Peter C. Bjarkman

During the past decade Pete Bjarkman has traveled the international baseball tournament scene to report (mostly on the Cuban national team) in both the print and eletronic media. Bjarkman's journalistic travels have included Olympic Baseball Tournament II (1996, Atlanta), Caribbean Series #39 (1997, Hermosillo), Pan American Games XIII (1999, Winnipeg), World Cup #35 (2003, Havana), World Cup #36 (2005, Netherlands), World Baseball Classic I (2006, San Juan, San Diego), Americas Pre-Olympic Tournament (2006, Havana), Caribbean Series #49 (2007, San Juan), Rotterdam World Port Tournament XI (2007, Netherlands), Huelga Memorial Tournament (2008, Havana), Haarlem Honkbal Week #24 (2008, Netherlands), World Baseball Classic II (2009, Mexico City, San Diego, Los Angles). Some of his extensive coverage and be accessed on the following internet links:

Pete Bjarkman has published more than 150 periodical articles in both English in Spanish, including regular Spanish-language features (plus coverage of major international tournaments since April 2005) in the monthly periodical Béisbol Mundial (which ceased publication in 2009). He is also author of over 200 internet articles/​reports (most written since 2007 and treating Cuban League topics) featured on www.BaseballdeCuba.com, www.radiococo.cu, www.havanatimes.org, and his own personal MLB blog (a "Top 100 Blog") found at www.bjarkmanlatinobaseball.mlblogs.com.

Most of these articles treat major league and international tournament baseball history, but other sports and non-sports topics are also featured (for example, international travel, model railroading hobby, and NBA and NCAA basketball history). A complete listing is available in the Bjarkman Bibliography which can be downloaded from the BOOKS page of this website. Several feature Elysian Fields Quarterly cover stories can be ordered by clicking on the sidebar link (left column) to the EFQ webpage.

Bjarkman's best-known essay is his now much-cited EFQ article (Summer 1999) explaining the background and origins of a much-celebrated and often-repeated myth carried in the American press about Fidel Castro's reputed one-time status as a major league pitching prospect. For those who have heard this fanciful tale (often retold by Bob Costas on FOX TV World Series broadcasts), or those who may have wondered about possible historical foundations for Tim Wendel's recent fanciful novel Castro's Curveball, Bjarkman's article is perhaps well worth once more revisiting (it also appears in revised form as Chapter 9 of A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006).