Remembering Al Lopez, Tampa’s Latin Jackie Robinson

Recently the family home of Al Lopez was uprooted and moved a short distance. In about a year it will open as the Tampa Baseball Hall of Fame. It is obviously appropriate the baseball history of Tampa would be housed in the Lopez home, and in Ybor City, a neighborhood just east of downtown Tampa, […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: Cuban Summer League

The historical Cuban League everyone knows about was played in the fall and winter months, and so is often referred to as the Cuban Winter League.  Almost nobody remembers that, in the first decade of the 20th century at least, there was a Cuban Summer League, too, the Premio de Verano, or Summer Championship.  The […]

Sweet or Oh So Sour

Black and white. Cut and dry. Or, in the case of aspiring baseball players from San Pedro de Macorís, red and blue. There is a wide disparity between those who reach the high levels of professional baseball and those who do not. That’s the setting we are exploring in Mark Kurlansky’s new book, “The Eastern […]