Sandy Nava

Vincent Irwin "Sandy" Nava (April 12, 1850 – June 15, 1906) was an American 19th-century Major League Baseball player for five seasons from through . Of Mexican heritage, Nava is the first known American-born Hispanic baseball player in the major leagues, and the second of Hispanic descent, behind Cuban-born Steve Bellán.

Career Born as Vincent Irwin in San Francisco, California, Sandy made his Major League debut for the 1882 Providence Grays as a catcher. Nava's history in professional baseball showed two sides; when he was growing up in San Francisco, he apparently tried to hide his Mexican heritage and went by names like Irwin Sandy or Vincent Irwin, but when he came to the East Coast, he returned to his name of Nava and the Providence team tried to promote his "Spanish" heritage. he was enumerated at 363 Davis Street in Baltimore, Maryland. He was listed as Vincent Nava, white and single, born April 1850, and working as an upholsterer, in a neighborhood with a large black population. Nava died in Baltimore at the age of 56, and is interred at Trinity Cemetery in Baltimore, a segregated cemetery.