Title/Author:
“The
Pitcher and the Dictator: Satchel Paige’s Unlikely Season in the Dominican
Republic” by Averell “Ace” Smith
Tags:
Baseball,
history, Negro Leagues, politics
Publish
date:
April 1, 2018
Length:
240 pages
Rating:
4 ½ of 5
stars (excellent)
Review:
Satchel Paige is one of the most talented and
entertaining players to have participated in the Negro Leagues before Major
League Baseball became integrated. However, in 1937, he and several other Negro
League players, including Josh Gibson and James “Cool Papa” Bell, left the
Pittsburgh Crawfords to play in the Dominican Republic. However, this was no
ordinary league in which they participated – it was a baseball tournament in
support of the country’s dictator, Rafael Trujillo. The account of Paige and his teammates, as
well as the brutal regime of Trujillo, is told in this excellent book by
Averell Smith.
The players, starting with Paige, were lured to the
island with the promise of easy money. Paige was offered $30,000 to play in the
tournament and immediately broke his contract with the Crawfords and went to
the Dominican Republic. His salary was much better than he could make in the
United States, without the racism he was experiencing. He found he could stay in any hotel he
wished, go to any restaurant or club, and walk the streets being accepted for
who he was. He was able to convince his
personal catcher, William Perkins, and the aforementioned Gibson and Bell to
join him.
However, this isn’t to say that all was happy for
the players in the Dominican Republic. The manager of the dictator’s baseball
team, Dr. Jose Aybar, recruited Paige in New Orleans and let him and the other
players know that they were being watched closely and that they had to perform
well for the dictator. Armed soldiers with guns and machetes were always in
sight. This atmosphere and the
background behind Trujillo’s rise to power is also described in the book, so
when Paige arrives on the island, the reader has an inkling of what he is
feeling.
This also affected Paige’s performance in the first
few games he pitched as he was nervous and knew that anything short of winning
the tournament would result in dire consequences. However, once Gibson and Bell
arrived for reinforcements, Trujillo’s team got hot and won the tourney. Gibson’s
bat provided the spark for the championship game against a team that featured
the best Cuban player in the game at that point, Martin Dihigo. The baseball
passages were written well, with the reader feeling the drama of the games. The
talents of Paige, Gibson and Dihigo were certainly on display throughout the
book, with short chapters written after the tourney on each player’s career and
life after the end of the tourney.
The book is not just about the baseball as it will
tell the reader about the brutal regime of Trujillo, including the slaughter of Haitians who were attempting to return to their home country after the dictator
took power. While the brutality is well illustrated, as well as the romantic
interests and military might of Trujillo, this part of the book, like the
chapters on the three ballplayers noted above, left me wanting to know more as
it felt like more could be written about his dictatorship.
If a reader wishes to learn more about this season
in the Dominican Republic for three of the greatest stars of the Negro Leagues
as well as the first Cuban player inducted into the American Baseball Hall of
Fame, this is a good book to start that journey. While it doesn’t get into
great detail about any of the topics, it is nonetheless a very informative book
to introduce the reader to the baseball played in or the politics of the
Dominican Republic at that time.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for
providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Book
Format Read:
Hardcover
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