Roberto Clemente, Minnie Minoso, Orlando Cepeda, Miguel Tejada and José Santana. These men are the immortals, the pioneers, the famous, the soon-to-be famous and the forgotten ones. They know that home is everything—home is the barrio where they improvised baseball on unpaved streets and sandlots; home is home plate where the batter stands waiting for the next pitch, where runs are scored and games are won; and home is the magical ballparks of major league baseball where they dream to play. Villegas’ wonderful full-color photographs, with Breton’s companion bilingual text, reveal the essence of the Latino ballplayers’ journey: the struggles, dis-appointments and the sometimes enormous successes. The book features the journey of Miguel Tejada, All-Star shortstop for the Oakland Athletics, from his barrio in the Dominican Republic through his 2002 breakout year. The photographs let us witness the barrios where the dreaming begins, the young dreamers who will never leave their home, the major league facilities where young players learn English and gringo baseball, the forgotten players playing semi-pro in the Bronx and keeping their dreams alive, Latinos struggling through the foreign world of the minor leagues, the major leaguers and the immortals.
Preface by Orlando "the Baby Bull" Cepeda from Ponce, Puerto Rico. Lifetime .297 batting average, 379 homeruns, MVP 1967 with the Cardinals, Hall of Fame 1999.
José Luis Villegas is a long-time sports photographer and contributor to Edward James Olmos’ photo-anthology Americanos. With Marcos Bretón, he received the Alicia Patterson Fellowship for their collaboration on Latino baseball, culminating with Away Games: The Life and Times of a Latin Ballplayer (Simon & Schuster, 1999). Bretón collaborated with Chicago Cubs star Sammy Sosa on Sosa: An Autobiography (Warner Books, 2000). Bretón also contributed to the Subway Series Reader (Simon & Schuster, 2000). Villegas and Bretón live in Sacramento where they work for the Sacramento Bee.
How beautiful that this book comes along now, in this time of opportunity for Latino ballplayers. I feel proud of their achievements and proud of my contribution. [This] is our story, it’s my story. It’s the story of our home. ORLANDO CEPEDA, Hall of Fame, 1999
Success in the Major Leagues is difficult to achieve under the best of circumstances, but in HOME IS EVERYTHING Jose Luis Villegas and Marcos Breton convincingly portray the additional difficulty faced by Latino players who have had to overcome barriers of language, culture and prejudice. While many players have succeeded despite these barriers, others have not. HOME IS EVERYTHING chronicles the journey which many Latino players take to escape poverty and adversity and to play in the "Grandes Ligas." SANDY ALDERSON, Executive VP Baseball Operations, Major League Baseball
