Fidel Castro And Baseball

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Fidel Castro and Baseball

Author : Peter C. Bjarkman
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1538110318
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (381 download)

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Book Synopsis Fidel Castro and Baseball by : Peter C. Bjarkman

Download or read book Fidel Castro and Baseball written by Peter C. Bjarkman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2018-12-07 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few political figures of the modern age have been so vilified as Fidel Castro, and both the vilification and worship generated by the Cuban leader have combined to distort the true image of Castro. The baseball myths attached to Fidel have loomed every bit as large as the skewed political notions that surround him. Castro was never a major league pitching prospect, nor did he destroy the Cuban national pastime in 1962. In Fidel Castro and Baseball: The Untold Story, Peter C. Bjarkman dispels numerous myths about the Cuban leader and his association with baseball. In this groundbreaking study, Bjarkman establishes how Fidel constructed, rather than dismantled, Cuba’s true baseball Golden Age—one that followed rather than preceded the 1959 revolution. Bjarkman also demonstrates that Fidel was not at all unique in “politicizing” baseball as often maintained, since the island sport traces its roots to the 19th-century revolution. Fidel’s avowed devotion to a non-materialist society would ultimately sow the seeds of collapse for the baseball empire he built over more than a half-century, just as the same obsession would finally dismantle the larger social revolution he had painstakingly authored. A fascinating look at a controversial figure and his impact on a major sport, this volume reveals many intriguing insights about Castro and how his love of the game was tied to Cuba’s identity. Fidel Castro and Baseball will appeal to fans of the sport as well as to those interested in Cuba’s enduring association with baseball.

Last Seasons in Havana

Author : César Brioso
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 1496213793
Total Pages : 304 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (962 download)

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Book Synopsis Last Seasons in Havana by : César Brioso

Download or read book Last Seasons in Havana written by César Brioso and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2019-03-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 2020 SABR Baseball Research Award Last Seasons in Havana explores the intersection between Cuba and America’s pastime from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, when Fidel Castro overthrew Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. César Brioso takes the reader through the triumph of the revolution in 1959 and its impact on professional baseball in the seasons immediately following Castro’s rise to power. Baseball in pre?Castro Cuba was enjoying a golden age. The Cuban League, which had been founded in 1878, just two years after the formation of the National League, was thriving under the auspices of organized baseball. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, players from the Major Leagues, Minor Leagues, and Negro Leagues had come to Cuba to play in the country’s wholly integrated winter baseball league. Cuban teams had come to dominate the annual Caribbean Series tournament, and Havana had joined the highest levels of Minor League Baseball, fielding the Havana Sugar Kings of the Class AAA International League. Confidence was high that Havana might one day have a Major League team of its own. But professional baseball became one of the many victims of Castro’s Communist revolution. American players stopped participating in the Cuban League, and Cuban teams moved to an amateur, state?sponsored model. Focusing on the final three seasons of the Cuban League (1958–61) and the final two seasons of the Havana Sugar Kings (1959–60), Last Seasons in Havana explores how Castro’s rise to power forever altered Cuba and the course of a sport that had become ingrained in the island’s culture over the course of almost a century.

Castro's Curveball

Author : Tim Wendel
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 9780803259577
Total Pages : 308 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (595 download)

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Book Synopsis Castro's Curveball by : Tim Wendel

Download or read book Castro's Curveball written by Tim Wendel and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2006-07-25 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When an old scrapbook stirs memories, Billy Bryan looks back to the year 1947 when he was playing winter ball in Cuba, enjoying Havana's decadent nightlife, and dreaming of a major-league career.

Fidel Castro and the Baseball Pitchher

Author : Oscar Valdes Estevez
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781410782977
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (829 download)

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Book Synopsis Fidel Castro and the Baseball Pitchher by : Oscar Valdes Estevez

Download or read book Fidel Castro and the Baseball Pitchher written by Oscar Valdes Estevez and published by . This book was released on 2003-09 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Pride of Havana

Author : Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0195349172
Total Pages : 513 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (953 download)

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Book Synopsis The Pride of Havana by : Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria

