Lively and anecdotal, Viva Baseball! chronicles the struggles of Latin American professional baseball players in the United States from the late 1800s to the present. Even as "Fernandomania" raged in 1981, most Latin players felt lonely, shunned, and forgotten. Samuel Regalado reveals the shocking racism faced by these immigrant athletes in a white culture. Only a burning desire to succeed and a grim determination to leave behind the grinding poverty of their homelands could have driven these men to continue in the face of overwhelming hostility. In addition to mining the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York, and the Sporting News archives, Regalado conducted interviews with some twenty-five Latin baseball stars, among them Felipe Alou, Orlando Cepeda, and Tony Oliva.
- ISBN10 0252023722
- ISBN13 9780252023729
- Publish Date 1 March 1998 (first published 1 February 1998)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 November 2014
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Illinois Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 224
- Language English