Commemorative cigar pays homage to Tampa Smokers, marks beginning of baseball season

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Commemorative cigar pays homage to Tampa Smokers, marks beginning of baseball season

By Lloyd Sowers - Published  March 10, 2025

 

TAMPA, Fla. - Tampa has produced more than 90 major-leaguers over the years and some of them trace their roots to a team called the Tampa Smokers.

Workers at the J.C. Newman Cigar Company hand roll cigars in the traditional toro shape. The century-old company is the last traditional cigar factory operating in the United States.

"But Hector also rolls a Tampa baseball bat shape. "No one's ever done that before," said Drew Newman, whose grandfather founded the company.

They're rolling a cigar called the Tampa Smoker, paying homage to the Tampa Smokers, the city's first pro baseball team. 

History of the Tampa Smokers
They played from 1919 into the 1950s at Plant Park, where the University of Tampa plays baseball today.

Hall of Famer Al Lopez played for the Smokers. They faced teams from Atlanta to Havana.

"The Cubans had fantastic hitting and fantastic pitching, and it would sell out every time they came to Tampa," said city councilman and Tampa native Charlie Miranda.

The backstory: Miranda is 84. He said for a quarter kids would go to the Smokers game. They knew all the moves that were made by their baseball heroes.

"When you were not doing too good, they would threaten you," said Miranda. "They told players they were going to be sent to Palatka, they had a terrible team," laughed Miranda.

But the Smokers, they were Tampa.

"The original jersey not only had the name Smokers on it, it had a cigar on it too," said Newman.

In those days, Tampa had 200 cigar factories. Workers turned out 700 million cigars a year. While it may not work now as the name of a sports franchise, the Smokers were the baseball heroes in the old Cigar City.

The Tampa Smoker is a small-batch, limited-run commemorative cigar priced at $20 apiece.

Source: https://www.fox13news.com/news/commemorative-cigar-pays-homage-tampa-smokers-marks-beginning-baseball-season