Leo Najo
Mission, Hidalgo County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(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)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Leonardo Alaniz, remembered as "Leo Najo" after a playful twist on conejo (rabbit), grew up in Mission after arriving from Nuevo León in 1909 and became one of the first Mexican-Americans to reach professional baseball. Prized for his batting average and blazing speed on the bases, he climbed from South Texas teams to the minor leagues and briefly into the Chicago White Sox organization in 1925 before a leg injury closed the door on the majors. Back home, he managed the Mission 30-30s, raised a large family, and in 1973 became the first player formally inducted into the Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame.
Why it matters
Najo's career opened a path for Mexican-American athletes at a time when the color and cultural lines of American baseball ran deep, and his hometown honors mark him as an enduring symbol of talent and dignity in the borderlands.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Leo Najo (Leonardo Alaniz)
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Presbyterian Church of Mission
Mission, TX
In 1909 Dr. Samuel McPheeters Glasgow preached Mission's first sermon and started a Sunday school, and with Dr. M. W. Doggett organized the First Presbyterian Church of Mission in January 1910; the two also helped plant churches across the Valley. A small wooden building went up by April 1910, replaced by larger complexes in 1955 and 2005. Over the decades its services drew notable visitors, and the congregation sustained wide-ranging charitable work.
D. Guerra & Sons Store
McAllen, TX
Brothers Enrique and Modesto Guerra opened a grocery in the brand-new town of McAllen in 1908, joined two years later by their father Diódoro to form D. Guerra and Sons. The family moved the business into this handsome brick and concrete building in 1912, where it operated until 1964. Its distinctive façade—recessed doorway, concrete brackets, and a molded-brick cornice with starburst and garland designs—still records the firm's name and construction date.
Percy Herman House
McAllen, TX
Built in 1933 for merchant Percy Herman, one of McAllen's most influential early businessmen, this Spanish Eclectic home reflects both his success and the growing Jewish community of South Texas. Born in Iowa, Herman opened stores across the region before settling in McAllen in 1916 to run the Valley Mercantile store. He hired well-traveled architect Edwin W. Byers to design the house, whose stucco walls, clay-tile roof, and wrought-iron details grace a prominent corner lot.
La Piedad Cemetery
McAllen, TX
Older than the city of McAllen that grew up around it, this burial ground likely began as a small ranch cemetery in the 1800s, with its earliest known interment — Gertrudis Cavazos — in 1895. Much of the land came from the Arnold family, with other parcels acquired from the city. Its graves hold veterans of conflicts reaching back to World War I, some who served in foreign armies, amid religious iconography, Masonic emblems and Woodmen of the World markers, tended since 1930 by a dedicated association.