Baseball on the Border [Hardcover]

Alan M. Klein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 3, 1997

Straddling the border between the United States and Mexico is a significant but unheralded experiment in professional basebalL The Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos (The Owls of the Two Laredos) are the only team in professional sports to represent two nations. Playing in the storied Mexican League (a AAA affiliate of major league baseball), the "Tecos" have home parks on both sides of the border, in Laredo, Texas and in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.

Baseball on the Border is the story of this surprising team, told through first hand observations of players and management and with Klein's keen understanding of sports culture. Anyone with an interest in baseball will be enlightened and entertained by this informative book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book is very well written. . . . It contributes greatly to the literature on the cultural basis of sport, to our understanding of the manner in which cultural inventions reflect national identity and processes, and substantiates an important insight to the idea that sport may provide a window to ongoing social change." -- Carlos Velez-Ibaez, American Anthropologist

"This work is a superb lab experiment in the hands of a competent anthropologist like Klein as he tries to separate fantasy from reality in this dual cultural baseball experiment.... An excellent book." -- Bill Kirwin, Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Policy Perspectives

"[Klein] does a fine job of reporting, and his prose is muscular, insightful, even witty." -- Jon Caroulis, Philadelphia Inquirer

From the Publisher

From 1985 to 1994 there existed a significant but unheralded experiment in professional baseball. For ten seasons, the Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos (The Owls of the Two Laredos) were the only team in professional sports to represent two nations. Playing in the storied Mexican League (an AAA affiliate of major league baseball), the "Tecos" had home parks on both sides of the U.S.Mexico border, in Laredo, Texas and in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. In true border fashion, Mexican and American national anthems were played before each game, and the Tecos were operated by interests in both cities. Baseball on the Border is the story of the rise and unexpected demise of this surprising team.

For Alan Klein, a cultural anthropologist specializing in sport, "the border" is almost a nation of its own. Having formed teams of players from both sides of the Rio Grande for almost a century, organizers and followers of the "Border Birds" often join forces but just as frequently squabble with each other in a chronic border tension. Throughout the book, Klein includes firsthand observations of the team and descriptions of its players. Readers will meet Dan Firova, the Tecos' beleaguered manager, a border region native who nevertheless finds himself a target of the Mexican media. The "Ugly American," Willie Waite, is a young pitcher whose stunning success does nothing to diminish the disdain he has for his Mexican teammates. Ernesto Barraza, "The Trickster," once threw a nohitter on only seventy three pitches (on April Fool's Day, appropriately enough), but occasionally shows up at the park missing part of his uniform. And then there is Andres Mora, an aged slugger who, despite three seasons in major league baseball and a life of personal excesses, came within a few home runs of setting the alltime Mexican League record.

This is just part of the roster of the Tecos and only a fraction of the lineup of Baseball on the Border. Anyone with an interest in baseball will be enlightened and entertained by this informative book.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 291 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (March 3, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691011982
• ISBN-13: 978-0691011981
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #889,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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