Download or read book The Pride of Havana written by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-05-24 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the first amateur leagues of the 1860s to the exploits of Livan and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, here is the definitive history of baseball in Cuba. Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria expertly traces the arc of the game, intertwining its heroes and their stories with the politics, music, dance, and literature of the Cuban people. What emerges is more than a story of balls and strikes, but a richly detailed history of Cuba told from the unique cultural perch of the baseball diamond. Filling a void created by Cuba's rejection of bullfighting and Spanish hegemony, baseball quickly became a crucial stitch in the complex social fabric of the island. By the early 1940s Cuba had become major conduit in spreading the game throughout Latin America, and a proving ground for some of the greatest talent in all of baseball, where white major leaguers and Negro League players from the U.S. all competed on the same fields with the cream of Latin talent. Indeed, readers will be introduced to several black ballplayers of Afro-Cuban descent who played in the Major Leagues before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier once and for all. Often dramatic, and always culturally resonant, Gonzalez Echevarria's narrative expertly lays open the paradox of fierce Cuban independence from the U.S. with Cuba's love for our national pastime. It shows how Fidel Castro cannily associated himself with the sport for patriotic p.r.--and reveals that his supposed baseball talent is purely mythical. Based on extensive primary research and a wealth of interviews, the colorful, often dramatic anecdotes and stories in this distinguished book comprise the most comprehensive history of Cuban baseball yet published and ultimately adds a vital lost chapter to the history of baseball in the U.S.

The Duke of Havana

Author : Steve Fainaru
Publisher : Villard
ISBN 13 : 0375506691
Total Pages : 579 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (755 download)

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Book Synopsis The Duke of Havana by : Steve Fainaru

Download or read book The Duke of Havana written by Steve Fainaru and published by Villard. This book was released on 2001-06-01 with total page 579 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1998, a mysterious right-handed pitcher emerged from the ashes of the Cold War and helped lead the New York Yankees to a World Championship. His origins and even his age were uncertain. His name was Orlando El Duque Hernandez. He was a fallen hero of Fidel Castro's socialist revolution. The chronicle of El Duque's triumph is at once a window into the slow death of Cuban socialism and one of the most remarkable sports stories of all time. Once hailed as a paragon of Castro's revolution, the finest pitcher in modern Cuban history was banned from baseball for life for allegedly plotting to defect. Instead of accepting his punishment, he fearlessly fought back, defying the Communist party authorities, vowing to pitch again, and ultimately fleeing his country in the bowels of a thirty-foot fishing boat. Here, for the first time and in astonishing detail, the secrets behind El Duque's persecution and escape are revealed. Moving from the crumbling streets of post Cold War Havana to the polarized world of exile Miami, from the deadly Florida Straits to the hallowed grounds of Yankee Stadium, it is a story of cloak-and-dagger adventure, audacious secret plots, the pull of big money, and the historic collision of ideologies. Present throughout are the larger-than-life characters who converged at this bizarre intersection of baseball and politics: El Duque himself, Fidel Castro, the Miami sports agent Joe Cubas, the late John Cardinal O'Connor along with scouts, smugglers, and the Cuban ballplayers who gave up their lives as tools of socialism to test the free market and chase their major-league dreams. Reported in the United States and Cuba by two award-winning journalists who became part of the story they were covering, The Duke of Havana is a riveting saga of sports, politics, liberation, and greed.

Son of Havana

Author : Luis Tiant
Publisher : Diversion Books
ISBN 13 : 1635765420
Total Pages : 510 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (357 download)

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Book Synopsis Son of Havana by : Luis Tiant

Download or read book Son of Havana written by Luis Tiant and published by Diversion Books. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A memoir by the mustachioed baseball pitcher who went playing rocky, trash-ridden fields in Castro’s Cuba to becoming a Boston Red Sox legend. Luis Tiant is one of the most charismatic and accomplished players in Boston Red Sox and Major League Baseball history. With a barrel-chested physique and a Fu Manchu mustache, Tiant may not have looked like the lean, sculpted aces he usually played against, but nobody was a tougher competitor on the diamond, and few were as successful. There may be no more qualified twentieth-century pitcher not yet enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. His big-league dreams came at a price: racism in the Deep South and the Boston suburbs, and nearly fifteen years separated from a family held captive in Castro’s Cuba. But baseball also delivered World Series stardom and a heroic return to his island home after close to a half-century of forced exile. The man whose name—“El Tiante” —became a Fenway Park battle cry has never fully shared his tale in his own words, until now. In Son of Havana, Tiant puts his heart on his sleeve and describes his road from torn-up fields in Havana to the pristine lawns of major league ballparks. Readers will share Tiant’s pride when appeals by a pair of US senators to baseball-fanatic Castro secure freedom for Luis’s parents to fly to Boston and witness the 1975 World Series glory of their child. And readers will join the big-league ballplayers for their spring 2016 exhibition game in Havana, when Tiant—a living link to the earliest, scariest days of the Castro regime—threw out the first pitch.

