Finding Baseball's Next Clemente: Combating Scandal in Latino Recruiting

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

This book examines what it takes for Latino youngsters to beat the odds, overcoming cultural and racial barriersand a corrupt recruitment systemto play professional baseball in the United States. Latin Americans now comprise nearly 30 percent of the players in Major League Baseball (MLB). This provocative work looks at how young Latinos are recruitedand often exploitedand at the cultural, linguistic, and racial challenges faced by those who do make it. There are exposs of baseball camps where teens are encouraged to sacrifice education in favor of hitting and fielding drills and descriptions of fraud cases in which youngsters claim to be older than they are in order to sign contracts. The book also documents the increasing use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs by kids desperately trying to gain an edge. In addition to discussing the hard road many Latinos follow to MLB, the work also traces the fascinating history of baseball's introduction in Latin American countriesin some cases, more than a century ago. Finally, there are the stories of great Latino players, of men like Roberto Clemente and Carlos Beltran who made it to the majors, but also of men who were not so lucky. Through their tales, readers can share the dreams and expectations of young men who, for better or worse, believe in "America's pastime" as their gateway out of poverty.

Author Bio

Roger Bruns is a historian and former deputy executive director of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission at the National Archives in Washington, DC.