Any links to the history of Cuban baseball?

[Mattingly]

I found one that seems very nice.

http://www.cubanball.com/index.html

Are there any others showing their time in the Negro Leagues and their history? I'm interested in knowing.

Thanks.

[Mattingly]

I've found this one, which discusses some of the old and some of the new. Please scroll down, as there are several articles in the same link:


Pedro Mu�� the slugging first baseman and mainstay of the
Cuban National Team for nearly two decades.
(Photo by Jesus Rocamora.)

Scouting 'Pelota Revolacionaria'
Cuban Baseball

THE JOKE that flying baseballs are the greatest pedestrian hazard in Havana is only partly whimsical. On a stroll from the Havana Riviera to Old Havana last year, I counted dozens of pickup baseball games and I was nearly beaned twice. Balls were flying off the trunks of royal palms, onto apartment-house roofs, across moving lanes of traffic, and against the pastel iron gates of old mansions like the one occupied by the Albanian Embassy.

Passionate discussion of pelota (which means simply "ball") is an afternoon staple of establishments like the Pelota Cafe on Havana's 23rd Street, and in the evening the fanaticos gather at Havana's 55,000-seat Estadio Latinoamericano to drink thimbles of sweet Cuban coffee and watch the game. Here, on a well-kept natural-grass field with brick-red base paths, Cuban players compete in the top two levels of Cuba's rigorous elimination tournament, the National Series and the Selective Series. Out of the Selective Series comes the Cuban National Team, the apex of Cuban baseball and one of the most successful athletic organizations in modern memory.

During the past twenty years Cuba has dominated world amateur baseball in somewhat the way Taiwan has dominated world Little League baseball and the United States has dominated world professional baseball. The Cuban National Team has won ten World Series of Amateur Baseball and the past four gold medals for baseball at the Pan-American Games. These triumphs have been particularly gratifying for Fidel Castro, whose government has made success in baseball a priority.

Cuban baseball, whose organized league play began in 1878 (just two years after the birth of the National League, and twenty-two years before the birth of the American League), has always differed from American baseball in several respects, such as racial attitudes. During the sixty years when black baseball players were banned from America's major leagues, blacks and whites competed freely in Cuba.

Many of the greatest interracial games of the era took place in Havana, rather than in Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park, pitting Ty Cobb against John Henry Lloyd, and Carl Hubbell against Luis Tiant, Sr. The Cubans proved that the game could be integrated and ultimately played a role in breaking the American "color line" by providing the Brooklyn Dodgers with a place where they could bring Jackie Robinson to spring training in 1947.

More overtly political than the American sport as well, Cuban baseball has been closely linked with the causes of national independence and revolution since the days of Jos頍art� Castro has proven particularly adept at using the sport for political ends. The Cuban National Team plays all over the world and has helped Cuban foreign policy in Nicaragua (where it played exhibition games to benefit flood victims) and Japan (where it has helped to cement the relationship that has made Japan one of Cuba's most active trading partners).

[caribeño]

I found one that seems very nice.

http://www.cubanball.com/index.html

Are there any others showing their time in the Negro Leagues and their history? I'm interested in knowing.

Thanks.

checkout on the cubanball web site their links section which is a very good one , with lots of other links on the subject including links in the actual Cuba .

[Martin Dihigo]

Echevarria's book

If you're interested in a wonderful account of the history of Cuban baseball -
from the pioneer Esteban Bellan (Troy Haymakers) to the Serie
Nacional pick up Yale Professor's "The Pride of Havana".

It's current enough to read about Cuban team SS Paret,
P Lazo and others, and has some nice mentions of Lourdes Gourriel,
Yulieski Gourriel's dad.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195146050/sr=8-2/qid=1143701974/ref=sr_1_2/102-4429168-7866501?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Visit http://www.library.fordham.edu/cubanbaseball/Main.html
to see some pictures of Bellan himself while playing the game at Fordham.

A Cuban site on the history of Cuban BB -

http://www.radiococo.cu/43hist/inicios.htm

in Spanish. . .

If anyone is interested in more Cuban BB book references, I'll be happy to post some more.

[Mattingly]

Thanks, folks. Any more links that can be offered, please do so.

I found this nice one from PBS, which also discusses defectors and the current team, if you click on their links:

http://www.pbs.org/stealinghome/history/index.html

[gutogonz]

Hi.

Let me include in this section my link.
I have a website on Martin Dihigo which is not complete but im always working on it.

http://www.geocities.com/martindihigo

Thanx so much,
César

monterrey, México

[Cubano100%]

For info on players after 1959 visit:

https://www.cubancards.com