Customer Reviews

Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

the history of cuban baseball is full of tradition.this book explores the sense and emotion of the cuban people and its passion for the game of baseball.good job.well done.US,THE CUBANS ARE GREATFUL FOR THIS BOOK.

It is about time that someone takes the initiative to research and account the rich baseball tradition and history of Cuban baseball. Often times writers convey the perception that baseball started in Cuba after the Castro coup, overlooking years of rich tradition and lore. Good Job

SMOKE has received glowing reviews in almost all quarters. Richard Miller writes in Sports Collectors Digest that "rarely does a baseball book offer so much new information to a new audience (American fans) in such superb fashion" (1-21-00). LA Times reviewer Kevin Baxter praises the book's "warm and vivid picture of Cuba's 125-year-old love affair with America's pastime" and calls the volume "a fan-friendly Ciff's Notes version-brightly written and breezy, but still managing to hit all the high points" (9-23-99). Most significantly, El Nuevo Herald (the Spanish-language version of the Miami Herald)-often an uncompromising voice for Cuban-American anti-Castro sentiments-is lavish in its praise of SMOKE as "perhaps the most groundbreaking book on the history of Cuban baseball" (11-8-99) and touts the work for avoiding the "politicization" which weakens other Cuban baseball histories and also for giving equal voice to the stories of both pre-revolution and post-revolution baseball on the island.

Not surprisingly, however, even an unpolitical book will (like Elian Gonzalez) become a political "football" when Cuba is the subject of inquiry. Some of SMOKE's recent on-line reviewers, voicing a Miami-based Cuban-exile viewpoint which still finds anathema in any and all positive words about everything found in post-revolutionary Cuba, have taken to the internet to blast our book as insulting to the American-Cuban community because it does not find fault with Castro's purported human rights violations, and also to blast the book's authors as "knowing nothing about Cuba or its history."

It is our contention that potential readers of SMOKE would be well-warned to approach such off-target "reviews" in the context in which they are written. Yes, there are a small handful of typographical flaws in this book as in every other, and we are admittedly not at all shy about lavishly praising contemporary Cuban baseball as the refreshing and entertaining spectacle we have experienced it to be. Our book's considerable value and strong reception is best measured, perhaps, by the fact that SMOKE has been nominated for each and every one of this year's top literary awards in the field of baseball history: Spitball magazine's prestigious CASEY AWARD (finalist), The Sporting News-Society for American Baseball Research Award (finalist), The HAROLD SEYMOUR MEDAL (finalist), and the Davey Moore Baseball Literature Award (Honorable Mention). And Miami's Nuevo Herald found the book so meritorious that it ran an eight-week Spanish-language serialization during the months of November, December and January.

The charge that the book's authors know nothing about Cuba or the Cuban baseball scene is also quickly belied by the strong and enthusiastic reception of SMOKE in Cuba itself-among baseball officials, old-time dedicated baseball fans who are in touch with both the pre- and post-revolution Cuban League scene, the Cuban sporting press, and the dedicated "aficionados" in Havana's Parque Central who are the self-appointed caretakers of the island's grand baseball tradition. The book has been praised in the pages of GRANMA (the official government press) even though it has taken the bold step (not favored in many Cuban government circles) of carrying photos and relating accounts of the careers of players like "El Duque" Hernandez and Livan Hernandez who have subsequently fled the island for major league careers.

Contrary to nostalgia-based popular opinion found in some quarters of the Miami Cuban-exile community, baseball did NOT reach a final "golden age" in Cuba during the decades of the forties and fifties. In truth the sport was dying on the island in those mid-century decades (as it also was in the US, in the face of decade-long New York Yankees domination and the early advent of televised games). Havana's ballparks were half-empty for Cuban winter league games throughout the '50s and the AAA Sugar Kings ('54-'60) unsuccessfully begged for fans. More importantly, there was no Cuban national baseball whatsoever before the revolution; professional baseball on the island during the century's first six decades was strictly a limited Havana affair. And the amateur leagues of that era were unexceptionally reserved for white players only.

