From the 1st beginner leagues of the 1860s to the exploits of Livan and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, here's the definitive heritage of baseball in Cuba. Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria expertly strains the arc of the sport, intertwining its heroes and their tales with the politics, tune, dance, and literature of the Cuban humans. What emerges is greater than a narrative of balls and moves, yet a richly particular heritage of Cuba informed from the original cultural perch of the baseball diamond.
Filling a void created by way of Cuba's rejection of bullfighting and Spanish hegemony, baseball quick grew to become a vital sew within the advanced social textile of the island. by way of the early Forties Cuba had develop into significant conduit in spreading the sport all through Latin the United States, and a proving floor for a number of the maximum expertise in all of baseball, the place white significant leaguers and Negro League avid gamers from the U.S. all competed at the comparable fields with the cream of Latin expertise. certainly, readers can be brought to a number of black ballplayers of Afro-Cuban descent who performed within the significant Leagues ahead of Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier as soon as and for all. frequently dramatic, and consistently culturally resonant, Gonzalez Echevarria's narrative expertly lays open the ambiguity of fierce Cuban independence from the U.S. with Cuba's love for our nationwide hobby. It exhibits how Fidel Castro cannily linked himself with the game for patriotic p.r.--and finds that his meant baseball expertise is solely legendary. in keeping with huge basic examine and a wealth of interviews, the colourful, usually dramatic anecdotes and tales during this unusual ebook include the main complete background of Cuban baseball but released and eventually provides a necessary misplaced bankruptcy to the historical past of baseball within the U.S.