Full Count: Inside Cuban Baseball

by Milton Jamail, Larry Dierker (Foreword)

In his comprehensive and vibrant picture of baseball in Cuba, Milton H. Jamail explores the sport’s relationship to U.S. baseball. Jamail, whose personal love of the game matches that of the Cubans, examines the roots and traditions of baseball on the island and explains why Cubans play such excellent baseball. His analysis of the development of Cuban baseball after the 1959 takeover by Fidel Castro includes a detailed description of the formation of the Cuban amateur baseball system that has dominated international competitions for more than three decades. Before 1961, when the U.S. government severed diplomatic relations with Cuba and Castro abolished professional baseball, Cuba provided the bulk of the foreign players in the major leagues (more than one hundred since the color barrier was lifted in 1947). Major league interest in Cuban baseball remains high, Jamail notes, as he examines the changes necessary, both in the United States and Cuba, to return Cuban ballplayers to professional baseball in the United States. He discusses Cuban defectors, including Liván Hernández, and describes the intrigue surrounding agent Joe Cubas’s courting of Cuban players and his attempts to spirit them away when the Cuban national team plays outside the country. An academic trained in Latin American politics, Jamail has spent twelve years as a Spanish-speaking journalist writing about Latinos and baseball. To write this book, he conducted extensive interviews with baseball officials, journalists, players, and fans in Cuba, as well as Cuban players who have defected. He also talked to scouts and front office people from U.S. baseball organizations.

224 pages, Paperback

First published April 7, 2000

Reviews

[Luke Sherrard · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really detest the way the author treats Livan Hernandez, a young pitcher who had just won World Series MVP after defecting from Cuba but was struggling to adjust to fame and life in America. The author recounts how Livan was pressured into the interview by people around him in the Marlins organization, then went on to say at different pints that Livan was [paraphrase] “a difficult interview” and “immature” after doing something he knew might make him shut down. Livan told the author he didn’t want to talk about his defection, which should have been an indication that he was dealing with a lot of difficult emotions surrounding his leaving Cuba. Still, the author shows Livan a picture of his baseball card from his last year in Cuba and asks how he had changed in the last four years [paraphrase]. To me, it shows a lot of arrogance and entitlement that the author could not admit that this question was tactless and instead tries to portray Livan negatively.



Aside from this the book was fine, although it had a tendency to portray US-Cuba relations as a “conflict” rather than as the imperial power waging an economic war against a smaller country with less resources. This isn’t as big of a deal to me as the personal disrespect to Livan because unfortunately academics fall into that trap sometimes with US-Cuba relations.

[Guy Pauley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish there had been a bit more Cuban baseball history and a little less politics, player defection, etc. But overall a solid book.

[birdmaddgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

for a research paper for my folklore & nationalism class. jamail clearly has an opinion about what the direction of cuban baseball should be, and sometimes his politicking gets in the way. the book is at its most interesting when he describes scenes, conversations, events during his eight years of researching in cuba (1991-1999). i wish he told me more about the people and less about his own ideology, since jamail is in a fantastic position to make the realities of modern cuba understandable for outsiders. still, a solid introduction written by someone with a passion for the game.