“Cuban Star” is the story of the life and times of lifetime baseball man and former “numbers” racketeer Alex Pompez, a Cuban-American who through this book is at long last getting his due credit for opening the gates to the Caribbean and Latin America to modern baseball.
↵It’s through those doors that many Dominican, Puerto Rican, Cuban and other Latino baseball players came in the 1940s, 50s and 60s, and continue to pass through on their way to organized baseball in the big leagues in the U.S.
↵Pompez scouted for the New York and San Francisco Giants and became international scouting director for the club, a pretty remarkable accomplishment for a person of color in that era. He helped the Giants land Negro League and Latin American stars like Marichal, the Alou brothers, Cepeda, Mays and McCovey. He was the owner of the New York Cubans, a successful Negro League franchise from Harlem.
↵You can read more about the book here. It’s a history of not just baseball but of a man who defeated racism and criticism to become a big part of baseball history, one few know about.