The Pitcher and the Dictator

Satchel Paige's Unlikely Season in the Dominican Republic

Averell "Ace" Smith (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

240 Seiten

2020
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-1-4962-1952-7 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

Soon after Satchel Paige arrived at spring training in 1937 to pitch for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, he and five of his teammates, including Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell, were lured to the Dominican Republic with the promise of easy money to play a short baseball tournament in support of the country’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo. As it turned out, the money wasn’t so easy. After Paige and his friends arrived on the island, they found themselves under the thumb of Trujillo, known by Dominicans for murdering those who disappointed him.

In the initial games, the Ciudad Trujillo All-Star team floundered. Living outside the shadow of segregation, Satchel and his recruits spent their nights carousing and their days dropping close games to their rivals, who were also stocked with great players. Desperate to restore discipline, Trujillo tapped the leader of his death squads to become part of the team management.

When Paige’s team ultimately rallied to win, it barely registered with Trujillo, who a few months later ordered the killings of fifteen thousand Haitians at the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Paige and his teammates returned to the states to face banishment from the Negro Leagues, but they barnstormed across America wearing their Trujillo All-Stars uniforms.

The Pitcher and the Dictator is an extraordinary story of race, politics, and some of the greatest baseball players ever assembled, playing high-stakes games in support of one of the Caribbean’s cruelest dictators.

Averell “Ace” Smith is a political consultant and lifelong baseball fanatic. He is a thirty‑year veteran of state and national politics and has directed winning campaigns from district attorney to president of the United States. He has been profiled in the Los Angeles Times, the New Republic, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Preface: Recovery of a Lost History
1. Trujillo City
2. Time to Get a Job
3. Show Me the Money
4. Chapita
5. The Americans
6. A Long, Lanky Black Boy by the Name of Satchell
7. Trujillo Es El Jefe
8. Opening Day Away
9. Royal Prerogative
10. Total Catastrophe
11. The Stars Arrive
12. DespuÉs de la Victoria
13. Nuevos Rumbos
14. Black Babe Ruth
15. Fiesta de la Chapita
16. The Maestro’s Coda
17. The Heartbreaking End of Josh Gibson
18. The Fall of Trujillo
19. The Persevering Paige
20. “El Gamo”
21. Y Otras
Epilogue: Tenth Inning
Appendix: Notes on Paige’s Magical Pitching
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	25.02.2020
Zusatzinfo	14 photographs, 6 illustrations, 2 tables, 1 appendix, index
Verlagsort	Lincoln
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Ballsport
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
	Weitere Fachgebiete ► Sportwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-4962-1952-X / 149621952X
ISBN-13	978-1-4962-1952-7 / 9781496219527
Zustand	Neuware