Author Pete Bjarkman in Havana (November 2008)
(Palabras dedicadas al autor Peter Bjarkman) Me conoces y sabes que soy ajeno a los elogios demasiado pomposos, alérgico a la adulonería, pero en un dia tan especial como hoy, no exagero al afirmar que si de los no nacidos en esta bendita tierra, Colón fue nuestro primer descubridor y Humbolt fue el segundo …, tu por tu amor sin limites a este deporte “importado” que enloquece a los nacidos aca, por tu prolífica, enorme y excelente obra sobre el Béisbol Cubano, te has ganado el título de nuestra tercer descubridor!—Jesús Suarez Valmaña, Periodista Cubana (Special tribute on occasion of the author's 66th birthday celebration in Havana, May 19, 2007)
Bjarkman, Donald Duarte and Yovany Peraza (r) at Pinar del Río restaurant (November 2008)
I discovered the hidden universe of Cuban League baseball in February 1997, during my first research trip to the communist island with Mark Rucker. It couldn't have come at a better time, since I like so many traditional fans had become by the mid-nineties quite jaded about a major league baseball world cheapened by noisy spectacle, greedy players, and profit-minded club owners. Increasingly distasteful was the MLB fare of disconnected and overprice superstar celebrities, supermall stadiums, and a big league game filled with the din of rock music and endless commercialism. Suddenly opened before me in February 1997 was a new baseball universe which retained all the cherished pastoral pleasures, childlike-enthusiasms, intimate ballparks and raw excitement of the game that Americans had once celebrated a half-century ago. American professional baseball is a staged entertainment spectacle (truly a circus) while Cuban baseball remains an untarnished game.
For the past decade I have become a relentless convert to the world of Cuban League baseball. It is indeed a unique universe in which all the ballclubs represent geographinal regions, ballplayers remain afixed to their native province clubs and are never traded, all players receive equivalent salaries, and the athletes truly play for love of the sport and not for economic reward. My ten years of travel in Cuba have taken me to all the island's league ballparks and to more than one hundred Cuban League games; I have followed the Cuban national team to dozens of international tournament games (most recently the World Cup in Rotterdam and the World Baseball Classic in San Juan and San Diego); and I have had the rare opportunity to make numerous media appearances in Cuba commenting on the island's cherished national pastime. In February 2001 my extensive studio interview on Cubavision with commentator Carlos Hernández Luján represented an historic first-ever appearance of an American on Cuban national television to comment "live" on Cuban League baseball.
Bjarkman with favorite ballplayer and close friend Freddie Cepeda in Havana (February 2007)
Bjarkman's Trips to Cuba and to International Baseball Tournaments with Cuban National Teams
July 2010 (Haarlem Baseball Week, Netherlands)
February 2010 (Havana and Sancti Spíritus)
September 2009 (World Cup XXXIX, Spain, Netherlands, Italy)
May 2009 (Cuba League post-season playoffs)
March 2009 (WBC II, Mexico City, San Diego and Los Angeles)
November 2008 (Havana, Sancti Spíritus and Pinar del Río)
July 2008 (Haarlem Honkbal Week, Netherlands)
June 2008 (José Huelga Memorial Tournament, Havana)
February-March 2008 (Havana and Sancti Spíritus)
November 2007 (Havana)
August 2007 (World Port Tournament, Rotterdam)
May 2007 (Havana and Matanzas)
March 2007 (Havana)
February 2007 (Caribbean Series, San Juan)
September 2006 (Americas Pre-Olympic Tournament, Havana)
May 2006 (Havana)
March 2006 (World Baseball Classic I, San Juan and San Diego)
November 2005 (Havana)
September 2005 (World Cup #36, Netherlands)
August 2005 (Havana)
April 2005 (Havana)
January 2005 (Havana)
October-November 2004 (Havana)
July-August 2004 (Havana)
April 2004 (Havana and Mañalich Sugar Mills)
October 2003 (World Cup #35, Havana)
May 2003 (Havana)
February 2003 (Havana and Mañalich Sugar Mills)
October 2002 (Havana)
June 2002 (Havana)
February 2002 (Havana and Matanzas)
December 2001 (Havana)
October 2001 (Havana)
February 2001 (Havana, Pinar del Río and Cienfuegos)
January 2000 ("Writers of America" Workshop, Havana)
December 1999 (Havana)
July 1999 (Pan American Games, Winnipeg)
January 1999 (Havana and Cienfuegos)
December 1997 (Cuba island-wide tour from Havana to Santiago)
February 1997 (Havana and Pinar del Río)
July-August 1996 (Olympic Games, Atlanta)
Author with Cuban Radio COCO baseball buddies in San José de Las Lajas, Cuba (November 2007)
Radio COCO baseball crew (from left, Yasel Porto, Ismael Sené, Jeli Valmaña, and Pete Bjarkman)
Author with the Radio COCO broadcast crew in Cotorro, Cuba (November 2008)
