ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Raceball began in the spring of 2008 when Beacon Press editor Allison Trzop asked if I would consider bringing together the histories of African Americans and Latinos in baseball in a book focusing on the impact of integration. A few months later, while heading to Sydney, Australia, for the second international Sport, Race, and Ethnicity Conference, I began working on a proposal that Allison shepherded through Beacon. She was the catalyst for this project, and her enthusiasm, deft editing, and provocative analysis have made it a far better book than it would have been otherwise. Like most writers, I had become reconciled to less and less editorial assistance from publishers over the years; Beacon Press was a wonderful counterpoint to these trends.

When I began studying sport thirty years ago, a book like this one would have been impossible to write. The field of sport history was in its infancy. But the work of a cohort of pioneering scholars has changed the realm of possibility. Raceball builds on their work as well as earlier projects and collaborations of mine. Daniel Manatt and Bret Granato were my partners on The Republic of Baseball: Dominican Giants of the American Game, a PBS documentary about the first generation of Dominicans in the majors. About the time that we were finishing the film, I began working with the Hall of Fame on ¡Viva Baseball!, a permanent exhibit on the role of Latinos in the game. I joined a group of advisers that included Milton Jamail, Alan Klein, Tim Wendel, and Adrian Burgos, all exceptional scholars. We worked with John Odell, Ted Spencer, Erik Strohl, Jeff Idelson, Tom Schieber, Brad Horn, Lenny DiFranza, Pat Kelly, and Mary Quinn from the Hall of Fame. I was also lucky to work with Bernardo Ruiz and Caroline Waterlow on their American Experience documentary Roberto Clemente. My great hope is to work again with such talented and simpatico people and have as much fun as I did collaborating with them.

Mark Cohen and Dave Bear, the first to read Raceball in draft form, discussed it and much else with me on trips that ranged from the Youghiogheny River to Yosemite. Several colleagues shared their work, thoughts, and passion for sport with me, including Roberto González Echevarría, Neil Lanctot, Michael Lomax, Sean Lahman, Roger Guenveur Smith, Winston Llenas, Juan Marichal, and Rafael Emilio Yunén, the executive director of the Centro Cultural Eduardo León Jimenes, whose 2008 exhibit on Dominican baseball was breathtaking in its historical and aesthetic impact. Kelsey Babik and Hilary Nykwest researched a range of questions for me under the auspices of the University of Pittsburgh’s First Experience in Research program. Their work was enormously helpful and provided solid research to back up my analysis.

The History Department at the University of Pittsburgh has been my base camp since I entered its graduate program many years ago. An oasis of camaraderie and intellectual ferment, the department is a place where almost any question can be considered with the help of world-class scholars and graduate students. Its strongest suit might be the study of race, especially in Latin America and the Caribbean, and Reid Andrews, Alejandro de la Fuente, Lara Putnam, Larry Glasco, Rebecca Shumway, and Sy Drescher contributed their insight. Sport draws almost as much attention in the History Department as any other pursuit, and Dick Smethurst, Bernie Hagerty, Janelle Greenberg, and Bill Chase continue to school me on its intricacies. Ted Muller gave the manuscript a penetrating read and conveyed his thoughts over coffee many a morning during the semester with an indefatigable enthusiasm that even allows for the possibility of the Pirates reaching .500. Marcus Rediker championed this book whenever he paused from his life’s work, getting Pitt into the Final Four. Marcus made the season’s highlight film when the Oakland Zoo turned toward him en masse and chanted for him to stay at Pitt during a win over Villanova. The students in my history of sport classes and my graduate student-teaching assistants (Niklas Frykman, Julien Comte, Dan Bisbee, Johnathan White, and Matt Peterson) grounded my interpretation of these questions. Grace Tomcho, Molly Dennis-Estes, Patty Landon, and Kathy Gibson, the gang of four whose good cheer and grip on reality anchors the History Department, were indispensable.

Most of all, I want to express my gratitude and deep respect to the men and women, some who are no longer alive, who have thoughtfully and patiently answered my questions over the years—individuals like Harold Tinker, Roberto Caines, Mal Goode, Manuel Báez Vargas, Pedro Julio Santana, Cuqui Córdova, Winston Llenas, Felipe Alou, Juan Marichal, Manuel Mota, and Vera Clemente. They helped me understand the story of sport in their communities and why it mattered so much.

Finally, my thanks to Alex Ruck and Maggie Patterson, my son and wife, who make the sun come up each morning.