Customer Reviews

Viva Baseball!: Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger (Sport and Society)

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Regalado provides a readable survey of the subject but his book is marred by failure to update his much-earlier academic dissertation on the topic, as well has his tendency at times to play rather loosely with the historical facts. It was Juan and not Luis Gonzalez who won a home run title, US sailors did not introduced baseball to Cuba on the Palmar de Junco field (see Roberto Gonzalez for the facts), pro baseball started in Cuba in 1878 and not 1868, Bobby Avila played for Almendares in the Cuban (not Mexican) league, Alejandro Oms did not play in the majors and Fidel Castro did not pitch for the University of Havana, Calvin Griffith was not Clark Griffith's son, Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos did not play for the Havana Sugar Kings in the AAA International League, Jose Santiago was Puerto Rico and not Cuban, and the 1891 Pittsburgh Pirates did not feature Ralph Kiner. This is a small sample of the bobbles which often marr an otherwise valuable casual fan's survey of Latino baseball.

This is a passable overview of Latin baseball history but one also filled with numerous smaller and larger errors (San Pedro de Macoris is not by any measure "a small Dominican town" and US sailors did not introduce baseball in Cuba at the Palmar de Junco field in 1866) plus careless treatment of ballplayers names (Luis Gonzalez for Juan Gonzalez, Pinella for Piniella, Roman Mejis for Mejias, etc. etc.). Also the author made little effort to update his work from its earlier incarnation as a doctoral disseration several years earlier. The effort could have been better.

"Viva Baseball! Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger" is a nearly effortless and highly entertaining read. Sam Regalado has managed to accomplished something very special: He has written a book for just about the full spectrum of the sports minded. Even if you're tangentially interested in baseball, you are likely to be griped by this heart warming story, which encompasses the hardships faced by Latin American baseball players, along with their "special hunger" to succeed, and finally their eventual triumph that gained them acceptance into North American professional baseball. For those students of history, Dr. Regalado, who teaches history at California State University,Stanislaus, manages to deftly weave in the important social /political and international events that shaped both the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere in the twentieth century. His treatment of the Cuban Missile Crisis, immigration trends and policies in the United States, and the tumult of Latin American politics, not to mention the farm workers movement led by Cesar Chavez and the racial politics of the 1960's in America, is clear, concise, and provides the reader with yet another lens from which to view these seminal events. Lest we forget this is a serious scholarly work, yet one that even neophyte students of history will find friendly.

"Viva Baseball" brings a big smile to the faces of baseball fans as well, especially those who either lived the glory years of the 60's or have since become aficionados. He paints the legends of the San Francisco Giants, such as Juan Marichal (Dominican Republic), Orlando Cepeda (Puerto Rico) and Jose Pagan (Cuba) with such realism by relating fascinating anecdotes that reveal their struggles as dark skin immigrants to a largely hostile racial and nativistic society, and their amazing accomplishments both on and off the field. We witness a side of the great Robert Clemente hitherto hardly offered for popular consumption. He was portrayed by the press in Pittsburgh as aloof, temperamental and even hypochondriac. Clemente's sullenness was in reality a normal reaction to the racism he and other players faced and the unwarranted jabs thrown at him by sports writers. The true measure of the man was both in his classy prowess on the field and in his efforts to help those less fortunate, such as the event that claimed his life in 1973. The plane crash and sorrowful aftermath of Robert Clemente's death are portrayed with great emotion.

My favorite story is of Luis Tiant Jr. Cold War politics isolated the Cuban member of the Boston Red Sox from his parents for fifteen years, until 1975 when Senator George McGovern apparently convinced Fidel Castro to allow Tiants to visit their son in Boston. The city of Boston, not known for its racial tolerance, rolled out the red carpet. Luis senior, who once objected to his son playing baseball in the U.S. because of prejudice, and Mrs. Tiant, watched their son win two games in the 1975 World Series. They both died the following year.

"Viva Baseball!Latin Major Leaguers and Their Spceial Hunger" satiates a wide spectrum of readers,with many different appetites. With perhaps minimal intellectual engagement and reflection by the reader, Dr. Regalado demonstrates how sport has the capacity, not only to reflect important societal trends and events, but also to qualitatively transform society into a more just and tolerant order.

Latin American ballplayers found the society in the United States a lonely and trouble-filled plight. They were targets of racism and unjust treatment. Despite their prowness on the base paths, the Latino baseball player was subject to the "Jim Crow" South every much as his African-American counterpart.

Dr. Regalado provides an in-depth perspective on the Latin American ball player from the turn-of-the-century to the "Latin Explosion" of the 1960s, to the rise of "Fernandomania" of the early 1980s. Regalado's work, more importantly, is a construct of the social issues of American culture as seen through the eyes of the dark-skinned foreigner. This book is an important work in the baseball bibliography, moreover it belongs among the books of American Social history. Latino ball players of today's era would do themselves a favor by reading this book and understanding the roots of their past.

Excellent book about a side of baseball that is not often analyse, I really recomend this one...

Dr. Regalado did an amazing job with this book. It is a must read for any person that enjoys the history of baseball. Regalado wrote about a topic that doesn't get much attention and did so wonderfully.