Cuba's Baseball Defectors
Cuba's Baseball Defectors

Author: Peter Costa Bjarkman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2023-06-14

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 1442247991

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“Takes an inside look into the wave of player departures that has rocked the game both in Cuba and the U.S., while providing historical perspective.” —USA Today The stellar play and fascinating backstories of exiled Cuban sluggers and hurlers has become part of Major League Baseball history. On-field exploits by colorful Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig, AL rookie-of-the-year José Abreu, home run derby champion Yoenis Céspedes, radar-gun busting Cincinnati fast-baller Aroldis Chapman, and a handful of others have been further enhanced by feel-good tales of desperate Cuban superstars risking their lives to escape Fidel Castro’s communist realm and chase an American Dream of financial and athletic success. But a truly ugly underbelly to this story has also slowly emerged—one that involves human smuggling operations financed by Miami crime syndicates, operated by Mexican drug cartels, and conveniently ignored by ball clubs endlessly searching for fresh waves of international talent. Given rare access to Cuba and its ballplayers, Peter C. Bjarkman has spent over twenty years traveling to all corners of the island getting to know the top Cuban stars and witnessing their struggles and triumphs. In this book, Bjarkman places events in the context of Cuban baseball history and tradition before delving into the stories of the major Cuban stars who have left the island. He reveals their personal histories, explains the events that led them to defect from their homeland, and details their harrowing journeys to US shores. Players whose big-league dreams failed are also discussed, as are Cuba’s efforts to stem the defection tide through working agreements with the Japanese and Mexican leagues. Cuba’s Baseball Defectors will fascinate baseball fans, those interested in the history of US-Cuba relations, and those wanting to learn more about the unsavory story of human trafficking in the name of baseball glory. “A revelation . . . an original social history for sports enthusiasts and readers interested in past and future Cuba–U.S. ties.” —Library Journal Includes photos

Full Count
Full Count

Author: Milton H. Jamail

Publisher: SIU Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9780809323104

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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.

The Duke of Havana
The Duke of Havana

Author: Steve Fainaru

Publisher: Villard

Published: 2001-06-01

Total Pages: 579

ISBN-13: 0375506691

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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.

Fidel Castro and Baseball
Fidel Castro and Baseball

Author: Peter C. Bjarkman

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-12-07

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1538110318

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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.

Full Count
Full Count

Author: Milton H. Jamail

Publisher:

Published: 2002-09

Total Pages: 224

ISBN-13: 9780809324729

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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.

Who's Who in Cuban Baseball, 1878-1961
Who's Who in Cuban Baseball, 1878-1961

Author: Jorge S. Figueredo

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2015-08-01

Total Pages: 423

ISBN-13: 0786482648

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True professional baseball has not been played in Cuba since banned by the communist regime after the 1961 season, but there is a legacy of more than 70 years of continuous excellence by countless Cubans who played in the organized leagues of the island from 1878 to 1961. Scores of North Americans, white and black, and Latin Americans also played in Cuba during that time. Biographical and season-by-season statistical information for the many hundreds of Cuban, North American and Latin American players who took part in the Cuban leagues from 1878 to 1961 has been compiled in this work. The time period is divided into three eras. The first is from 1878 to 1899, the primitive years of the Cuban league; the second, 1900 to 1933, when the league opened its doors to welcome foreign players; and the third, from 1934 to 1961, the golden age that made Cuba then the second power in organized baseball. Birth and death dates for each player (if they could be determined) are provided. The statistical information for players includes the number of games played, at bats, hits, doubles, triples, home runs, and season average. The statistical information for pitchers includes the number of games pitched, complete games, win-loss record, and winning percentage.

Cuban Baseball
Cuban Baseball

Author: Jorge S. Figueredo

Publisher: Macfarland & Company

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 560

ISBN-13:

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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 Cuba's communist revolution in 1959. The Orioles won 3-2 in 11 innings. This text presents basic statistical information and listings for every Cuban baseball team from 1878 until 1961. The Cuban League functioned until February 1961, but the International League revoked the Cubans Sugar Kings franchise in July 1960. 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.

Baseball with a Latin Beat
Baseball with a Latin Beat

Author: Peter C. Bjarkman

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2010-07-27

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 9780786483082

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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.

Cuba and the Last Baseball Season
Cuba and the Last Baseball Season

Author: Jose Ramirez

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2018-10-07

Total Pages: 408

ISBN-13: 9781725896628

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The migration of Cuban born baseball players since the 1800s to the present time to and from their homeland serves as the foundation of a significant period of time in the Cuban baseball history.The focus of this book is the story about baseball players in Cuba who learned of their inability to pursue their dremas to play professional baseball in their home country. This came about following the decision by the Castro regime to abolish professional baseball at the end of the 1960-61 season.Players were faced with the dilemma to either leave behind their family, home, friends and their beloved homeland, in order to play baseball professionally knowing they may never see them again, or to stay at home and pursue a different and uncertain way of life. Seeking advice from their parents given their very young age or very trusted people became a necessity.This is not simply another baseball story, it is about the personal struggle these men and their families endured, and the heart-wrenching judgement they had to make, during a relatively short period of time while they still had a choice to make such a decisiion. An analysis of what transpired in Cuba during the period time that preceded and followed the last professional baseball season soon after its demise serves to illustrate the environment in which they lived. Dealing with such a decision brought about a series of actions, taken mostly in privacy and secrecy that is reflected in some of the stories shared by some of the players and their families.

El Duque
El Duque

Author: Kenneth LaFreniere

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 108

ISBN-13: 9780375801976

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With all its incredible heroes, baseball has never seen a player like Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez. From humble beginnings, El Duque rose to fame in his native Cuba as one of the best pitchers ever. But suddenly his baseball career was over. Fearing he would flee the country, the Cuban government banned him from baseball for life. Rather than be forced to watch from the sidelines, El Duque and seven other friends and players boarded a rickety boat and made a dangerous journey through shark-infested waters to freedom. After being shipwrecked for days on a deserted island, El Duque finally made it to American shores -- and a starting spot with the world-famous New York Yankees! A star pitcher in the 1998 World Series, El Duque enjoyed one of the best rookie seasons in the history of the Major Leagues -- and his inspiring story is just beginning...