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VIVA BASEBALL!: Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger (Sport and Society) | 
 enlarge | Author: Samuel O. Regalado
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.55
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Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 1367020
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0252073673
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.35764098
EAN: 9780252073670
ASIN: 0252073673
Publication Date: April 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: Thrid Edition (2008). A brand new paperback book. NO remainder marks. We ship within 24 hours!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Lively and anecdotal, Viva Baseball! chronicles the struggles of Latin American professional baseball players in the United States from the late 1800s to the present. Even as "Fernandomania" raged in 1981, most Latin players felt lonely, shunned, and forgotten. Samuel O. Regalado reveals the shocking racism faced by these immigrant athletes in a white culture. In addition to mining the National Baseball Library in Cooperstown, New York, and the Sporting News archives, Regalado conducted interviews with some twenty-five Latin baseball stars, including Felipe Alou, Orlando Cepeda, and Tony Oliva.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Great read! July 30, 2002
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Excellent book about a side of baseball that is not often analyse, I really recomend this one...
 Entertaining Superficial Romp December 21, 1999
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
 Could Have Been Better December 16, 1999
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
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.
A MUST READ FOR ANY BASEBALL HISTORY FAN October 2, 1999
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
"Viva Baseball" works on a multitude of levels. March 20, 1999
4 out of 7 found this review helpful
"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.
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