Customer Reviews

The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

New York Times best-selling author Mark Kurlansky approaches The Eastern Stars, not as a baseball fan but as a dispassionate journalist, and his approach, while professional and competent, is detrimental to the book because the dry, academic tone does not give life to the Dominican players described; the character profiles are never developed into a cohesive narrative and remain scant and superficial; and finally the book's purpose evidenced by its subtitle: "How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris" is too simplistic. Yes, players from the Dominican escaped their poverty to make millions playing Major League Baseball. Not a compelling premise. No compelling baseball player profiles or at least little new for the baseball fan. Learning about Rico Carty's spending sprees (buying dozens of pairs of shoes in one outing) makes for interesting anecdotage but doesn't make an entire book. I'm sad to say The Eastern Stars was a boring read and as a baseball fan I was very disappointed.

Mr. Kurlansky owes Manny Alexander an apology...a BIG apology. I was really looking forward to this book. Unfortunately, Mr. Kurlansky writes about baseball as if it's a vague and foreign concept for him. The book is also chock full of factual errors. Most are harmless and show a total lack of understanding of baseball and well...just plain laziness by the author, editor and publisher. One is just awful. He states that while a member of the Yankees in 2000, Manny Alexander took equipment from Derek Jeter and sold it to memorabilia dealers. WRONG! Alexander never played for the Yankees. The incident happened in 2002 and the player caught dealing Jeter's equipment was not Manny Alexander. What had become an exercise of finding the error or clueless statement (Yes, Alfredo Griffin did hit .500 one season for Cleveland...in four at-bats), became one of jaw-dropping shock at how a well-respected non-fiction writer could have been so dangerously lazy.

Most of the baseball books I've read (such as the one I reviewed most recently, The Baseball Codes) are about the *game* of baseball. Kurlansky's is different. Unlike your average book about the sport, in The Eastern Stars you'll rarely find the phrase, "The count was 3 and 2, with 2 outs." Instead, this book is about the cultural history of baseball in a place and economic system that is foreign to most of us. It's fascinating -- assuming that you are as attracted as I am to anthropology, or "how one item can impact an entire society."

Kurlansky is no stranger to this kind of writing, as his previous books (such as Salt: A World History) demonstrate. But I hadn't realized until I read The Eastern Stars that he has a long journalistic history in the Dominican Republic, and the depth of his knowledge really shows. This isn't someone who flew in for a few weeks worth of interviews; Kurlansky is well aware of the frequency with which the power goes out in the Dominican Republic, and people's dependence on motorbikes (I once saw five people on a two-person motorbike -- plus a guitar). In fact, if you're interested in the Dominican Republic without any reference to baseball, this would be an excellent overview. I certainly wish I'd read his chapter on the country's history before I spent a week in the country in the mid 90s. (I stayed with friends, cooking on a gas stove powered with rum. It was a very long way from any resort hotel.) There are points where I began to suspect that the author was trying to decide if his book should be about the history/impact of sugar (to accompany Salt) rather than baseball, because he paints such a vivid picture of the last century in the sugar industry.

But the crux of this book is baseball, and the tiny Dominican town called San Pedro de Macoris -- where 79 major leaguers originated between 1962 and 2008, one out of every six of the Dominicans who made it to the major league. You know their names: Sammy Sosa, George Bell, Julio Franco, Robinson Cano. What you may not realize is the distance those men traveled, from raging poverty to the very foreign United States (most spoke no English when they arrived, leading Kurlansky to share several entertaining anecdotes about how the boys managed to order food). Baseball was and is the path out of a dead-end existence, and young boys play baseball constantly -- even though many have no baseballs, only socks filled with whatever is available. Much of the town's ecosystem has been tuned to the purpose, such as the buscons who run baseball academies to train young and talented boys (and get a percentage of the signing bonus, when there is one).

Mostly, Kurlansky does his best to look for, "What makes this town so special?" -- and I really enjoyed his search for the answer. He applies an excellent journalistic sense to "America's pasttime" (even if there are more non-U.S. players every year) that explains why MLB looks for talent outside our country, how the Dominican government influenced baseball (including one season in which they paid Negro League players handsomely to compete, since Trujillo was bound for HIS team to win), and where the failing sugar industry fits into all this.

If you seek a fun, fluffy book full of baseball anecdotes, this may not be the book you're looking for. However, if you want a picture of baseball's social impact and a keyhole view into the lives of several of your favorite players... well, this is a truly excellent book.

A book by the wonderful,Talented author of Basque,Salt and Cod on the "fertile crescent "of baseball, San Pedro de Macoris? I thought,upon receiving my copy, instant classic.Now, I do not know if the author had a deadline to meet, or fact checking was cut by the publishers, however, there are factual errors evrywhere,historical as well as statistical.baseball fans are quite serious about numbers, dates are inaccurate, MVP awards are incorrect,even historical numbers are wrong{columbus discovery,et al.} Sammy sosa, the guiding light here,of course vastly completely discredited by his use of PED's is shown here to be part victim, part accomplice in his own undoing. There are recipes galore,topographical information, and stories of baseball as salavtion.Mostly,though it seems hurried, at times inchoherent.If the errors are corrected for another edition, then it will be a much much better book, and the ratings will reflect that.

