Amazon.com: The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball: Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria: Books

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
The "national" in "national pastime" is a relative term in Yale literature professor and former semi-pro catcher Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria's meticulous examination of baseball in the land of his birth. A respected scholar, Echevarria is also a fan, and he manages to weave both objectivity and appreciation throughout a carefully researched and multi-layered narrative that draws from numerous first-person reminiscences. If Echevarria's prose is dry at times, it manages to cover plenty of interesting territory as he threads the game through the fabric of Cuban history, culture, and lore.

The island's romance with baseball has remarkable parallels and interconnections with America's embrace of the game. Ballplayers from the United States loved to barnstorm during the off-season in wide-open Havana, the Dodgers used to train there, the Cuban League--alums include Brooks Robinson, Tommy Lasorda, Don Hoak, and Don Zimmer--was a major force in the vibrant spread of baseball through the Caribbean, and, not surprisingly, several Major and Negro League standouts--Martin Dihigo, Bert Campaneris, Mike Cuellar, Luis Tiant, Minnie Minoso, Camilo Pascual, Tony Oliva, and, more recently, the Hernandez brothers--were stars in their homeland first. But there are also stunning and powerful differences, as stunning and powerful as the differences between the two countries since Castro's rise to power.

Castro's own obsession with the game plays prominently, though Echevarria is quick to strike out the myth that Fidel himself was once a prospect. "Let it be known here," he emphasizes, "that Fidel Castro was never scouted by any major-league team, and is not known to have enjoyed the kind of success in baseball that would have brought a scout's attention to him." He had to settle for the world's attention instead. --Jeff Silverman

From Library Journal
Echevarria, a literary critic and professor of Hispanic and comparative literature at Yale, has written a definitive cultural history of Cuban baseball from 1860 to the present. A former semi-pro catcher born and raised in Cuba, he currently plays in the Connecticut Senior Baseball League. According to Echevarria, baseball filled a void when Cuba rejected bullfighting and other Spanish influences. Despite all the political turbulence, the game has survived to become as much a part of Cuba's social fabric as soccer is for Brazil. The study features an excellent bibliography plus detailed notes for each chapter. The research is exhaustive, based on primary sources and interviews that include numerous anecdotes, making this an engaging read. Although this book is not for everyone, purists and historians of baseball will enjoy it. Buy where demand warrants.ALarry Little, Penticton P.L., B.C.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball (Hardcover)

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