Bobby Maduro And The Cuban Sugar Kings

Download or read book Bobby Maduro and the Cuban Sugar Kings written by Lou Hernández and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2018-12-13 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roberto "Bobby" Maduro (1916-1986) was a visionary baseball team owner and executive. His dedication to promoting the game internationally from the 1950s through the 1970s remains unrivaled. He headed Havana-based clubs in the Cuban Winter League and teams in the U.S. minor leagues, which helped brand Caribbean baseball in the eyes of North American fans. He co-built the first million-dollar ballpark in Latin America. His Havana stadium was confiscated by Castro's revolution, along with all his accumulated wealth. Maduro began a new life in exile in the U.S., first as a minor league owner, then as a front office executive. He founded the short-lived Inter-American League in 1979, composed of five Caribbean-basin teams and one U.S. entry from his adopted hometown of Miami. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn said of his many achievements, "No one was more dedicated, more knowledgeable or more concerned about the game than Bobby Maduro."

Download or read book The Pride of Havana written by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001-05-24 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the first amateur leagues of the 1860s to the exploits of Livan and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, here is the definitive history of baseball in Cuba. Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria expertly traces the arc of the game, intertwining its heroes and their stories with the politics, music, dance, and literature of the Cuban people. What emerges is more than a story of balls and strikes, but a richly detailed history of Cuba told from the unique cultural perch of the baseball diamond. Filling a void created by Cuba's rejection of bullfighting and Spanish hegemony, baseball quickly became a crucial stitch in the complex social fabric of the island. By the early 1940s Cuba had become major conduit in spreading the game throughout Latin America, and a proving ground for some of the greatest talent in all of baseball, where white major leaguers and Negro League players from the U.S. all competed on the same fields with the cream of Latin talent. Indeed, readers will be introduced to several black ballplayers of Afro-Cuban descent who played in the Major Leagues before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier once and for all. Often dramatic, and always culturally resonant, Gonzalez Echevarria's narrative expertly lays open the paradox of fierce Cuban independence from the U.S. with Cuba's love for our national pastime. It shows how Fidel Castro cannily associated himself with the sport for patriotic p.r.--and reveals that his supposed baseball talent is purely mythical. Based on extensive primary research and a wealth of interviews, the colorful, often dramatic anecdotes and stories in this distinguished book comprise the most comprehensive history of Cuban baseball yet published and ultimately adds a vital lost chapter to the history of baseball in the U.S.

Download or read book Full Count written by Milton H. Jamail and published by SIU Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his comprehensive and vibrant picture of baseball in Cuba, Milton H. Jamail explores the sport's relationship to U.S. baseball. Jamail, whose personal love of the game matches that of the Cubans, examines the roots and traditions of baseball on the island and explains why Cubans play such excellent baseball. His analysis of the development of Cuban baseball after the 1959 takeover by Fidel Castro includes a detailed description of the formation of the Cuban amateur baseball system that has dominated international competitions for more than three decades. Before 1961, when the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and Castro abolished professional baseball, Cuba provided the bulk of the foreign players in the major leagues (more than one hundred since the color barrier was lifted in 1947). Major league interest in Cuban baseball remains high, Jamail notes, as he examines the changes necessary, both in the United States and Cuba, to return Cuban ballplayers to professional baseball in the United States. He discusses Cuban defectors, including Liván Hernández, and describes the intrigue surrounding agent Joe Cubas's courting of Cuban players and his attempts to spirit them away when the Cuban national team plays outside the country. An academic trained in Latin American politics, Jamail has spent twelve years as a Spanish-speaking journalist writing about Latinos and baseball. To write this book, he conducted extensive interviews with baseball officials, journalists, players, and fans in Cuba, as well as Cuban players who have defected. He also talked to scouts and front office people from U.S. baseball organizations.

Download or read book Wally Yonamine written by Robert K. Fitts and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2008-09-01 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wally Yonamine was both the first Japanese American to play for an NFL franchise and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II. This is the unlikely story of how a shy young man from the sugar plantations of Maui overcame prejudice to integrate two professional sports in two countries. ø In 1951 the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants chose Yonamine as the first American to play in Japan during the Allied occupation. He entered Japanese baseball when mistrust of Americans was high?and higher still for Japanese Americans whose parents had left the country a generation earlier. Without speaking the language, he helped introduce a hustling style of base running, shaking up the game for both Japanese players and fans. Along the way, Yonamine endured insults, dodged rocks thrown by fans, initiated riots, and was threatened by yakuza (the Japanese mafia). He also won batting titles, was named the 1957 MVP, coached and managed for twenty-five years, and was honored by the emperor of Japan. Overcoming bigotry and hardship on and off the field, Yonamine became a true national hero and a member of Japan?s Baseball Hall of Fame.

Download or read book Sport in Cuba written by Paula J. Pettavino and published by University of Pittsburgh Pre. This book was released on 1994-09-15 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No aspect of Cuban life more clearly epitomizes their government's emphasis on image-building and individual participation than the system of physical culture and competitive athletics. Indeed the Cuban record in international athletics is the most universally recognized success of the communist revolution, as indicated by the Cuban arrival in the 1972 Olympics and the 1991 Pan-American Games, when Cuba beat the United States in the gold medal tally, dominating boxing, baseball, and winning the marathon. The fruits of the Cuban sports system were again in evidence at the Barcelona Olympics of 1992, despite the severe deprivation caused by the collapse of the island's socialist allies.In spite of the obvious success and political importance of sport in Cuba, very little has been written on the subject. Sport in Cuba closes this gap. In the first major study on the Cuban system of sports and physical culture, Paula J. Pettvino and Geralyn Pye analyze how sports was given such a high priority in Cuba, how the country became a world power by the mid-1970s, and the impact of sports on Cuban society. Moving from the early days when the government's approach to sports was loosely defined, through the construction of a complex system of physical culture, to the current years of uncertainty, Sport in Cuba utilizes both archival sources and personal interviews. It will be of interest to Latin Americanists and students of sports.

Download or read book Cookie Rojas written by Lou Hernández and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-05-27 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A professional baseball prospect given little chance of making the big time, Octavio "Cookie" Rojas nevertheless flourished at the sport's top level during a 16-year major league career. Never breaking ties with the profession he loved, after leaving the field as a player Rojas continued well into his 70s in the varied roles of coach, scout, manager, and broadcaster. Rojas broke into the big leagues in the early 1960s, a bygone era when there were only ten teams in each major league and the World Series was exclusively performed under the autumn sun. A native of Cuba, Rojas had to leave behind his country following the Cuban Revolution in order to pursue his ultimate baseball dreams. His side story of cultural assimilation, like those of his many ball-playing compatriots of the time, is a unique account of perseverance and dedication and a desire to succeed for himself and his family.

Download or read book Cuba written by Ted A. Henken and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 727 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written by some of the best-known independent scholars, citizen journalists, cyber-activists, and bloggers living in Cuba today, this book presents a critical, complete, and unbiased overview of contemporary Cuba. In this era of ever-increasing globalization and communication across national borders, Cuba remains an isolated island oddly out of step with the rest of the world. And yet, Cuba is beginning to evolve via the important if still insufficient changes instituted by Raul Castro, who became president in 2008. This book supplies a uniquely independent, accurate, and critical perspective in order to evaluate these changes in the context of the island's rich and complex history and culture. Organized into seven topical chapters that address geography, history, politics and government, economics, society, culture, and contemporary issues, readers will gain a broad, insightful understanding of one of the most unusual, fascinating, and often misunderstood nations in the Western Hemisphere.