Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball

¡Este libro es un jonrón soberbio! (In Spanish: This book is a superb HR!) From the introduction of "beisbol" into Cuba until the "socialization" of the ball passing over the glories of the Almendares Alacranes and the Havana Leones, the book comprises very well without forgetting any thing. Very well elected photos to illustrated the stuff and a quase-novelesque prose to follow a rich baseball history like the Cuban ball. I regarded SMOKE as a pearl in my particular library.

Mark Rucker and Peter Bjarkman's Smoke...is a special title covering the lore of Cuban baseball. The history of Cuban baseball is revealed in a fine gathering of photos and stories which covers the sport in Cuba from its introduction in the late 1800s to its pioneer players. Packed with vintage and beautiful color photos throughout, this is an exceptional title for any baseball fan or student of Cuban popular culture.

SMOKE has received glowing reviews in almost all quarters. Richard Miller writes in Sports Collectors Digest that "rarely does a baseball book offer so much new information to a new audience (American fans) in such superb fashion" (1-21-00). LA Times reviewer Kevin Baxter praises the book's "warm and vivid picture of Cuba's 125-year-old love affair with America's pastime" and calls the volume "a fan-friendly Ciff's Notes version-brightly written and breezy, but still managing to hit all the high points" (9-23-99). Most significantly, El Nuevo Herald (the Spanish-language version of the Miami Herald)-often an uncompromising voice for Cuban-American anti-Castro sentiments-is lavish in its praise of SMOKE as "perhaps the most groundbreaking book on the history of Cuban baseball" (11-8-99) and touts the work for avoiding the "politicization" which weakens other Cuban baseball histories and also for giving equal voice to the stories of both pre-revolution and post-revolution baseball on the island.Not surprisingly, however, even an unpolitical book will (like Elian Gonzalez) become a political "football" when Cuba is the subject of inquiry. Some of SMOKE's recent on-line reviewers, voicing a Miami-based Cuban-exile viewpoint which still finds anathema in any and all positive words about everything found in post-revolutionary Cuba, have taken to the internet to blast our book as insulting to the American-Cuban community because it does not find fault with Castro's purported human rights violations, and also to blast the book's authors as "knowing nothing about Cuba or its history."It is our contention that potential readers of SMOKE would be well-warned to approach such off-target "reviews" in the context in which they are written. Yes, there are a small handful of typographical flaws in this book as in every other, and we are admittedly not at all shy about lavishly praising contemporary Cuban baseball as the refreshing and entertaining spectacle we have experienced it to be. Our book's considerable value and strong reception is best measured, perhaps, by the fact that SMOKE has been nominated for each and every one of this year's top literary awards in the field of baseball history: Spitball magazine's prestigious CASEY AWARD (finalist), The Sporting News-Society for American Baseball Research Award (finalist), The HAROLD SEYMOUR MEDAL (finalist), and the Davey Moore Baseball Literature Award (Honorable Mention). And Miami's Nuevo Herald found the book so meritorious that it ran an eight-week Spanish-language serialization during the months of November, December and January.The charge that the book's authors know nothing about Cuba or the Cuban baseball scene is also quickly belied by the strong and enthusiastic reception of SMOKE in Cuba itself-among baseball officials, old-time dedicated baseball fans who are in touch with both the pre- and post-revolution Cuban League scene, the Cuban sporting press, and the

the history of cuban baseball is full of tradition.this book explores the sense and emotion of the cuban people and its passion for the game of baseball.good job.well done.US,THE CUBANS ARE GREATFUL FOR THIS BOOK.

It is about time that someone takes the initiative to research and account the rich baseball tradition and history of Cuban baseball. Often times writers convey the perception that baseball started in Cuba after the Castro coup, overlooking years of rich tradition and lore. Good Job