Full Count

Author : Milton H. Jamail
Publisher : SIU Press
ISBN 13 : 9780809323104
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (231 download)

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Book Synopsis Full Count by : Milton H. Jamail

Download or read book Full Count written by Milton H. Jamail and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his comprehensive and vibrant picture of baseball in Cuba, Milton H. Jamail explores the sport's relationship to U.S. baseball. Jamail, whose personal love of the game matches that of the Cubans, examines the roots and traditions of baseball on the island and explains why Cubans play such excellent baseball. His analysis of the development of Cuban baseball after the 1959 takeover by Fidel Castro includes a detailed description of the formation of the Cuban amateur baseball system that has dominated international competitions for more than three decades. Before 1961, when the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and Castro abolished professional baseball, Cuba provided the bulk of the foreign players in the major leagues (more than one hundred since the color barrier was lifted in 1947). Major league interest in Cuban baseball remains high, Jamail notes, as he examines the changes necessary, both in the United States and Cuba, to return Cuban ballplayers to professional baseball in the United States. He discusses Cuban defectors, including Liván Hernández, and describes the intrigue surrounding agent Joe Cubas's courting of Cuban players and his attempts to spirit them away when the Cuban national team plays outside the country. An academic trained in Latin American politics, Jamail has spent twelve years as a Spanish-speaking journalist writing about Latinos and baseball. To write this book, he conducted extensive interviews with baseball officials, journalists, players, and fans in Cuba, as well as Cuban players who have defected. He also talked to scouts and front office people from U.S. baseball organizations.

Pitching Around Fidel

Author : S.L. Price
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0060934921
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (69 download)

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Book Synopsis Pitching Around Fidel by : S.L. Price

Download or read book Pitching Around Fidel written by S.L. Price and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2002-02-05 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an artful pastiche of observation, personal narrative, interviews, and investigative reporting, S.L. Price, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, describes sports and athletes in today's Cuba. On his journeys to the island, Price finds a country that celebrates sports like no other and a regime that uses games as both symbol and weapon in its dying revolution. He finds Olympic and world champion boxers, track stars, volleyball and baseball players, but he also finds that with Castro's revolution staggering beneath the weight of a great depression, Cuba's famed sports system is imploding. Athletes are defecting by plane and raft. Superstars bike to games and legends like boxer Teofilo Stevenson are forced to lost themselves in a bottle of rum. Beyond an examination of sports in the hothouse of revolution, Pitching Around Fidel presents a vibrant and realistic portrait of Cuba today, complete with sex-happy tourists, blackouts, Fidel's famous former lover, and a black-power fugitive wanted in the U.S. for murder and hijacking. At once a biting travelogue and a meditation on sports in both America and Cuba, Pitching Around Fidel is a valuable document about a time and place that is close to fading away.

Tommy Lasorda

Author : Colin Gunderson
Publisher : Triumph Books
ISBN 13 : 1633191583
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (331 download)

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Book Synopsis Tommy Lasorda by : Colin Gunderson

Download or read book Tommy Lasorda written by Colin Gunderson and published by Triumph Books. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tommy Lasorda believed that winning wasn't about being the best, but about believing you are the best and that philosophy runs throughout Tommy Lasorda: My Way. Author Colin Gunderson takes readers through Lasorda's days as a player and the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, including their two World Series Championships in 1981 and 1988. It also provides fans with a peek at what makes Lasorda tick: his relationship with his father, Sabatino, whom he emulated; his childhood growing up in Norristown, Pennsylvania, working odd jobs; and his unfailing work ethic. That work ethic helped him become one of baseball's most successful managers as he won the World Series twice, won four National League pennants and eight division titles with the Dodgers. In this book, fans will recall some of their favorite Lasorda anecdotes, and will also be privy to new information and rich background on this national baseball treasure, including memories from an All-Star roster of Dodgers stars.

