Smoke: The Romance and Lore of Cuban Baseball

Exploring the history and variety of Cuban baseball, a unique exploration of this "last frontier" of American sport uses photographs, statistics, and baseball lore to trace the sport's history, from its origins in the 1970s to the current American love affair with their version of the game. 25,000 first printing.

Along with photo archivist and designer Mark Rucker, Peter Bjarkman made three trips to Cuba to gather material for Smoke, a lavish and poignant panorama of the island's national passion from its 19th-century origins to the 1999 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Smoke reproduces hundreds of exquisite photographs, trading cards, handbills and other visual artifacts going back to the days when Cuban ballplayers, like their counterparts to the north, struck stony poses with handlebar mustaches and hightop shoes.

"A lot of the stuff was literally crumbling in his hands," Bjarkman says of Rucker's adventures in purchasing and copying memorabilia. "You see the cracks in some of these, and many of them have been greatly computer-enhanced. We have tried to create a pictorial record that's going to last."

Bjarkman and Rucker both hope Smoke will do more than help solidify Cuba's colorful baseball past. They'd like to contribute to its future. -- Indianapolis Star