Description
Book Synopsis"If baseball is really a metaphor for life, then Kill the Ampaya -- Dick Cluster's wonderful collection of Latin American baseball stories -- is an astonishing record of its beauty and coarseness, redemption and tragedy. You don't have to be a baseball fan to appreciate these stories, each one hinged on baseball directly or indirectly, and delight in this reading."-Achy Obejas, author of The Tower of Antilles and Other Stories "These are stories we have lived...Some are funny, some cruel or violent, but in the end they are part of our culture that makes us act the way we do. They make me think of the millions of stories that got lost behind us." -Omar Vizquel, from Venezuela, one of baseball's all-time best fielding shortstops who played for the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Texas Rangers, Chicago White Sox, and Toronto Blue Jays. "Baseball is in the soul of millions in Puerto Rico and the other countries that play the game with a Latino flair. These stories are portraits of its place in our lives." -Benjie Molina, former Texas Rangers catcher and first base coach. A rich variety of baseball fiction exists south of the Florida Straits and the Rio Grande, but almost none available in English. This collection translates for the first time stories ranging from the highly literary to the vernacular. These inventive and entertaining stories reveal the place of baseball in Latin America. Mixing fan and fandom, baseball and politics, rural and urban life, sexism and poverty, Kill the Ampaya! reveals how baseball shapes the social fabric of everyday Latin American life. The collection includes well known writers such as Leonardo Padura from Cuba (The Man Who Loved Dogs), Sergio Ramirez from Nicaragua (Divine Punishment, A Thousand Deaths Plus One). Others are well known writers in their home countries such as Arturo Arango and Eduardo del Llano in Cuba, Alexis Gomez Rosa and Jose Bobadilla in the Dominican Republic, Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro in Puerto Rico, Vicente Lenero in Mexico as well as emerging literary figures such as Salvador Flejan and Rodrigo Blanco Calderon in Venezuela, Sandra Tavarez and Daniel Reyes German in the D.R., Carmen Hernandez Pena in Cuba.
Trade Review"A revelation! Baseball fans know how much passion and skill Latin American players bring to the game. Now, thanks to Kill the Ampaya!, we learn that the same flair is on display in Latin American baseball literature. To quote one of the many great lines in these fascinating stories --'This jonron is for you'."--Peter Abrahams, The New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five books including Down the Rabbit Hole, Behind the Curtain, Reality Check, A Perfect Crime, Pressure Drop, and The Fan. "These are stories we have lived ... Some are funny, some cruel or violent, but in the end they are part of our culture that makes us act the way we do. They make me think of the millions of stories that got lost behind us."--Omar Vizquel, from Venezuela, one of baseball's all-time best fielding shortstops who played for the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, and the San Francisco Giants. "Baseball is in the soul of millions in Puerto Rico and the other countries that play the game with a Latino flair. 1hese stories are portraits of its place in our lives."--Benjie Molina, from Puerto Rico, former catcher for the Los Angeles Angels, Toronto Blue Jays and the San Francisco Giants. "It's time we recognized that Latin America is the soul of baseball, and 'Kill the Ampaya' takes us straight to the heart of that soul."-- Scott Ostler, sportswriter, San Francisco Chronicle
Table of ContentsIntroduction ...4 Eduardo del Llano, Swimming Upstream ...29 Sandra Tavarez, Sacrifice ...39 Sergio Ramirez, Apparition in the Brick Factory ...42 Carmen Hernandez Pena, End of the Game ...55 Rodrigo Blanco Calderon, The Last Voyage of Arcaya the Shark ...63 Arturo Arango, The Stadium ...79 Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Braces ...90 Alexis Gomez Rosa, The Real Thing ...96 Leonardo Padura, The Wall ...105 Nan Chevalier, Winners and Losers ...117 Jose Bobadilla, The Strange Game of the Men in Blue ...128 Rafael Acevedo, Clock Reaches the Emperor's Citadel ...146 Salvador Flejan, Big Leagues ...151 Daniel Reyes German, How Tomboy Maria Learned She Could Fly ...164 Andres Eloy Blanco, The Glory of Mamporal ...176 Cezanne Cardona, An Infamous Home Run ...186 Marcial Gala, The Pitcher ...197 Vicente Lenero, Aut At Third ...202 Further Reading ...209 Acknowledgments ...211