Other reviewers have noted that many facts are completely wrong. I want to add that Joaquin Andujar is cited as the NL MVP of 1982 (it was Dale Murphy) and Hector Carrasco (a relief pitcher!) is credited with having hit 69 career homeruns. This book had just atrocious research and editing, and was not a very compelling read in the first place.

I'm a big Mark Kurlansky fan, (I loved "Cod", "The Big Oyster", and "Gloucester"), so I'm sorry to say I was a little disappointed with this latest effort. Although the book is only a little over 200 pages, it still felt too long for the subject matter. I think this might have been better as a longish magazine article. The structure isn't so great, either. The book kind of meanders along with little bits of island history, current politics, baseball anecdotes, and short biographical snippets of some of the famous and not-so-famous players. Just when you feel you are getting comfortable with one particular aspect of the story, the book veers off in another direction. It ruins the flow and is very disconcerting.It is also somewhat odd that throughout the book Mr. Kurlansky encloses various traditional recipes popular in the Dominican Republic! This seems especially jarring when one of the recipes follows a section of serious reporting dealing with the poverty that exists throughout the island. What makes the book an okay read, rather than something I couldn't recommend, is that Mr. Kurlansky writes well, has a good eye for detail, and a nice sense of humor. Some of the anecdotes are quite amusing. For example, the story that relates to the title of my review. It seems that former major league baseball great Rico Carty credited his ability to hit the curveball to his experiences as a youth playing in the Dominican Republic. Because everybody was so poor, they couldn't afford real baseballs. So they would roll-up some socks and make balls out of them, and then dip them in water to give them the heft of a real ball. As Carty pointed out, when someone throws a bunch of rolled-up socks at you the "ball" does some pretty weird things on the way to home plate! There are numerous other anecdotes which are pretty funny as well, but overall, due to the problems mentioned above, I found this to be just a so-so read.

The game of baseball lately has taken many hits but remains America's pastime. With every spring, we are fascinated by the possibilities of our home team bringing home a pennant. The Eastern Stars explains many things about the evolution of the game over the last thirty years, the influx of Latin players and their impact on America's game.
Be prepared for a history lesson that is moving and learn how American baseball leagues factor in the sport in the Dominican Republic.
The town of San Pedro has become the epicenter of baseball recruitment in Latin America and many of the stars that you are familiar with hail from San Pedro. Mark Kurlansky tells the compelling tale of the nation of Dominican Republic: the country that shares an island with Haiti.
Like all good stories, the book has it share of heroes and villains. Sammy Sosa, the baseball media darling, gets his share. I was disturbed by recent coverage of his skin lighting and other odd behavior ala Michael Jackson. Mark Kurlansky writes about Sammy; the good and bad.
The tale is not centered on Sammy Sosa and other baseball superstars. He writes about journeyman baseball players and the baseball academies run the American baseball leagues. He writes about racial prejudice in baseball, the lack of African American players and the recruitment of poor San Pedro youth whose families pick baseball rather than education.
The Eastern Stars, the San Pedro home team Mark Kulansky uses to illustrate the impact of baseball on the town of San Pedro. The Eastern Stars players are baseball stars from San Pedro that come home to play in the winter league, talented youth eager for the opportunity to showcase their skills. Cursed the team may be, they still win.
The EASTERN STARS How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris is a must read. It has elements that any reader can enjoy. As a casual baseball fan, I was mesmerized by the little town of San Pedro and the stories of the baseball players.

As a huge fan of baseball and a bigger fan of baseball books, I was a little surprised by Kurlansky's latest book. Most other baseball books are written by authors who are clearly passionate fans of the game. With this comes a focus on details of the sport that includes literary representation of games--or particular moments from games--and heavy reliance on statistics. Kurlansky's focus here is not the details of games but how professional baseball has impacted the culture and way of life of the Dominican Republic in general with s focus on San Pedro de Macoris, a small town that has produced 79 major league ball players between 1962 and 2008. Further, Kurlansky demonstrates himself as a journalist who knows a lot about the country. His focus is on the cultural history of the island and the impact of baseball on the culture and economics of the island. He does share anecdotes of famous players but most of these focus on their life outside of the diamond. We see how these famous players and their wealth have inspired a nation and a city to stress baseball to their male children as a way to overcome widespread poverty. It is fascinating to consider that even a modest (by today's standard) signing bonus is the equivalent of years of salary. Kurlansky shares that even players who have had very moderate success in baseball are able to return to the Dominican as heroes and set their families up in comparative luxury and security.

