Website updated September 7, 2008
"Pete Bjarkman is the Peter Gammons and Bill James of Cuban baseball."
This website features current up-to-date information about the publications of Peter C. Bjarkman, prolific baseball and basketball historian, international traveler, and the leading authority on baseball's extensive history on the "forbidden" island of Cuba. Bjarkman is also a leading collector of Cuban League and Cuban National Team game-worn baseball jerseys.
Author Pete Bjarkman in Rotterdam's Neptunus Family Stadium with Cuban National Team manager Victor Mesa (World Port Tournament XI, Rotterdam, Netherlands, August 2007)
Bjarkman receiving the inaugural SABR Latino Committee "Eduardo Valero Memorial Award" for best La Prensa newsletter article published of 2007-08 (SABR National Convention, Cleveland, June 2008)
Bjarkman's MLB.com-sponsored "Latino and Cuban League Baseball History" Blog features topics of historical and contemporary interest for all fans of the Latin American winter leagues and of ballplayers of Latino heritage performing in the big leagues. All Latino baseball scenes are covered, but the focus is predominantly on Cuba and the Cuban National Team.
Read and respond to Peter C. Bjarkman's regular updates and editorials on Cuban League and Latino MLB baseball history on the author's own personalized BLOG at
MLB.com (the OFFICIAL website of Major League Baseball). The commentary is usually controversial and the Cuban baseball information is unavailable from any other English-language or American-based source. Get the latest inside scoops from "the Peter Gammons and Bill James of Cuban League and international baseball."
Haarlem Baseball Week with Freddie Cepeda (2008)
A native of Connecticut, 30-year resident of Lafayette (Indiana), and adopted son of Havana (Cuba), Bjarkman has been writing on baseball and basketball history since 1990. He was formerly a high school English teacher (Connecticut, Florida) and university professor of English and linguistics (Purdue University; University of Colorado, Boulder; Butler University; Ball State University; and George Mason University in Virginia). His 40-plus books and more than 150 articles and chapters cover international baseball, major league baseball, NBA and NCAA basketball, and sports biographies for young adult readers. For the past decade his primary focus as a writer and researcher has been on Cuban baseball, Latin American baseball, and international amateur baseball tournaments (especially the IBAF Baseball World Cup and Olympic baseball).
Bjarkman is married to Ronnie B. Wilbur, professor and head of linguistics at Purdue University and a leading authority on deaf sign languages. Professor Wilbur also currently maintains a Croatian Sign Language research laboratory at the deaf school in Zagreb, Croatia. Because of his wife's research commitments in the former Yugoslavia, Bjarkman has been traveling regularly to Croatia (Zagreb, Split, Zadar, Opatia, Dubrovnik and elsewhere along the Dalmatian coast) since 1998. During his regular stays in Croatia he has also made frequent visits to Austria, Slovenia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bosnia and Montenegro.
Dr. Bjarkman has made more than thirty visits to the island of Cuba since February 1997 to research Cuban baseball and has traversed all corners of the fascinating and isolated (for Americans) communist nation. He is widely known in Cuban baseball circles and has appeared frequently of Cuban radio and television as a guest commentator on island baseball history. In February 2003 he was honored by the Matanzas Sports Club with their "Special Certificate of Merit of the Palmar del Junco National Baseball Momument" in recognition of his book
Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball (written with Mark Rucker).
Bjarkman's work on Cuban baseball has achieved so much attention on the island that his portrait now hangs on the Honor Wall of Distinguished Guests in the downtown Hotel Telégrafo (Parque Central). His ground-breaking volume,
A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006 (2007), is the first American baseball book featured and promoted on two official Cuban League websites (Quick Links to
www.radiococo.cu and
www.baseballdecuba.com). Bjarkman's recent Cuban baseball history was also the first American baseball title to be subject of a feature story in the mainstream Cuban press (
Juventud Rebelde, June 13, 2007).
Relaxing evening on Croatia's Dalmatian coast (June 2006)
Over the past dozen-plus years, Bjarkman's books have also received all the following recognitions, honors and awards:
A History of Cuban Baseball, 1864-2006 ranked as the best-selling McFarland baseball title for the months of February and March 2007 and was recipient of the 2007 SABR Robert Peterson Recogition Award for increasing public awareness of Negro league baseball
2005 Finalist for the Spitball magazine CASEY Award (Best Baseball Book of the Year) for Diamonds around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball
2004 Winner of The Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award for Diamonds around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball
2000 Finalist for the SABR-SEYMOUR MEDAL (for Best Baseball Book of the Year) for Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball
1999 Finalist for the Spitball magazine CASEY Award (Best Baseball Book of the Year) for Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball
1994 Winner of the Macmillan-SABR Baseball Research Award for Baseball with a Latin Beat: A History of the Latin American Game
Bjarkman has also made frequent U.S. television and film appearances as an interviewee on various video documentaries, including the recent MLB Productions DVD releases entitled "The World Baseball Classic: The Movie" (2006) and "Béisbol: The Latin Game" (2007), as well as numerous segment editions of "ESPN Sports Century" (John Wooden, Johnny Bench, Sparky Anderson, Red Auerbach and Bevo Francis installments) and "ESPN Outside the Lines Nightly" (most recently February 28, 2006, to discuss Cuba's entry in the World Baseball Classic). He was also featured in the PBS documentary entitled "Greener Grass: Cuba, Baseball and the United States" (aired June 2000) and the video entitled "The Big O, The Oscar Robertson Story" (released November 2001).
In addition to his baseball writing, Bjarkman is currently working on a book (for McFarland Publishers) portraying modern-day Cuba as he has experienced it during his dozen years of extensive travels around the island and numerous lengthy stays in the historic city of Havana. The so-far untitled volume is projected for possible 2009 or 2010 publication.
Office "away from home" in San Juan's Roberto Clemente Walker Stadium
Any personal correspondence addressed to the author, or any inquiries about personal appearances, should be sent to:
Peter C. Bjarkman
P.O. Box 2199
West Lafayette, IN 47996-2199
USA
email address:
bjarkman@mindspring.com
Office phone: 765-449-4221
Cellular phone: 765-491-8351
Guanabacoa, Cuba (December 1999)
