The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball

by Roberto González Echevarría and Roberto Gonz?lez Echevarr?a

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195146050
• ISBN13: 9780195146059
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Cuban Baseball

It's an excellent and very well documented book and easy to read. It relates Cuban Baseball History from its begining.

Best book on Cuban baseball!

I loved this book! From the very beginning Gonzalez Echavarria had me smelling the air in a Cuban baseball satdium and feeling the tension in the crowd as the pitchers winds up.But what this book truly delivers, is a history lesson to those who think they know Cuban baseball, which has often been "presented" through American eyes (such as PBS specials or even through Ken Burns' documentary on Baseball).Cubans not only exported baseball through Latin America, but because of the paradox of the intense Cuban racism at the amateur level and integrated leagues at the professional level, many young black Cuban players found fame and fortune in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other places (including the Negro Leagues in the US), while many US professional Negro Leagues got to play alogside white US teammates in professional Cuban teams. Even the virulent Ty Cobb!It also tells the stories of Cuban legends - such as Adolfo Luque - who played in the US Major Leagues in the 20's through the 60's - both as pitcher and manager in a time when white Cubans were allowed to play US professional baseball while their talented black countrymen couldn't.This is a must read - from a Cuban perspective - for fans of baseball - not just Cuban baseball!

Papa Montero Says...

This book filled many voids for me with regard to the history of Cuban baseball. It is especially good in discussing the heyday of Cuban baseball in the twenties and thirties. Like one of the other reviewers, though, I was dissappointed that the author did not discuss baseball since the revolution in greater detail.

A brilliant look at sport and history in Cuba

Roberto Gonzalez Echavarria is fascinated by the relationship between communal cultural activities and ideology over the history of Cuba--he has published articles about dance, popular music, and of course literature. In this book he writes about baseball in Cuba, particularly its relationship with the Cuban national consciousness and the two revolutions it created. But the book also contains vivid lives, of the author himself as well as so many baseball men and baseball fans from the island of his youth, which give the book an immediacy I haven't found in any other history of Cuban culture.

An essential book

A masterpiece! This book is a cultural history of Cuba by a major literary critic and historian and a work of literature in its own right. Gonzalez Echevarria's rich narrative is captivating because of his attention to detail and profound knowledge of Cuban history and culture. This book is a treat to both lovers of baseball and of literature.