Kill the Ámpaya! The Best Latin American Baseball Fiction

Dick Cluster, the editor and translator of this collection, is the co-author of History of Havana (Palgrave, 2006). He is also the author of the novels Return to Sender, Repulse Monkey and Obligations of the Bone and the author of nonfiction books including They Should Have That Cup of Coffee and Shrinking Dollars, Vanishing Jobs. He is the translator of Cuban literature including such works as Mylene Fernandez Pintado, A Corner of the World (City Lights, 2014) and Pedro de Jesus, Frigid Tales (City Lights, 2002). Cluster taught courses on Cuban history, culture and politics at the University of Massachusetts at Boston where he was Associate Director of the University Honors Program. He lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

• Introduction ...4 Eduardo del Llano, Swimming Upstream ...29 Sandra Tavarez, Sacrifice ...39 Sergio Ramirez, Apparition in the Brick Factory ...42 Carmen Hernandez Pena, End of the Game ...55 Rodrigo Blanco Calderon, The Last Voyage of Arcaya the Shark ...63 Arturo Arango, The Stadium ...79 Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro, Braces ...90 Alexis Gomez Rosa, The Real Thing ...96 Leonardo Padura, The Wall ...105 Nan Chevalier, Winners and Losers ...117 Jose Bobadilla, The Strange Game of the Men in Blue ...128 Rafael Acevedo, Clock Reaches the Emperor's Citadel ...146 Salvador Flejan, Big Leagues ...151 Daniel Reyes German, How Tomboy Maria Learned She Could Fly ...164 Andres Eloy Blanco, The Glory of Mamporal ...176 Cezanne Cardona, An Infamous Home Run ...186 Marcial Gala, The Pitcher ...197 Vicente Lenero, Aut At Third ...202 Further Reading ...209 Acknowledgments ...211

"A revelation! Baseball fans know how much passion and skill Latin American players bring to the game. Now, thanks to Kill the Ampaya!, we learn that the same flair is on display in Latin American baseball literature. To quote one of the many great lines in these fascinating stories --'This jonron is for you'."--Peter Abrahams, The New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five books including Down the Rabbit Hole, Behind the Curtain, Reality Check, A Perfect Crime, Pressure Drop, and The Fan. "These are stories we have lived ... Some are funny, some cruel or violent, but in the end they are part of our culture that makes us act the way we do. They make me think of the millions of stories that got lost behind us."--Omar Vizquel, from Venezuela, one of baseball's all-time best fielding shortstops who played for the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, and the San Francisco Giants. "Baseball is in the soul of millions in Puerto Rico and the other countries that play the game with a Latino flair. 1hese stories are portraits of its place in our lives."--Benjie Molina, from Puerto Rico, former catcher for the Los Angeles Angels, Toronto Blue Jays and the San Francisco Giants. "It's time we recognized that Latin America is the soul of baseball, and 'Kill the Ampaya' takes us straight to the heart of that soul."-- Scott Ostler, sportswriter, San Francisco Chronicle