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SMOKE—The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball (with Mark Rucker)
Bjarkman (center) and Rucker (left) present copy of Smoke to 101-year-old Gregorio (the captain of Hemingway's yacht "Pilar") in Cojimar, Cuba (December 1999) Finalist for 1999 CASEY-SPITBALL Award and 2000 SABR-SEYMOUR Medal, for best baseball book of 1999 Award winning pictorial history of Cuban baseball produced by photographer Mark Rucker and author/historian Peter Bjarkman, covering the full range of nineteenth and twentieth-century Cuban baseball in spectacular coffee table volume format. A visual treat and one of the most strinking pictorial baseball books ever produced. Shrouded in mystery for decades, Cuban baseball has become the final frontier for fans of the sport in North America. An unprecedented collection of photographs, statistics, and lore, SMOKE explores the depth and range of the island's baseball heritage—from its origins in the 1860s, to Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb's barnstorming tours, to Fidel Castro and the Cold War that closed off access, to Orlando "El Duque" Hernández of the world champion 1998 Yankees. The combined efforts of Latin baseball's leading historian Bjarkman) and the recognized authority on baseball images (Rucker) provide an exciting reading and viewing experience, bringing to life a rich baseball culture that has heretofore remained largely hidden from our view. Reviewers' praise for Smoke—The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball: "However valuable the text, this volume is also a visual treat, one of those rare publications that belong on both the bookshelf and the coffee table."—Joseph L. Arbena, Harold Seymour website (www.haroldseymour.com) "... SMOKE is visual, visceral energy ... Rarely does a baseball book offer so much new information to a new audience (American fans) in such superb fashion."—Sports Collectors Digest (January 21, 2000) "Bjarkman's chronicle is a fan-friendly Cliff Notes version—brightly written and breezy but still managing to hit all the high points."—Kevin Baxter, The Los Angeles Times (September 23, 1999) "In contrast, Peter Bjarkman's lively Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball takes us back 125 years to the origins of the sport on the island. Though the book ... tills much of the same ground plowed months earlier by Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria's authoritative The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball, Bjarkman's writing is far more accessible—and enjoyable—than Gonzalez's dense, academic style."—Baseball America (April 17-30, 2000) 
Ballpark action at Camagüey's Candido González Stadium represents the kind of imagery captured in Bjarkman and Rucker's landmark volume Smoke—The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball 
Cuban baseball re-emerged in North American conscousness in 1999 with the Cuba-Orioles series and the publication of Rucker and Bjarkman's Smoke—The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball |
 
The "Palmar de Junco" National Monument Award presented to Bjarkman at Matanzas in honor of the contributions of SMOKE to Cuban baseball history (February 2002) 
The author's favorite promotional photo (November 1999) 
Photos of Bjarkman holding copy of SMOKE, which hang on the "Wall of Fame" in Havana's Telegrafo Hotel 
Rare copy of SMOKE displayed at a Plaza de Armas bookstall in Old Havana (top row right) 
Estéban Bellán, Cuba's first big leaguer in 1871 
Authors display copy of SMOKE in Guanabacoa, Cuba (December 1999) 
Hotel El Telegrafo 
Authors debate local faithful in Havana's Central Parque |