Havana Heat

by Darryl Brock

During the golden age of baseball, thirty-six-year-old Luther Taylor, a legendary deaf pitcher, struggles to get his arm back into fighting shape after an injury and gets his chance to rejoin the majors on a barnstorming trip to Cuba. Reprint.

Genres: Baseball, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Sports

320 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2000

Reviews

[MacK · Rating 3 out of 5]

At the risk of making a broad, unprovable generalization, I would say that there are two kinds of baseball nerds: one fixates on the numbers, analyzing statistics, records and quantifying good, better and best. The other fixates on the words, the language, the stories and the histories qualifying excellence through anecdotes and legacies. I am very much the second kind of nerd, which is why I love baseball literature of all genres, lengths and reputations.

Darryl Brock is clearly a nerd like me. Brock has a tremendous fondness for baseball's past and relishes the opportunity to show average fans and readers alike the way things used to be before the business overwhelmed the game. Reflecting on the old days of barnstormers, roughnecks and segregated teams, his love of the individual personalities of old school ballplayers shines through. As if to increase the degree of difficulty, his narrator for Havana Heat is Luther "Dummy" Taylor, one of the great deaf and mute players from the early 20th century. Once you adjust your expectations as a reader, Taylor becomes a strong protagonist, and cunningly guides the audience through the complex personalities and relationships of John McGraw's mighty New York Giants.

But while Taylor and his fellow sepia-toned heroes Christy Matthewson, "Turkey" Mike Donlin and Buck Herzog come across in vivid detail, the Cuban setting and other parts of the era are harder to grasp. Brock brings up ample research to paint the picture of life in that time and place, but at a certain point it seems as though Brock avoids adjectives and descriptions in favor of random factoids. That research is impressive, but ultimately leaves a large part of the story seeming bland and disconnected from the plot or characters.

Being a wordy baseball nerd means I love the ways that stories and anecdotes pop off the page and appreciate the people and places that helped make the game what it is today. Brock is clearly a nerd like me, but Havana Heat only conveys the people while leaving the time and place harder to fathom.

[Maureen Grigsby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novel about baseball in 1911. The New York Giants team in Cuba and a deaf baseball player named Luther Taylor. Baseball historical fiction!

[Lisa Roberts]

Bookmarks Magazine reader rec

[Chip Rickard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great book by Darryl Brock. He really makes all the characters come to life in the book. If I hadn't read his afterword, I would have sworn he went to Cuba and researched everything. I also liked how he brought up Sam Fowler from If I Never Get Back. I thought he might have McGraw offer Taylor a spot on the Giants the next year in exchange for throwing the game with the kids. I was pleased he didn't resort to that trope.

[Trumpers Are Idiots · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t stress enough how good this book is.
A deaf pitcher on the NY Giants, looking for one more chance, travels to Cuba with the team and ends up coaching a group of teens who have a pitcher that is deaf just like him.

As someone who is missing a significant amount of hearing, I found myself wrapped up in this book. The story is inspiring and bittersweet.

Highly recommended.
Mr. Brock needs to write more. His other two books are also wonderful baseball stories.

[Drtaxsacto · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was originally recommended in the book read earlier in the year by John Sexton, who taught a course on Baseball as a way to God at NYU. It is the fictional story of Luther (Dummy) Taylor a deaf right handed pitcher for the Giants who was a contemporary of Christy Mathewson and his attempt to get back to the bigs late in his career.

Taylor was a real major league player who spent about six seasons with the McGraw teams of the Giants. The book goes through the early stages of his career but the really important part of the story is a trip to Cuba - where he is trying to convince the legendary manager that he deserves another trip to the majors. He wangles his way on to the trip and in the course of a series of exhibition games with two Havana teams meets a priest who has a group of deaf boys including one who is a pitcher with a lot of potential. Eventually, McGraw sends Taylor to scout the deaf pitcher (A pitcher is a lanzador in Spanish). He finds the kid has real stuff and through a series of maneuvers gets a group of kid all stars to play an exhibition game against the Giants. Brock's description of the game is superb. The book is worth the read simply for that part of the book.

Brock weaves a good story in the genre of any other writer of historical fiction. He has a talent for detail and narrative.

[Swan Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

narrated by Tom Parker 9 hours 8 minutes A rewarding slice of baseball and American history from the author of If I Never Get Back.
Shea and I enjoyed listening to the audio version of this book.
Dummy Taylor was a good man at war with himself and the choices he made and these are good lessons for a growing boy to experience through the eyes and ears of fiction and the sport he loves. This story also touched on the racism in Cuba and the States and the fact that the deaf Cuban boy was a phenomenal pitcher and had a place in baseball's future until it was discovered his father was Black. This was another good lesson for Shea to experience in American and World history. How these attitudes existed then and now and how devastating the effects of them can be.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fictionalized story of Dummy Taylor, a deaf pitcher from the early 1900's who pitched for the New York Giants. The characters are, for the most part, actual players and personalities from that era. Taylor is trying to make a comeback with the Giants after arm troubles forced him out of the game. He gains a spot on the traveling team that goes to Cuba for an exhibition series, leaving his frustrated wife behind, and finds more than just a little adventure on and off the field.

[Ed Quigley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for decent historical fiction baseball book and this is a decent one. It can't compare to Mr. Brock's first novel If I Never Get Back but that might be because that novel is one of my all-time favorites. This book takes a unique interesting and real life person as its protagonist and puts him in a "fictional?" setting. Ok, the lines between fact and fiction are blurred but it's a fun read.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yet another terrific baseball novel by Darryl Brock. An historical novel that captures the look and feel of baseball in the early part of the twentieth century, and has the added wrinkle of involving Cuba and a main character who does not hear or speak. Currently out of print, regrettably.

[Paige · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know nothing about the Cuban culture and this was really interesting, as well as fun.

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great Summer novel for baseball fans. Well written and exciting. Gives you a glimpse of Major League baseball and Cuba in the early 1900's.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good slice of life weaving real people with fictious and fictional story. Darryl Brock does a great job weaving a story of love, hope and sadness in the complex world of baseball.

[Kevin Bachovchin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book about the early days of baseball.

[Johnny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was AWESOME. I LOVED it. Will definitely read again, and am going to read Darryl Brock's other books.