The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris

by Mark Kurlansky | Sports |
ISBN: 1594487502 Global Overview for this book
Registered by BigJohnLefty of Des Moines, Iowa USA on 10/24/2013
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by BigJohnLefty from Des Moines, Iowa USA on Friday, October 25, 2013
Found this on a foray to the Dollar Tree today - just couldn't pass it up.....


Plan to read soon.....

Journal Entry 2 by BigJohnLefty at Des Moines, Iowa USA on Saturday, January 16, 2016
This was a thoroughly enjoyable and informative book. The author really knows his stuff about three areas I like to think I know a bit about: Spanish, history and baseball.
I learned a lot about the Spanish colonization of the Carribean, the political history of the island of Hispanola (comprising the countries of Haiti and The Dominican Republic), the sugar industry and how it impacts the local economy there, and how baseball was brought there.
I also learned that the first major league baseball player from there was someone whose card I had as a child growing up in the sixties (Ozzie Virgil, sr., who played for the Giants).
A lot of the book focused on the city of San Pedro de Macoris (which a mid-eighties article in Sports Illustrated described as "the land of shortstops", "las tierra de mediocampistas" in Spanish, because at that time some dozen or so major league players at that position hailed from there), and had as an appendix a list of the 79 players (at the time of the book's publication) from that city.
There was quite a bit of information about one of my favorite all-time pitchers, Joaquin Andujar, who passed away within the last year, and led the St. Louis Cardinals to World Series victory in 1982, as well as plenty of inside stories of many other players (such as Sammy Sosa, Julio Franco, Alfredo Griffin, Jorge Bell, etc.)whose careers I was at least vaguely aware of.
The author also includes a good bibliography for those seeking more information on the subject, but that is not to say that the book is too "scholarly" in its research to be an entertaining read - even for those who are not diehard baseball fans.

Hopefully will be able to pass this along soon, via wild release or RABCK......

Journal Entry 3 by BigJohnLefty at Des Moines, Iowa USA on Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Released 8 yrs ago (2/24/2016 UTC) at Des Moines, Iowa USA

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Am putting this into waternixie's potpourri bookbox.... Hope this finds a good home!

Journal Entry 4 by freezone at Leominster, Massachusetts USA on Thursday, April 7, 2016
I've read some other wonderful Mark Kurlansky books. Looking forward to giving it a try.

Journal Entry 5 by freezone at -- Bookbox, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA on Saturday, September 16, 2023
I hadn't noticed originally that this book is by Mark Kurlansky, who is a master at conveying a place and its traditions. I particularly loved The Last Fish Tale. I passed it along to my dad, and after he read it, he wanted to move to Gloucester, Massachusetts.

When I read a book about baseball, it usually makes me enthusiastic to watch baseball games again. This one was different: the baseball games were sort of the backdrop. This book made me want to go to the Dominican Republic (or maybe NYC) and watch people play baseball THERE.

It's a good way to see how one economic factor (in this case, baseball), can start to create a middle class and economic opportunity in a country that Kurlansky describes as "without a middle class."

He really is great at giving you a sense of a small-ish backwater in a small country is interesting and influential in the wider world. He must be a very enthusiastic explorer, to share his discoveries so enthusiastically with us.

I did learn quite a bit about the D.R. I didn't realize before this how little I actually knew, and how much rested on my assumptions about it.

Journal Entry 6 by freezone at -- Bookbox, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA on Friday, September 29, 2023

Released 6 mos ago (9/29/2023 UTC) at -- Bookbox, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA

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Putting into the books I've read and journaled book box: https://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/588643

Journal Entry 7 by wingdjf1968wing at San Ramon, California USA on Friday, October 6, 2023
The premise here fascinates me... "a story about poverty and wealth, about tenacity and survival, about colonialism and capitalism, about the Dominican people and their brutal history... and also a book about baseball." It's going to stay here for a while... one of my picks in from the Books I've Read and Journaled Book Box. Thank you for sharing!

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