Havana Heat

by Darryl Brock

Book Overview

A former star hurler for John McGraw's brawling Giants, Luther "Dummy" Taylor was also one of Major League Baseball's first deaf players. Havana Heat follows Taylor's life and fortunes when, after a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 189212923X
• ISBN13: 9781892129239
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Total Sports
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Review from a Deaf reader

I noticed that while reading the other reviews, they were all people who had read this author before or love baseball. I am writing this review from the view of a Deaf person. In the first chapter, the author opens up with a scene at a Deaf school. For those of you who don't know, the Deaf school is a sense of pride in the Deaf community and the author seemed to have an awareness of that. Luther "Dummy" Tayler (all players who were Deaf back in the early 1900s were called "Dummy" - so don't take offense) used different means of communication throughout the book. He always seemed more comfortable with those who signed. His wife is Deaf, which is another culture instance within the Deaf community - marrying other Deaf people due to communication issues. This book also shows that Deaf people are actually quite smart (which is opposite the nickname, "Dummy"). This book was not written by a Deaf author, but he was well-informed and it is worth reading! Enjoy!

Baseball Treat

Darryl Brock has written a riveting, page-turning baseball novel that should be on every baseball fan's shelf. Weaving a narrative storyline out of real-life events is never easy, but Brock pulls it off with great skill. The baseball scenes are top-notch, and the humor is frequent. Much of the baseball information is reminiscent of details Al Stump used in his great biography of Ty Cobb. Good baseball novels are hard to find...I hope Mr. Brock continues his efforts!

Glove leather under royal palms

Reading Darryl Brock's carefully researched and moving story about baseball in the-of-the century Cuba made me feel I was actully living "Dummy" Taylor's life. -Al Gowan, author, Santiago Rag, a novel of the Spanish-Cuban-American War.

Havana Heat

As with his first novel, "If I Never Get Back", Darryl Brock again takes us into baseball's historical past. This time it is back to 1911, where we meet deaf pitcher Luther 'Dummy' Taylor. Taylor was a real-life pitcher who played for John McGraw's Giants. The story introduces us to Taylor at age 36, having been forced to the bush leagues due to an arm injury. Claiming his arm now healed, he convinces McGraw to include him on a team headed down to Cuba to play local teams. Brock has done a fantastic job of researching major league baseball in the early 1900's. Fans of today who look back fondly at baseball's 'Golden Age' should read this book. They will find that todays players are surprisingly more loyal and stable characters compared to their counterparts of yesteryear. Brock also gives us a glimpse of what life for a deaf man was like in those days. Due to birth defects and prenatal illness, deaf people were much more common than they are today, and were treated better than we of today might think. We also get to see what life in Cuba was like. We find that governments and the political climates may have changed, but life for the people has stayed much as it was then. Those who read "If I Never Get Back" will also be pleased to know that a brief reference is made to two characters from that story. Overall, I found "Havana Heat" to be a thoughouly entertaining book. Fans of character study will enjoy it as much as history and baseball buffs.

"Havana Heat" Shines

Darryl Brock's "Havana Heat" is a fine novel about many things. On one level, it is a book about communication -- in this case communication between a deaf baseball player (the real-life Luther Taylor) and the world around him: his wife, the folks who live in his town, and his teammates on the New York Giants. The real Taylor was a superb, but now unknown, pitcher for those Giants, and Brock brings to life his career, his robust life, and his relationships to other players. However, the book is more than that as well. Brock's acute attention to detail gives us a sense of what baseball and baseball players were like in 1911. Those were the colorful Giants of Christy Mathewson and the pugnacious John McGraw -- each worthy of his own book. A third element of the book is the trip the Giants take to Havana for a series of exhibition games against the excellent Cuban ballplayers, players who love the game as much as Americans. Particularly vivid is Brock's depiction not only of those games, but also of life in Cuba -- all the more relevant with Cuba's role in today's news. Finally, one of the book's most elegant subplots shows us how Taylor takes under his wide wing a local boy, with a magnificent arm, but who is also deaf. Brock has brought to life both characters, stories, and history not well-known to most readers. You won't forget any of it. Very highly recommended not just to baseball readers, but to anyone who loves well-crafted, well-researched, and deeply satisfying fiction.