For all its other possible disastrous consequences, the revolution of 1959 launched a truly national baseball league on the island, revived waning fan enthusiasm, and opened some of Cuban baseball's most glorious chapters. Those chapters, as well as the ones that preceded, are more vividly recounted in both photos and text in SMOKE than in any other Cuban baseball history. We have also salvaged a photographic record of Cuban baseball that is slowly but surely being ravaged and destroyed by the passage of time and the existing economic conditions on the island. Open the pages of this book and step into any epoch of Cuban baseball you might chose. Be enthralled by the full-color imagery that is almost as lively as the island's national pastime itself. This is one book, we believe, that truly can be judged by its cover.

Despite a few errors, such the Almendares Blue pitcher in red on the cover and Tony Oliva swinging a bat right-handed, this book is still a decent buy for Cuban Baseball fans. The text is enhanced by the use of many photographs, and a comprehensive collection of statistics from Cuban League play, both before and after the Revolution. It moves through the history of Cuban Baseball, from the introduction of baseball thru its Golden Age on to the non-professional Castro Era, a time which sport became a communist weapon in the Cold War, where the Cubans dominated teams from other countries (e.g. U.S., Japan, Korea, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico et al) where their best players were not allowed to play because they were professional. No mention is made of Cuban American major league baseball agent Hernandez Nodar, who slave master Fidel condemned to serve over 13 years in prison for trying to recruit Cuban players for the Majors in America.

"Smoke" should not be your only book on Cuban baseball. Nonetheless, it's a wonderful book. It's a comprehensive look at baseball in Cuba. The pictures are astonishing. I just returned from a short stay in Cuba. Cubans I met were transfixed by this book, so compelled were they by the pictures of their athlete-heroes. The text by Bjarkman, an expert on Latin-American baseball who has written widely on the subject, is a bit repetitive but on the whole lively and informative. The book badly needs an index. I gave my copy to a (most grateful) Cuban friend and have purchased another. It's a book I would give to any of my friends who enjoy the game in its international dimension.

¡Este libro es un jonrón soberbio! (In Spanish: This book is a superb HR!)
From the introduction of "beisbol" into Cuba until the "socialization" of the ball passing over the glories of the Almendares Alacranes and the Havana Leones, the book comprises very well without forgetting any thing.
Very well elected photos to illustrated the stuff and a quase-novelesque prose to follow a rich baseball history like the Cuban ball.

I regarded SMOKE as a pearl in my particular library.

Mark Rucker and Peter Bjarkman's Smoke...is a special title covering the lore of Cuban baseball. The history of Cuban baseball is revealed in a fine gathering of photos and stories which covers the sport in Cuba from its introduction in the late 1800s to its pioneer players. Packed with vintage and beautiful color photos throughout, this is an exceptional title for any baseball fan or student of Cuban popular culture.

This book is obviously a labor of love.A caveat: if you are living in south florida,and spend your waking hours devising ways to eliminate fidel from his vital organs,this book is not for you.If you are able to simply enjoy a wonderful banquet of baseball,then this book is a treat. There are typos,reversed photographs[the great tony olivia batting righthanded?],and the authors wistfully enjoying a baseball game without the barrage of advertisements[sure to ignite some of the flat earthers].Despite this,the book was informative,the format lavish,the quality top rate.10 years from now, when the stalinist government of fidel is replaced by a ruthlessly authoritarian government[some of these folks have ben waiting 42 years for payback],this book will take its rightful place as a fine addition to any baseball library.Until then,the disproportionate influence of a community with a head full of revenge will obscure anything to do with cuba.Too bad.

An Almendares Blue pitcher in red on the cover shows the kind of problems that are in this book. Lennox Pearson's picture is identified as Panch'on Herrera, and Jos'e Valdivielso's as Asdr'ubal Bar'o. Tito Fuentes an outfielder? This book can misinform the uninformed; the pictures and the paper are good.

The controversial book about Cuban beisbol is a hit with me. I am the grandson of a cuban baseball player. (NO MY GRAND-FATHER IS NOT MARTIN DIHGO) My grandfather was Strike Gonzalez. As my father use to tell me he was the best in his time. I am glad a book like this was published. Not because I hate Fidel or love him. Just because its about CUBAN BEISBOL. This sport means so much to our people that it is refreshing to live in the states and find such a book. Good job.