Peter Bjarkman . He was a prominent American baseball writer and historian.
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Works
- 2 Death
- 2 Awards
- 3 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He was born on 19 as maypole as 1941 in Hartford, Connecticut, United States .
University professor of English and Linguistics being his last position at Illinois State University, Chicago, before dedicating himself to his great passion, baseball.
Plays
He wrote more than 40 books on baseball, including the Encyclopedia of International Baseball, in addition to numerous articles, essays, biographies of memorable Adolfo Luque, Martín Dihigo and Conrado Marrero, interviews, not a few on the practice of baseball in Cuba.
After visiting Cuba in 1997 and falling in love with the national pastime that he called “pristine baseball” (clean ball, without contamination), he wrote the illustrated work ” Smoke – The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball ” together with photographer Mark Rucker .
From that moment he became a prolific researcher and writer on this discipline in Cuba.
After his arrival in Cuba in 2018, he commented that in January 2019 he would present his most recent work: “ Baseball and Fidel Castro – The Untold Story ”, in which he would tell about the love for the ball of the historical leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, and how he contributed to the development of sport in Cuba.
For that book, he won the 2017 Henry Chadwick Award conferred by the SABR.
He wrote his memoirs on the fields, stadiums, trips with Cuban teams and his multiple encounters with players, which was tentatively titled ” The Yankee in Cuba’s Dugout: Travels Inside Fidel Castro Baseball Empire .”
Death
He died suddenly in Havana , Cuba , the 1 of October of 2018 , at age 77, after a tour with a group stadiums Cuba to enjoy what he was passionate, Cuban baseball.
Awards
For his works, various institutions conferred 14 awards, the most recent two were the Bob Davids distinction and the prestigious Henry Chadwick 2017 award, awarded by the American Society of Baseball Researchers (SABR).
