Description
Book SynopsisKat D. Williams traces Isabel “Lefty” Alvarez’s life from her childhood in Cuba to her reinvention of herself as a professional American baseball player, illuminating the importance of sport as a source of stability in a life defined by challenges.
Trade Review"The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) operated from 1943 through 1954, giving over six hundred female athletes the opportunity to play professional baseball. Isabel "Lefty" Alvarez was one of those women, and Marshall University Professor Kat D. Williams tells her remarkable story, revealing the courageous struggle Lefty overcame to make it in America."—Rob Sheinkopf,
NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture"A very good read. It is not only about a baseball player in the AAGPBL, but also about a young Latino woman who makes good in America."—Lance Smith,
Guy Who Reviews Sports Books"One cannot help but root for the dark-haired, left-handed 15-year-old pitcher, who came to the United States with hardly any education and no command of the language. . . . Lefty Alvarez is truly in a league of her own."—Bob D'Angelo,
Sports Bookie“The history of baseball in Cuba is well documented, with the exception of the island’s women who played the game. Kat Williams’s nuanced examination of how baseball informed, indeed transformed, the life and prospects of Isabel “Lefty” Alvarez fills that gap. Set against an ample background on Cuban political, social, and sports history, Williams demonstrates what a love for baseball can mean to a young woman.”—Jean Hastings Ardell, author of
Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National PastimeTable of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1. El Cerro
Chapter 2. Refashioning Lefty
Chapter 3. The Passion of the Island
Chapter 4. Coming to America
Chapter 5. Life after the League
Chapter 6. A League of Her Own
Epilogue
Appendix I. Lefty Alvarez Baseball Statistics
Appendix II. Women’s Baseball Time Line
Notes
Bibliography
Index
