The Rise of the Latin American Baseball Leagues, 1947–1961

Major League Baseball today would be unrecognizable without the large number of Latin American players and managers filling its ranks. Their strong influence on the sport can trace its beginnings to professional leagues established south of the border and in the Caribbean nations in the 1940s. This narrative history of Latin American baseball leagues during the 1940s and 1950s provides an in-depth, year-by-year chronicle of seasonal leagues in the seven primary baseball-playing areas in the region: Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The success of these leagues, and their often acrimonious competition with U.S. Organized Baseball, eventually ushered in a new era of contract concessions from owners and general labor advancements for players that forever changed the game.

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

Lou Hernández
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 412
Bibliographic Info: 76 photos, 8 maps, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2011
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6384-8
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8936-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      ix
Preface      1

1. Mexican League, 1955–1960      3
2. Dominican Winter League, 1955–1961      48
3. Nicaraguan Winter League, 1955–1957      74
4. Cuban Winter League, 1947–1961      93
5. Panamanian Winter League, 1948–1961      181
6. Puerto Rican Winter League, 1948–1961      229
7. Venezuelan Winter League, 1948–1961      315

Appendix: Statistical Overview of the Caribbean Series      371
Notes      375
Bibliography      387
Index      389

“Hernandez takes a heroic stab at conquering this mountain of research”—Nine.