In addition to the impact of the game on the city and country, Kurlansky focuses on why this area has become such a fertile birthplace for baseball talent. He points out how politics and economics (he spends a lot of time on the failing sugar industry and its contribution to baseball) have all contributed to focusing on baseball as the road to wealth and comfort for thousands.

It seems that many of the negative reviews of this book come from baseball fans like me who hoped for a more traditional baseball book. Another thing that is difficult for me as a fan of the game is to learn about how the MLB develops these young kids in training academies in the hopes of finding the next Sammy Sosa or Robinson Cano but drops them as soon as they are no longer a prospect. On the other hand, I guess this is the nature of sports in our modern world. In summary, if you are looking for a book that is devoted to stories of the game, this may not be the book for you. If you want a book that takes a hard look at how baseball impacts a community and its economy and culture and vise versa, then this is a book that you will enjoy.

San Pedro de Macoris is known for two things: sugar and shortstops. In "The Eastern Stars," Mark Kurlansky goes into depth on both subjects, but mixes in a ton of history, a little bit of baseball knowledge, a few vignettes about specific players, and wraps it all up into a bow at the end.

The baseball in this book is adequate and thorough, if not a bit condescending. Most people reading a book this esoteric are going to be well aware of the commonalities of baseball, if not the idiosyncrasies, and the constant enrollment into Baseball 101 is a little bit tiresome. Nonetheless, what baseball is provided is done so through fairly vivid imagery of wet-sock baseballs and sugarcane bats. It's a simple game when broken down, but the politics and history related to San Pedro comprise the larger portions of this book.

Painstakingly explaining how San Pedro's ethnic and cultural diversity, as well as its kleptocratic government, has created an climate in which the inverse relationship between sugar production and baseball convinces young men that sports is the only way out of a lifetime of ridiculously difficult work at near slave wages, Kurlansky rounds all the bases. Part of this book feels more like an explorative essay on eugenics, however, as the various lightening and darkening of San Pedro's population is more or less controlled to counteract immigration from Haiti, Cuba, and various other nearby islands. There is also a section discussing the political aspects and trade relations between the U.S. and Cuba has affected baseball. Overall, it's a very deep book, with profound perspective on various social, racial, political, and historical angles.

Much of the book is spent discussing the numerous stars (i.e. Juan Marichal, Rico Carty, Sammy Sosa, George Bell) from the tiny town in the Dominican Republic, their journey to and through the major leagues, and their negative association with perceptions of the volatile, hot-headed Latin dandy. Unfortunately for many, this stereotype is based in considerable reality, and it appears to be a role far too many Dominicans in baseball resemble. Juan Marichal's indefensible incident with Johnny Roseboro and Sammy Sosa's steroid usage being the two most prominent, but Jose Offerman's multiple attacks make him such a scumbag that attention is drawn away from the others. Unfortunately, the author spends more time deflecting the actions or suggesting racism rather than examining the actions, and the reader is left wondering why so few players have had some of the more memorably negative experiences.

Less about baseball than expected, "The Eastern Stars" is more about globalization and the effects it has had on a poor country where several young men have leapt out of the cane-fields - a once improbable dream - and gone on to success in the Big Show. Recommended for anyone with interest in any of the related topics.

Jason Elin

Every modern baseball fan has heard of San Pedro de Macoris, that hotbed of Dominican baseball talent, but most know little about the town. In "The Eastern Stars", author Mark Kurlansky introduces the reader to its sugar past, its baseball present and the changes the game has made to the town.

This book is part history, part baseball and part Third World study. The history part traces the history of the Dominican Republic, its colonial past, its chronic tension with Haiti and its series of dictators. Getting to the more localized history of San Pedro, it follows its rise as a sugar center and, as that declined, the rising prominence of baseball. We learn about a culture drawn from around the Caribbean that drew on the traditions of the Dominican, Cuba, Haiti and British Island dotting the Sea. We read about the impact big world issue have on something as non-political as baseball. Did you, for example, ever stop to think that the U.S. Embargo of Cuba opened the door to the major leagues to Dominicans by closing it to Cuban stars?

In much of the book, Kurlansky treats us to stories of the many of the major leaguers, both great stars and those whose careers were measured in days. We read of the heroics and the antics of Juan Marichal, Joaquin Andujar, Sammy Sosa, George Bell and many others. Issue of nationality and race, white, black and Latino, are shown from the San Pedro perspective, which is much different than that of the U.S. The importance of the signing bonus and the big league salaries to the player, his family and community, is illustrated in example after example. The continued attraction of San Pedro to retired players says something about the ties of country and home. As we read of the scouts, the camps, the retired major leaguers and the eager boys who bring us the magic of summer, the reader cannot help but wonder how it is that our entertainment is dependent on this land so near and yet so different.

For any fan of baseball or the history and culture of the Caribbean, this is a good read.