Fogartyville to Host Cuban Baseball Historian Peter Bjarkman

SARASOTA – On Sunday, Dec. 6, Fogartyville Community Media and Arts Center will host Cuban baseball historian and author Peter Bjarkman, to talk about his upcoming book, Cuba's Baseball Defectors: The Inside Story.

Bjarkman's book describes the recent mass exodus of many of the island's most talented players to a land of multi-million dollar contracts and unfathomable fame, and analyzes the effects that President Obama's recent diplomatic renewals with Cuba will have on that country.

According to a press release on the event, "Neither Obama’s efforts at ending a Cuba-USA Cold Ward stalemate nor Cuba’s baseball defector story itself have been carefully (or even accurately) reported by mainstream American media or well understood by a North American public. Enthusiasm has trumped reality on both counts." Bjarkman's book goes into detail explaning why, and also talks about how the Cuban baseball exodus has ill effects for both the U.S. and Cuba.

Peter Bjarkman has written more than 40 books on sports history, and has written extensively about the history of Cuban League baseball that took place following the Castro revolution. He is widely considered a leading authority on Cuban baseball history.