Pitching Democracy: Baseball and Politics in the Dominican Republic
by April Yoder
University of Texas Press, 2023 eISBN: 978-1-4773-2678-7 | Cloth: 978-1-4773-2676-3 Library of Congress Classification GV863.29.D65Y64 2023 Dewey Decimal Classification 796.357097293
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
How Dominicans contribute to Major League Baseball and what they receive in return.
From Juan Marichal and Pedro Martínez to Albert Pujols and Juan Soto, Dominicans have long been among Major League Baseball’s best. How did this small Caribbean nation become a hothouse of baseball talent? To many fans, the answer is both obvious and disconcerting: pro teams use their riches to develop talent abroad, creating opportunities for superhuman athletes and corrupt officials, while the rest of the population sees little benefit.
Yet this interpretation of history is incomplete. April Yoder traces how baseball has empowered Dominicans in their struggles for democracy and social justice. While the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo saw the sport as a means of cementing its power at home and abroad, the Dominican people fashioned an emancipated civic sphere by seeing their potential for democratic success in their compatriots’ baseball success. Later, Dominicans articulated demands for democracy, economic opportunity, and civil rights through successful calls for public support of amateur and professional baseball. Today, Dominicans continue to demand that incentives for the baseball industry foster human as well as economic development. A revelatory and innovative history, Pitching Democracy restores agency to the Dominican people and honors their true love of the game.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
April Yoder is an assistant professor of history at the University of New Haven.
REVIEWS
Pitching Democracy makes a major contribution to our understanding of a very complex period in Dominican history, one that has not received the sustained attention it deserves. Yoder’s richly researched, crisply written book presents an original and compelling argument: that historians of politics should pay attention not only to the executive branch of government but also to various state–civil society interactions, of which baseball offers an excellent example.
— Robin Lauren Derby
Pitching Democracy illuminates how the Dominican Republic emerged as baseball’s Caribbean mecca while laying bare the deeper connections between sports and politics during and after the Cold War. In an impressive feat of research and analysis, April Yoder explains why and how this nation became a microculture of baseball excellence and connects the sport to the decades-long struggle to define democracy and development both in the Dominican Republic and throughout the Caribbean.
— Rob Ruck
Enriched by Yoder’s passion for the sport and extensive knowledge of Cold War Latin American politics, this is a detailed study of the links between sport and social change.
— Publishers Weekly
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Baseball, Democracy, and Latin America in the Cold War
Chapter 1. Mens sana in corpore sano: Baseball and Trujillista Politics
Chapter 2. Politics at the Plate: The Threat of Communism and the Showcase for Democracy
Pitching Democracy: Baseball and Politics in the Dominican Republic
by April Yoder
University of Texas Press, 2023 eISBN: 978-1-4773-2678-7 Cloth: 978-1-4773-2676-3
How Dominicans contribute to Major League Baseball and what they receive in return.
From Juan Marichal and Pedro Martínez to Albert Pujols and Juan Soto, Dominicans have long been among Major League Baseball’s best. How did this small Caribbean nation become a hothouse of baseball talent? To many fans, the answer is both obvious and disconcerting: pro teams use their riches to develop talent abroad, creating opportunities for superhuman athletes and corrupt officials, while the rest of the population sees little benefit.
Yet this interpretation of history is incomplete. April Yoder traces how baseball has empowered Dominicans in their struggles for democracy and social justice. While the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo saw the sport as a means of cementing its power at home and abroad, the Dominican people fashioned an emancipated civic sphere by seeing their potential for democratic success in their compatriots’ baseball success. Later, Dominicans articulated demands for democracy, economic opportunity, and civil rights through successful calls for public support of amateur and professional baseball. Today, Dominicans continue to demand that incentives for the baseball industry foster human as well as economic development. A revelatory and innovative history, Pitching Democracy restores agency to the Dominican people and honors their true love of the game.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
April Yoder is an assistant professor of history at the University of New Haven.
REVIEWS
Pitching Democracy makes a major contribution to our understanding of a very complex period in Dominican history, one that has not received the sustained attention it deserves. Yoder’s richly researched, crisply written book presents an original and compelling argument: that historians of politics should pay attention not only to the executive branch of government but also to various state–civil society interactions, of which baseball offers an excellent example.
— Robin Lauren Derby
Pitching Democracy illuminates how the Dominican Republic emerged as baseball’s Caribbean mecca while laying bare the deeper connections between sports and politics during and after the Cold War. In an impressive feat of research and analysis, April Yoder explains why and how this nation became a microculture of baseball excellence and connects the sport to the decades-long struggle to define democracy and development both in the Dominican Republic and throughout the Caribbean.
— Rob Ruck
Enriched by Yoder’s passion for the sport and extensive knowledge of Cold War Latin American politics, this is a detailed study of the links between sport and social change.
— Publishers Weekly
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Baseball, Democracy, and Latin America in the Cold War
Chapter 1. Mens sana in corpore sano: Baseball and Trujillista Politics
Chapter 2. Politics at the Plate: The Threat of Communism and the Showcase for Democracy