Day 11: 30 baseball books in 30 days of April
The book: "Far From Home: Latino Baseball Players in America"
The author: Tim Wendel, with photographs by Jose Luis Villegas
How to find it: National Geographic Society and MLB, 160 pages, $28
Where we'd go looking for it: On the National Geographic store, under cultural books. And at Wendel's website.
The scoop: It's one of the most beautiful pieces of literature about baseball we've ever held in our hands, both photographically and editorially. It's no wonder that the National Geographic Society has backed this project. It's first class all the way.
Wendel, who began covering the MLB in the Bay Area in the mid 1980s, writes about how former Oakland A's manager Tony La Russa , who grew up in a Spanish-speaking home in Tampa, Fla., taught him that "assumption is the mother of all screw-ups," because you can't assume Latino ballplayers exist to the extent that they do on the MLB level is because, as kids, they had no money for expensive toys and all they could do is play ball year around in the warm climate. There's a far more extensive history and a close-knit community that makes more sense. Baseball is an important part of the community.
And history does go further back in the big-leagues than Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947. One of the book's first striking photos is that of Adolfo "Dolf" Luque, the pride of Havana, Cuba, who pitched for 20 years at the major league level, including the Brooklyn Dodgers, and leading the league with 27 victories and a 1.93 ERA in 1923 with the Cincinnati Reds.
The book revisits Martin Dihigo, a Cuban-born player who is in four Hall of Fames, but was denied a spot on a U.S. big-league roster; Roberto Clemente and his Puerto Rican roots; the Alou brothers and their putting the Dominican Republic on the map, along with Manny Mota; and Fernando Valenzuela, who did the same for Mexico.
It's interesting to see photographs of Nomar Garciaparra, born and raised in Whitter, and Alex Rodriguez interspersed with Juan Marichal, Vladimir Guerrero or Rod Carew, of Panama, But consider Garciaparra's lineage: He's the cousin of Arturo Javier Ledesma, a Mexican soccer player who currently plays for Club Deportivo Guadalajara. His uncle is legendary Mexican soccer goalkeeper, Javier "Zully" Ledesma.
A four-page timeline at the back of the book also creates a simple context of the Latino players' rise in the game, starting in 1864 with Nemesio Guillo, a Cuban studying in the U.S. who brings the first bat and ball home to Cuba.
How it goes down in the scorebook: Viva Beiosbol.
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