Baseball is increasingly popular throughout the world, as evidenced by the many talented players (such as Ichiro Suzuki, Miguel Cabrera, Albert Pujols, and Hideki Matsui) coming to the Major Leagues from around the globe. The influx of such players is testament to the many high-quality professional and amateur leagues that thrive throughout the world. In this reference book—the first of its kind— narrative chapters trace the history of baseball in Australia, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and throughout the rest of the world. Bjarkman profiles the teams and leading players from each country. He also covers the history of tournament play throughout the world, including Olympic baseball. This volume provides an invaluable and unprecedented source on the growth of America's national pastime into a global phenomenon that one day might feature a true World Series. Backmatter includes a chronology of important events, an annotated bibliography, and contact information for official baseball federations throughout the world.
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Though baseball is popularly viewed as the quintessential American game, this encyclopedia challenges that notion. Author Bjarkman, who has written several other books on baseball, aims "to present the rest of the world of baseball to U.S. fans." He provides a thorough discussion of the tradition of baseball around the globe and effectively shows that the sport is indeed an international one.
The encyclopedia begins with a detailed discussion of the development of baseball as an international sport. In this section of the work, Bjarkman convincingly makes the case that baseball is not "exclusively an American game." For example, he notes that baseball evolved from the English games of cricket and rounders. Furthermore, he states that in Cuba, baseball has been historically connected to nationhood and identity. The introduction is followed by the main text, which is divided into 11 chapters, including 2 on the Olympics and the Caribbean World Series. The remaining chapters are devoted to the history of baseball in particular countries or regions of the world. Countries covered include prominent baseball nations--such as Cuba, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela--and regions not immediately known for baseball--such as Europe and Africa. Each country chapter contains detailed statistics and brief but informative biographies of notable players.
In addition to the main text, the encyclopedia has several other useful features. For example, there is an appendix of the "greatest moments" in the history of international baseball. An excellent annotated bibliography lists major monographs and periodical articles. Finally, black-and-white photographs, including a picture of Fidel Castro pitching, are dispersed throughout the volume.
Diamonds around the Globe will appeal to baseball followers who are interested in discovering the global dimension of the game. It is recommended for public and college libraries. Michelle Hendley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
?[P]rovides a thorough discussion of the tradition of baseball around the globe and effectively shows that the sport is indeed an international one....Diamonds around the Globe will appeal to baseball followers who are interested in discovering the global dimension of the game. It is recommended for public and college libraries.?-Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin
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More About the Author
Peter Bjarkman is widely recognized as a leading authority on Cuban baseball, both pre- and post-revolution. He has covered the Cuban League and the Cuban national team for the popular website www.BaseballdeCuba.com since 2007 and has traveled widely with the Cubnan national team to international tournaments for the past fifteen years. His volume entitled A HISTORY OF CUBAN BASEBALL, 1864-2006 (McFarland, 2007) is universally considered the seminal work on the history of the island nation's national pastime. Bjarkman has also written widely over the past 20 years on Latin American baseball, major league baseball, and NCAA and NBA basketball. He has appeared in numerous television and radio interviews and in more than a dozen documentary films on baseball and basketball history. Bjarkman can also be found at www.bjarkman.com, www.BaseballdeCuba.com, and on his popular MLB Blog (Bjarkman's Latino and Cuban Baseball History Page) which has been an MLB "Top 100 Blog Site" for the past two years (2008, 2009).
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Early-Season Candidate for Baseball Book of the Year,
By Matt Sarneige (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Diamonds around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball (Hardcover)
Peter C. Bjarkman's "Diamonds Around the Globe" is the early-season candidate for baseball book of the year honors. It picks up where Total Baseball and other tomes leave off, and makes it clear that baseball is much more than just an American pastime
There are chapters on the game in Japan, Canada, Venezuela, Cuba and elsewhere. Bjarkman adds the history of baseball in Europe, the Pacific Rim countries and Africa. "DAG" includes historical information on professional and amateur programs around the globe. Want to know the yearly champions of Belarus or San Marino? Or Korea's MVPs? It's all here, along with information on baseball in the Olympics and other global amateur competitions. One of the most fascinating sections of the book is a timeline that includes a potpourri of baseball facts, feats and firsts - details of an 1857 game on Australia's Ballarat gold rush fields; the birth of professional teams in Cuba and Japan; and much more. There's even an appendix that provides names and addresses of baseball federations around the world. Want the e-mail address for the Osterreichischer BaseballundSoftballverband (Austria)? A website for the Hrvatski Baseball Savez (Croatia)? Or the name of the current president of the Republic of Marshall Islands Baseball Federation (Danny Wase)? It's all here.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By Nicholas R.W. Henning (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Diamonds around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball (Hardcover)
Why does Mr Bjarkman write five star reviews on his own books?
Some people may accuse Mr Bjarkman of being vain. I've noticed this on many of his works on Amazon.com, particularly when people write unfavourable reviews. He is then quick to tack on a five star review of his own. A professional Historian or Author wouldn't respond to criticism this way. As a paying customer I feel it is my right to state my honest opinion, and for US$78.95 I don't feel I received value for money. Mr Bjarkman has other books that are much better than this one. His criticism of other baseball writers on Amazon.com is also a worry, especially his comments on Joe Clark's book, "A History of Australian Baseball: Time and Game", and some of his remarks are in fact wrong. For example, Craig Shipley made his MLB debut in 1986 NOT 1978. So to accuse a person of failing with their "meticulous research" in one sentence and to be wrong in the next is quite ironic. In this book (page 361) Mr Bjarkman correctly notes that Shipley made his MLB debut in 1986. This book is lopsided with Latin American Baseball, although true global coverage was given as a lesser proportion of the book. The following chapters of an 11-chapter book focus on Latin American Baseball: Chapter 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 11. It is not fair to be critical without identifying errors of facts. Page 361, "Four years later, with a number of ex-big league hurlers in tow (Adrian Burnside, Graeme Lloyd, John Stephens)... Please note that Aussie Adrian Burnside has never played MLB. I would love to see him in MLB but when this book was printed and to date, the highest level Burnside has played in the US is AAA. This book fell well short for me. The Author of this book (Mr Bjarkman) has written and sold many more books than I have, and I respect his higher success to date than my own. I also respect his passion for baseball, and many other sports. But this book in my opinion is unsatisfactory as an encyclopaedia of international baseball, as chapter 2, 3, 9, and 10 are the only ones that focus on baseball beyond Latin American borders, and there are some errors in this book as noted above. If you remove the non-Americana chapters (Latin and North American) this book titled as an encyclopaedia ("Diamonds Around the Globe") actually only has two chapters which focus on baseball outside of Latin and North America. So that's two of eleven chapters that are sufficiently removed from Latin and North American baseball participation. For the record I have written reviews on other works by Mr Bjarkman which are more favourable than this one. Nicholas R.W. Henning - Australian Baseball Author
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Award Announcement by the Author,
By
This review is from: Diamonds around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball (Hardcover)
I wish to inform potential readers that DIAMONDS AROUND THE GLOBE has been announced as winner of the 2005 SPORTING NEWS-SABR BASEBALL RESEARCH AWARD. The Sporting News-SABR Award annually honors/recognizes outstanding research projects completed during the preceding calendar year which have significantly expanded our knowledge or understanding of baseball. The official award announcement will come in August at the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) annual convention in Toronto.
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