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Dr. Harvey
Frommer on Sports |
Spring Roundup (Part 3)
The baseball season moves along and so does the publication
of all manner of books on the national pastime from all levels of
publishers. All of this happening reveals the tremendous depth of the sport,
the myriad manners in which to view it.
Batting in first position is “Cuban Star” by Adrian Burgos,
Jr. (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28.00, 302 pages) about “Alex” Pompez -
-the man who was the preamble to the great run of Latin baseball players
that are on the scene today. Funny, poignant, dramatic, filled with all
kinds of insights, “Cuban Star” is a full fledged bio of the Pompez who was
finally admitted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. He cut his bones,
as they say, with gambling revenue to finance and keep afloat the team he
owned the -- New York Cubans. In short, he was number one in Harlem’s
numbers scene. He also was a pioneer later on in his career working for the
San Francisco Giants as a scout and bringing to the team standout Latin
American stars. The book is a keeper.
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