Far From Home: Latino Baseball Players in America

by Tim Wendel, José Luis Villegas

From Argentina and Venezuela to the Dominican Republic and the rest of the Caribbean, thousands of boys grow up playing sandlot ball and planning a big-league career. Inspired by Latino greats who paved the way, young men head north in hopes of baseball success—but often find themselves in far different situations. Photographer José Luis Villegas and sportswriter Tim Wendel dramatically reveal the energy, talent, and hard-driving ambition of these determined players, both the few who make it and the many who don’t. Yet this isn’t just another compendium of highlights—it’s a bold and sometimes heartbreaking look at the ups and downs of chasing a dream.

The book captures all the flash and glory of being a major-league star at the top of his game...as well as the struggles faced by other hopefuls who have to take a longer, tougher road. For many of these men, the realities of the system—and the tension of illegal immigration—intrude on the dream. Discover what becomes of them, and explore the rich background of baseball and the Latin American world, in Far From Home. With sports interest for the baseball fan...timely issues for the history buff...and great images for the photography enthusiast...it is perfectly positioned for Father’s Day and a must-read for all who love the national game.

Genres: Baseball, Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published March 18, 2008

About the author

Tim Wendel is an award-winning novelist and journalist. He is the author of 16 books, including Rebel Falls: A Novel, Summer of '68: The Season When Baseball, and America, Changed Forever, and Castro's Curveball. His stories have appeared in Gargoyle and The Potomac Review, and his articles in The New York Times, Esquire, GQ, Washingtonian and USA Today. A longtime writer-in-residence at Johns Hopkins University, Tim teaches fiction and nonfiction writing. Tim has worked has worked on both coasts, covering everything from the Olympics to the America's Cup. More information and his blog can be found at www.timwendel.com."

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, overall, this was a truly fascinating book, that really grabbed my attention with all of the background information and the things that Latino baseball players had to go through, how hard they work, and their horrifying, yet interesting pasts. The book is structured in a really fascinating way. It goes from chapter to chapter, and the different chapters are some called, "Heroes," which explained several different remarkably amazing Latino baseball players lives, what they had to go through, and where they are now, and several of them are in the hall of fame. Another chapter is called, "Far from home," which is about how Latino baseball still try to keep in touch with their routes, and still visit their hometowns, and to stay in shape they still play on their baseball teams from where they originally lived. This really shows how both unique and amazing Latino baseball players are. Even though the words in the book really came to my attention, and came to life, there is an expression, "A picture is worth a thousand words," and now, that expression finally makes sense to me. The pictures in this book, "Far From Home," were truly unbelievable. There several pictures which attained of Latino baseball hall of famers, 1800's baseball games!, people trying to make catches and they were very high in the air, with some brief captions on the sides to really explain what these pictures are, and what they mean. That was really amazing. In the book, there is a table of contents, and it says what they chapter is called, and what page it is on. The table of contents really helps organize the book well. I think that for the most part, the book was very organized, and an enjoyable one to read.In my opinion the author's writing style was great, and partially mediocre. For the most part, the ways that he described what these people had to go through was amazing, but at times, it got a little off track. The author definitely knows what he is talking about, and I feel that he might be Latino, so he can relate to them. The author does seem a bit biased. Just how he thinks that maybe that Latino's are the best baseball players ever. But at other times, he was really trying to compare the two. The people that should read this book should be people that are really interested in different cultures, and people who enjoy baseball, and who can really get the meaning out of things, and who can get into real depth on certain things... like baseball. The author should have focused more on all Latino players, not just a couple.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

My book was called Far From Home by Tim Wendell and Jose Luis Villegas. This book was about how Latino players work hard to make the MLB. They had to prepare for their whole lives hoping for the big dreams to come true. The main countries where the players lived were Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Venezuela they didn't have enough resources to play. Of course they had space to play because these countries had a lot of room but most families were poor. Currently in the MLB there are many successful baseball players that are Latino. For example Albert Pujols is probably the best hitter in baseball and will definitely make the Hall Of Fame. The MLB has had so many Latinos now it is almost one quarter of the entire MLB. A huge number that the book talks about a lot. This book was a combination of text and pictures. I loved the mixture of it and it was awesome how the authored got all this information about the players. Also in some parts of the books it was the point of view of the player. Those were the best part of the book because you could see their journey to the majors. There are no chapters but as the book went along the players became more recent so it was so much easier to follow along. To me it felt like the authors knew a lot about the players giving endless amount of facts. This book is definitely for people who likes sports and wants to learn more. This is a non-fiction book but really hooks you in and want to keep on reading. In the end I would give this book four out of five stars.

Wendell, Tim and Jose-Luis, Marichal. Washington D.C: National Geographic, 2011.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

My book is about baseball. My book is about baseball players that lived in South America our in the islands of America, started to play in the Major leagues. Some important events were when the US team played the Cuban national team and the Cubans won. I think it is good to read about this because it is interesting to learn about how new and old baseball players are different.
I think the book was interesting because it was true and told great stories about baseball players from the mid 1900’s. I think that if they made the font bigger the book would be more enjoyable. I think that the pictures were really cool and helped me understand and feel like I was there. While I read this book I really liked it and I had fun reading about all of the players. I think a person that would like this book likes to read about sports. I would rate this book 8 out of 10.

[Lindsay]

Sports related 2009 Best Books for Young Adults. This book tells the stories of Latino baseball players in America. It has great photography and tells the stories of many baseball players who make it big, and some that don't. This would be a great book to suggest to a sports nut who isn't much of a reader. Perfect for a sports unit.

VOYA Codes:

4P 3Q J