Baseball with a Latin Beat

Author : Peter C. Bjarkman
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 9780786483082
Total Pages : 492 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (83 download)

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Book Synopsis Baseball with a Latin Beat by : Peter C. Bjarkman

Download or read book Baseball with a Latin Beat written by Peter C. Bjarkman and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2010-07-27 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Cuba's Esteban Bellan made his debut for the Troy Haymakers of the National Association in 1871, Latin Americans have played a large role in the major leagues. Nearly 15 percent of big league rosters are made up of Latinos, while the region's colorful and competitive winter leagues have been a proving ground for up-and-coming major league players and managers. Early Latin American stars were barred purely because of the color of their skin from playing in the major leagues. Players such as Jose Mendez and Martin Dihigo (the only player elected to the U.S., Cuban and Mexican halls of fame) made their marks on the Negro Leagues, turning the leagues' barnstorming tours into major attractions in many Caribbean countries. This history of the players and events that make up the rich tradition of Latin American baseball gives a unique insight to this long-neglected area of baseball.

Havana Hardball

Author : César Brioso
Publisher : University Press of Florida
ISBN 13 : 0813059526
Total Pages : 284 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis Havana Hardball by : César Brioso

Download or read book Havana Hardball written by César Brioso and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2015-10-13 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In February 1947, the most memorable season in the history of the Cuban League finished with a dramatic series win by Almendares against its rival, Habana. As the celebration spread through the streets of Havana and across Cuba, the Brooklyn Dodgers were beginning spring training on the island. One of the Dodgers' minor league players was Jackie Robinson. He was on the verge of making his major-league debut in the United States, an event that would fundamentally change sports--and America. To avoid harassment from the white crowds in Florida during this critical preseason, the Dodgers relocated their spring training to Cuba, where black and white teammates had played side by side since 1900. It was also during this time that Major League Baseball was trying its hardest to bring the "outlaw" Cuban League under the control of organized baseball. As the Cubans fought to stay independent, Robinson worked to earn a roster spot on the Dodgers in the face of discrimination from his future teammates. Havana Hardball captures the excitement of the Cuban League's greatest pennant race and the anticipation of the looming challenge to MLB's color barrier. Illuminating one of the sport's most pivotal seasons, veteran journalist César Brioso brings together a rich mix of worlds as the heyday of Latino baseball converged with one of the most socially meaningful events in U.S. history.

Cuba Straits

Author : Randy Wayne White
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698184351
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (981 download)

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Book Synopsis Cuba Straits by : Randy Wayne White

Download or read book Cuba Straits written by Randy Wayne White and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-03-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable new novel in the Doc Ford series by New York Times–bestselling author Randy Wayne White. Doc Ford’s old friend, General Juan Garcia, has gone into the lucrative business of smuggling Cuban baseball players into the U.S. He is also feasting on profits made by buying historical treasures for pennies on the dollar. He prefers what dealers call HPC items—high-profile collectibles—but when he manages to obtain a collection of letters written by Fidel Castro between 1960–62 to a secret girlfriend, it’s not a matter of money anymore. Garcia has stumbled way out of his depth. First Garcia disappears, and then the man to whom he sold the letters. When Doc Ford begins to investigate, he soon becomes convinced that those letters contain a secret that someone, or some powerful agency, cannot allow to be made public. A lot happened between Cuba and the United States from 1960–62. Many men died. A few more will hardly be noticed.

Cuban Baseball

Author : Jorge S. Figueredo
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 9780786464258
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (642 download)

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Book Synopsis Cuban Baseball by : Jorge S. Figueredo

Download or read book Cuban Baseball written by Jorge S. Figueredo and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2011-08-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 1999, the Baltimore Orioles played a team of Cuban all-stars, the first time a major league baseball team from the United States had played a Cuban team since 1959. Before communism, Cuba had a rich baseball history, fielding teams that often defeated U.S. major league opponents. This text presents basic statistical information and listings for every Cuban baseball team from 1878 until 1961, when the communist government of Fidel Castro shut down professional sports. The information for each season includes the final standings, team rosters, all-time records, individual statistics arranged by team, and background information. The appendix lists the Cuban players in the first three eras, all-time leaders for batting average, runs, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, RBI, stolen bases, pitching, completed games, wins, losses, MVPs, Rookies of the Years, and much more. The book is profusely illustrated with photographs.

