Bobby Maduro and the Cuban Sugar Kings

Bobby Maduro, who was often behind the scenes as a baseball player, receives his due in this new biography by experienced baseball writer Hernandez (Manager of Giants). The author describes Cuban native Maduro (1916–86) as a true visionary for his success in ushering minor league team the Havana Sugar Kings into the International League in 1954, the highest minor league classification in baseball. For six years, the Kings excited a city of passionate baseball fans before the Cuban Revolution and the rise of Fidel Castro brought an end to the team in the 1960s. Maduro was a promoter and owner who dreamed of a major league team in Havana but saw the virtual end of professional baseball in his country. Hernandez is at his best writing outside the individual games—the wild popularity of Cuban baseball, the country's politics after Castro, and Maduro's continued efforts to promote the game in the United States after leaving Cuba. The author bogs down when detailing specific play, but his efforts attest to Maduro's baseball legacy in Cuba and South Florida.