Description
Book SynopsisPlaying in the storied Mexican League (an AAA affiliate of major league baseball), the Tecos had home parks on both sides of the US-Mexico border, in Laredo, Texas and in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. This book tells the story of the rise and demise of this team.
Trade ReviewWinner of the 1997 Book of the Year, North American Society for the Sociology of Sport "This work is a superb lab experiment in the hands of a competent anthropologist like Klein as he tries to separate fantasy from reality in this dual cultural baseball experiment... An excellent book."--Bill Kirwin, Nine: A Journal of Baseball History and Social Policy Perspectives "[Klein] does a fine job of reporting, and his prose is muscular, insightful, even witty."--Jon Caroulis, Philadelphia Inquirer "The book is very well written... It contributes greatly to the literature on the cultural basis of sport, to our understanding of the manner in which cultural inventions reflect national identity and processes, and substantiates an important insight to the idea that sport may provide a window to ongoing social change."--Carlos Velez-Ibanez, American Anthropologist
Table of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction3Pt. 1Origins151A Brief History of the Two Laredos172Early Baseball on the Border323Nationalizing the Game66Pt. 2Becoming Tecos1154The Players and the Team1175Culture and Masculinity on the Tecos151Pt. 3The River Joins and the River Divides17161993: The Best of Times17371994: The Worst of Times204Acknowledgments239Appendix ABibliographic Essay: Border and Nationalisms243Appendix BMethods and Perspective260Notes267Index289