Sport in Cuba

Author : Paula J. Pettavino
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Pre
ISBN 13 : 0822974592
Total Pages : 319 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (229 download)

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Book Synopsis Sport in Cuba by : Paula J. Pettavino

Download or read book Sport in Cuba written by Paula J. Pettavino and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 1994-09-15 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No aspect of Cuban life more clearly epitomizes their government's emphasis on image-building and individual participation than the system of physical culture and competitive athletics. Indeed the Cuban record in international athletics is the most universally recognized success of the communist revolution, as indicated by the Cuban arrival in the 1972 Olympics and the 1991 Pan-American Games, when Cuba beat the United States in the gold medal tally, dominating boxing, baseball, and winning the marathon. The fruits of the Cuban sports system were again in evidence at the Barcelona Olympics of 1992, despite the severe deprivation caused by the collapse of the island's socialist allies. In spite of the obvious success and political importance of sport in Cuba, very little has been written on the subject. Sport in Cuba closes this gap. In the first major study on the Cuban system of sports and physical culture, Paula J. Pettvino and Geralyn Pye analyze how sports was given such a high priority in Cuba, how the country became a world power by the mid-1970s, and the impact of sports on Cuban society. Moving from the early days when the government's approach to sports was loosely defined, through the construction of a complex system of physical culture, to the current years of uncertainty, Sport in Cuba utilizes both archival sources and personal interviews. It will be of interest to Latin Americanists and students of sports.

Escape from Castro's Cuba

Author : Tim Wendel
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 149622292X
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (962 download)

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Book Synopsis Escape from Castro's Cuba by : Tim Wendel

Download or read book Escape from Castro's Cuba written by Tim Wendel and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named a 2021 Top Thriller by Alta Journal 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist in Action/Adventure Fiction 2021 Professional Achievement Award, Johns Hopkins University faculty Finalist for the 2021 CASEY Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year In this visionary sequel to Castro’s Curveball, the former Washington Senators Minor League catcher has returned to Havana with a small role in a movie being filmed on location. Billy Bryan soon realizes that this place and his past remain as star-crossed as when he played winter ball in the Cuban capital decades before. Against his better judgment, Billy becomes entangled in a scheme to spirit a top baseball prospect off the island. This pits him against his old friend Fidel Castro. Despite being in his final days, the dictator remains a dangerous adversary, as does the Cuban sports machine and the Mexican crime syndicates that now direct baseball talent toward the U.S. Major Leagues. In Escape from Castro’s Cuba, Billy must once again navigate the crosscurrents of the so-called City of Columns: a place where the sunsets from the Hotel Nacional along the Malecón breakwater are as beautiful as ever, but where the alleyways in Old Havana still fan out, crooked and broken, like an old catcher’s fingers.

Full Count

Author : Milton H. Jamail
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780809324729
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (247 download)

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Book Synopsis Full Count by : Milton H. Jamail

Download or read book Full Count written by Milton H. Jamail and published by . This book was released on 2002-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his comprehensive and vibrant picture of baseball in Cuba, Milton H. Jamail explores the sport’s relationship to U.S. baseball. Jamail, whose personal love of the game matches that of the Cubans, examines the roots and traditions of baseball on the island and explains why Cubans play such excellent baseball. His analysis of the development of Cuban baseball after the 1959 takeover by Fidel Castro includes a detailed description of the formation of the Cuban amateur baseball system that has dominated international competitions for more than three decades. Before 1961, when the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and Castro abolished professional baseball, Cuba provided the bulk of the foreign players in the major leagues (more than one hundred since the color barrier was lifted in 1947). Major league interest in Cuban baseball remains high, Jamail notes, as he examines the changes necessary, both in the United States and Cuba, to return Cuban ballplayers to professional baseball in the United States. He discusses Cuban defectors, including Liván Hernández, and describes the intrigue surrounding agent Joe Cubas’s courting of Cuban players and his attempts to spirit them away when the Cuban national team plays outside the country. An academic trained in Latin American politics, Jamail has spent twelve years as a Spanish-speaking journalist writing about Latinos and baseball. To write this book, he conducted extensive interviews with baseball officials, journalists, players, and fans in Cuba, as well as Cuban players who have defected. He also talked to scouts and front office people from U.S. baseball organizations.