Baseball’s Great Hispanic Pitchers

Baseball has had many outstanding Latin American pitchers since the early 20th century. This book profiles the greatest Hispanic hurlers to toe the rubber from the mounds of the major leagues, winter leagues and Negro leagues. The careers of the top major league pitchers to come from Central and South America and the Caribbean are examined in decade-by-decade portrayals, culminating with an all-time ranking by the author. The grand exploits of these athletes backdrop the evolving pitching eras of the game, from the macho, complete-game period that existed for the majority of the last century to the financially-driven, pitch-count sensitive culture that dominates baseball thinking today.

Lou Hernández is the author of several baseball histories. He resides in South Florida.

Lou Hernández
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 316
Bibliographic Info: 35 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2015
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7975-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1545-5
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Introduction 3
Part I: Outside the Major Leagues
1. The Negro Leagues: Ramón Bragaña, Martín Dihigo 6
2. The Latin American Leagues: Ramón Arano, Rubén Gómez, Orlando Hernández, Juan Pizarro 21
Part II: The Major Leagues
3. The 1920s and 1930s—Adolfo Luque 52
4. The 1950s—Camilo Pascual 84
5. The 1960s—Juan Marichal, Luis Tiant 104
6. The 1970s—Mike Cuéllar, Dennis Martínez 163
7. The 1980s—Fernando Valenzuela 197
8. The 1990s—Pedro Martínez 217
9. The 2000s and 2010s—Mariano Rivera, Johan Santana, Félix Hernández 245
Appendix: Rankings for the ­All-Time Great Hispanic Pitchers 285
Chapter Notes 289
Bibliography 297
Index 299