The Tropic of Baseball

The Tropic of Baseball PDF

Author: Rob Ruck

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1999-01-01

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 9780803289789

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Looks at the history of baseball in the Dominican Republic and looks at the most prominent Dominicans to reach the Major Leagues

Dominican Baseball

Dominican Baseball PDF

Author: Alan Klein

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 2014-03-14

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 143991088X

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Alan Klein examines the history of Major League Baseball's presence and influence in the Dominican Republic, the development of the booming industry and academies, and the dependence on Dominican player developers, known as buscones. He also addresses issues of identity fraud and the use of performance-enhancing drugs as hopefuls seek to play professionally. Dominican Baseball charts the trajectory of the economic flows of this transnational exchange, and the pride Dominicans feel in their growing influence in the sport. Klein also uncovers the prejudice that prompts MLB to diminish Dominican claims on legitimacy.

Sugarball

Sugarball PDF

Author: Alan M. Klein

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 1993-02-01

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780300052565

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Describes how Dominican baseball fosters national pride and competition with the United States while at the same time promoting acceptance of the North American presence in the country

The Rise of the Latin American Baseball Leagues, 1947-1961

The Rise of the Latin American Baseball Leagues, 1947-1961 PDF

Author: Lou Hernández

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2011-10-10

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 0786489367

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Major League Baseball today would be unrecognizable without the large number of Latin American players and managers filling its ranks. Their strong influence on the sport can trace its beginnings to professional leagues established south of the border and in the Caribbean nations in the 1940s. This narrative history of Latin American baseball leagues during the 1940s and 1950s provides an in-depth, year-by-year chronicle of seasonal leagues in the seven primary baseball-playing areas in the region: Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The success of these leagues, and their often acrimonious competition with U.S. Organized Baseball, eventually ushered in a new era of contract concessions from owners and general labor advancements for players that forever changed the game.

The Eastern Stars

The Eastern Stars PDF

Author: Mark Kurlansky

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2010-04-15

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1101186860

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The intriguing, inspiring history of one small, impoverished area in the Dominican Republic that has produced a staggering number of Major League Baseball talent, from an award-winning, bestselling author. In the town of San Pedro in the Dominican Republic, baseball is not just a way of life. It's the way of life. By the year 2008, seventy-nine boys and men from San Pedro have gone on to play in the Major Leagues-that means one in six Dominican Republicans who have played in the Majors have come from one tiny, impoverished region. Manny Alexander, Sammy Sosa, Tony Fernandez, and legions of other San Pedro players who came up in the sugar mill teams flocked to the United States, looking for opportunity, wealth, and a better life. Because of the sugar industry, and the influxes of migrant workers from across the Caribbean to work in the cane fields and factories, San Pedro is one of the most ethnically diverse areas of the Dominican Republic. A multitude of languages are spoken there, and a variety of skin colors populate the community; but the one constant is sugar and baseball. The history of players from San Pedro is also a chronicle of racism in baseball, changing social mores in sports and in the Dominican Republic, and the personal stories of the many men who sought freedom from poverty through playing ball. The story of baseball in San Pedro is also that of the Caribbean in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and on a broader level opens a window into our country's history. As with Kurlansky's Cod and Salt, this small story, rich with anecdote and detail, becomes much larger than ever imagined. Kurlansky reveals two countries' love affair with a sport and the remarkable journey of San Pedro and its baseball players. In his distinctive style, he follows common threads and discovers wider meanings about place, identity, and, above all, baseball. Watch a Video

The Tropic of Baseball

The Tropic of Baseball PDF

Author: Rob L. Ruck

Publisher: Bison Books

Published: 2014-04-01

Total Pages: 407

ISBN-13: 9780803290150

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In a new afterword Rob Ruck looks at the current state of baseball in the country that has produced Sammy Sosa and many other major league stars.

Alou

Alou PDF

Author: Felipe Alou

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

Published: 2020-04-01

Total Pages: 343

ISBN-13: 1496214048

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Growing up in a tiny shack in the Dominican Republic, Felipe Alou never dreamed he would be the first man born and raised in his country to play and manage in Major League Baseball—and also the first to play in the World Series. In this extraordinary autobiography, Alou tells of his real dream to become a doctor, and an improbable turn of events that led to the pro contract. Battling racism in the United States and political turmoil in his home country, Alou persevered, paving the way for his brothers and scores of other Dominicans, including his son Moisés. Alou played seventeen years in the Major Leagues, accumulating more than two thousand hits and two hundred home runs, and then managed for another fourteen years—four with the San Francisco Giants and ten with the Montreal Expos, where he became the winningest manager in franchise history. Alou’s pioneering journey is embedded in the history of baseball, the Dominican Republic, and a remarkable family. Purchase the audio edition.

The Pitcher and the Dictator

The Pitcher and the Dictator PDF

Author: Averell Smith

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2018-04-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1496205499

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"How Satchel Paige spent one season playing for the dictator Rafael Trujillo's team in the Dominican Republic"--

Dominican Connection

Dominican Connection PDF

Author: George Gedda

Publisher: Strategic Book Publishing

Published: 2009-02

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1606930230

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Until 1956, no Dominican had ever played in the major leagues. Since then, upwards of 750 have done so, an astonishing number for a small Caribbean country. Gedda examines this remarkable migration of young, poor kids who have learned the skills needed to compete in America's baseball shrines.

Juan Marichal

Juan Marichal PDF

Author: Juan Marichal

Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA

Published: 2011-10-01

Total Pages: 295

ISBN-13: 1610602110

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The groundbreaking superstar tells his story: “To look at the MLB career of Hall of Fame pitcher Marichal is to look at another era . . . a solid hit.” —Library Journal In a decade that featured such legendary hurlers as Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Don Drysdale, and other Hall of Famers, no pitcher won more games than Juan Marichal in the 1960s. His unique high-kick pitching style was imitated by kids from New York to San Francisco to Santo Domingo, and is immortalized in a bronze statue outside of the Giants’ current ballpark. Marichal was the first Dominican-born player to play in an All-Star Game and the first elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he won more games than any of his countrymen. And while Dominican and other Latino players have come to dominate many aspects of baseball in recent years, Marichal was a trailblazer in his day, entering the league at a time when Latin American players were routinely discriminated against, underpaid, and presented with numerous obstacles on their journey to the big leagues. Now, Marichal tells the story of his rise from living on a rural farm as a young boy in the Dominican Republic to his status as one of the greatest pitchers of all time. Along the way, he was enlisted by the son of the country’s dictator to play for the national team, was threatened at gunpoint to throw a game during a tournament in Mexico, fought homesickness as a minor leaguer in rural Indiana, and went head-to-head with some of the best pitchers and hitters the game has ever seen. For the first time, Marichal gives his perspective on life as a Latino ballplayer in the 1960s, describes the highs and lows of a sixteen-year major league career, and explores what the recent influx of Dominicans in the majors has meant to baseball and to his home country—and also offers reflections on lingering stereotypes, the impact of steroids, and the general state of the game in the twenty-first century.