Overview
Though Venezuela is sandwiched between two soccer-mad countries--Brazil and Colombia--baseball is its national pastime and passion. Yet until the late 1980s few professional teams actively scouted and developed players there. This book is about the man who changed all that and brought Venezuela into Major League Baseball in a major way. While other teams were looking to the Dominican Republic for new talent, Houston Astros scout Andres Reiner saw an untapped niche in Venezuela. Venezuelan Bust, Baseball Boom recounts how, over the next fifteen years, Reiner signed nearly one hundred players, nineteen of whom reached the Majors. The stories of these players--among them Bobby Abreu, Johan Santana, Melvin Mora, Carlos Guillen, and Freddy Garcia--are interwoven with Reiner's own, together creating a fascinating portrait of a curious character in the annals of sports and a richly textured picture of the opening of Venezuela as baseball's new frontier.Countless interviews broaden and deepen the story's insights into how the scouting system works, how Reiner worked within it, and how his efforts have affected the sport of baseball in Venezuela and the significance of Venezuela in the world of Major League Baseball.
Full Product Details
Author: Milton H. Jamail
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Imprint: University of Nebraska Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.386kg
ISBN: 9780803215719
ISBN 10: 0803215711
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 01 April 2008
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Out of stock
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.
Reviews
If you know nothing about Andres Reiner--and chances are you don't--know this: Without him, the best left-handed pitcher in baseball today would probably still be hidden high in the Venezuelan Andes. . . . It's appropriate, then, that Milton H. Jamail's long-overdue study . . . has Reiner not only in its title, but at its core as well. --Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times --Kevin Baxter Los Angeles Times
The story of Andrs Reiner, a latter-day Branch Rickey tirelessly seeking to unravel the mysteries of baseball scouting and development, is an absorbing and important tale. Milton Jamail exhibits the same exemplary attributes of his subject: passion, compassion, intelligence and humor, and provides great insight into Hispanic culture. Venezuelan Bust, Baseball Boom is a masterful addition to baseball literature about the least understood and most vital aspect of building winning baseball organizations. -Lee Lowenfish, author of Branch Rickey: Baseball''s Ferocious Gentleman
Author Information
Milton H. Jamail is the author of Full Count: Inside Cuban Baseball. He has written on Latin American baseball for Baseball America, USA Today Sports Weekly, the Washington Post, Texas Monthly, and the Houston Chronicle.
