), he had contacts he could use to recruit top Negro league players from the United States.
[5] The team recruited several local players—Alejandro Oms, a Santa Clara native, Pablo Mesa of nearby Caibarién, and Julio Rojo of neighboring Sagua la Grande.
From the United States, Molina recruited a number of top Negro league players—pitchers Bill Holland and Dave Brown, infielders Frank Warfield and Oliver Marcelle, and superstar outfielder Oscar Charleston.
Filling out the roster were pitcher Eustaquio Pedroso, infielders Manuel Parrado, Ramón González, and Matías Ríos, and outfielder Felipe Sierra.
Then, with the season half over, a dispute took place when the league refused to count Sunday games, taking away one of Santa Clara's wins.
Linares and Molina brought back pitchers Holland, Brown, and Pedroso and added Americans Rube Currie and Merven Ryan, as well as Cuban legend José Méndez, and Pedro Dibut, who had just been signed by the Cincinnati Reds.
Almendares featured Nip Winters on the mound, Dick Lundy at shortstop, Bernardo Baró and Valentín Dreke in the outfield, a young Martín Dihigo, and former or future major leaguers Armando Marsans, Manuel Cueto, José Rodríguez, and Ramón Herrera.
Habana featured pitchers Adolfo Luque, coming off his 27-win season with the Cincinnati Reds, and Andy Cooper, shortstop John Henry Lloyd, and outfielders Cristóbal Torriente and Jacinto Calvo.
With attendance dropping as the championship fell out of reach for the other teams, the league officials stopped the season early and declared Santa Clara the champions.
In the outfield, Oms was back, but Charleston moved to Almendares and Mesa didn't play; their places were taken by Montalvo and Jelly Gardner, with Turkey Stearnes appearing for part of the season.
By January, Almendares—which, in addition to Charleston, featured Bullet Rogan, Luque, Biz Mackey, Lloyd, and Lundy—had taken an 8+1⁄2 game lead.
The league reorganized for a special season held at the old stadium, Almendares Park, but the Santa Clara team was replaced by one from Marianao.
The team signed American Negro leaguers Bill Perkins as catcher and Willie Wells as shortstop, and Dominican Horacio Martínez as second baseman.
Dihigo produced a memorable season, leading the league in many batting and pitching categories—batting average (.358), runs scored (42), hits (63, tied with Wells), triples (8), RBI (38, tied with Perkins), pitching winning percentage (11–2, .846), complete games (13), wins (11), and shutouts (4), and also won the Most Valuable Player Award.
Rojo replaced him as manager, and Santa Clara brought in Negro league pitcher Ray Brown and second baseman Harry Williams, as Martínez moved to shortstop and Perkins returned as catcher.
[20] With three games left to play, Santa Clara had a three-game lead over Marianao, whom they faced in the final series at home in La Boulanger Park.
The visiting Tigres swept the series and forced a playoff, with Dihigo pitching for Marianao on consecutive days and winning both games.
The Tigres scored 7 runs, while Dihigo held the Leopardos scoreless through eight innings before giving up a three-run homer to Perkins in the ninth.
Bankhead led the league in batting average (.366), runs scored (47), hits (89), and RBIs (34), and tied with teammate/manager Salazar for the lead in triples (5).
Catcher Josh Gibson joined the team and shattered Suttles' Cuban League home-run record, hitting 11 homers in 163 at bats.
Brown went 11–7 and led the league in complete games with 16, Manuel (Cocaína) García went 11–4, and Salazar went 6–2 while also playing first base and hitting .293.