Havana Heat

Havana Heat is a novel published in 2000 by Darryl Brock.

Infobox Book
name = Havana Heat
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Original paperback cover of "Havana Heat"
author = Darryl Brock
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Baseball fiction novel
publisher = Total/Sports Illustrated
release_date = April 2000
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Audio
pages = 304pp (original hardcover)
isbn = ISBN 189212923X (original hardcover)
preceded_by =
followed_by =

Plot summary

The prologue begins in Olathe, Kansas, in April, 1958. Luther "Dummy" Taylor, an 83 year-old deaf and mute retired Giants player, is at the Kansas School for the Deaf. He is giving out the Luther Haden Taylor award, an award given in his name annually to an outstanding scholar-athlete. He begins to reminisce about his days playing baseball in Cuba, which leads into the start of the story.

In Baldwin, Kansas, 1911, Taylor, then a 37 year-old, meets with Monte Cromer, a sports journalist, to talk about new baseball prospects. During the conversation, Taylor tells Cromer that his previously strained arm has miraculously healed, and that he intends to play professional baseball once again. Taylor goes home to his wife, Della, and talks to her about playing baseball. She is against the idea, because it means he will always be on the road, leaving her at home alone. However, she tells him to try out, so he can get it out of his system. Taylor travels to Philadelphia to talk to John McGraw about joining the New York Giants.

He gets McGraw's attention after noticing the Philadelphia Athletics' mascot giving signs to the batters warning about what Giants' pitcher Christy Mathewson was going to throw. McGraw is unappreciative, and tells Taylor to go home, despite his arm being better. Taylor, however, follows the team to New York.

In New York, Taylor talks to Mathewson, who gives him the idea of playing baseball with the Giants when they travel to Cuba. Taylor asks McGraw about playing in Cuba, but McGraw nixes the idea. Taylor returns home. A few weeks later, though, he receives a telegram from McGraw, who tells him to come pitch at a game in Miami, Florida, due to Mathewson's insistence. If he pitches a good game, he will be allowed to play in Cuba with the Giants. Taylor will have to finance half of his trip, with McGraw paying the other half. After performing well, Taylor is permitted to travel with the Giants to play in Cuba.

The Giants lose the first few games to both Cuban teams. The Giants begin to win after the Cubans lose their star pitcher, Mendez, who gets his fingers broken in a bar fight with Taylor and his friend "Turkey" Mike Donlin.

After a game that ends in a Giants victory, the head of Cuba's school for the deaf, Father Cipriano, asks Taylor to come look at a student of his who is showing promise. Taylor blows him off. Father Cipriano eventually goes to McGraw with the same request. McGraw then makes Taylor go scout Father Cipriano's player.

Taylor meets and becomes interested in Father Cipriano's student, a deaf and mute player named Luis, whose pitching arm is the best he has seen yet among the Cubans. He is also interested in a player named Nico (a non-deaf player), who is a talented hitter. Taylor sets up a game between local Cuban amateurs and the Giants, with the intent to show McGraw the talent of Luis and Nico. The Cuban team is so good that they begin to take the lead against the Giants, who cannot believe that they are losing to a group of amateur players. Towards the end of the game, Luis' grandfather, who has not been involved in Luis' life thus far, shows up. It is revealed that his grandfather is a black revolutionary. McGraw becomes furious that Luis is part black, because no major league team would be permitted to draft him.

McGraw signs Nico to the Giants. Taylor goes on to teach children in the United States how to play baseball. Luis becomes a star in Cuba for a while, though after his grandfather is murdered he disappears.

Characters

*Luther "Dummy" Taylor - A 37 year-old deaf-mute pitcher
*Della Taylor - Luther's wife
*Sim Taylor - Luther's brother
*John McGraw - Giants manager
*Turkey Mike Donlin - outfielder and old friend of Luther
*Luis - 19 year-old deaf pitcher
*Nico - Luis' rival
*Elias Serros - Luis' grandfather/rebel
*Father Cipriano - ran the School of the Deaf

Themes

*Nostalgia
*Father-son connection
*Superstitions
*Race
*Handicap

Relationship to Baseball

The book is based on a real deaf pitcher, Dummy Taylor. All of the major league players mentioned in the novel are all based on real ballplayers on the Giants at that time. Dummy played for the New York Giants from 1900 to 1908. There is no information that indicates that he played in Cuba at any time. Dummy did go on to coach at his alma mater, The Kansas School for the Deaf and two other school and was a major inspiration to all those around him. [http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&pid=14004&bid=987]

Reception

Havana Heat won the David Moore Award in 2000 for the "most important baseball book" published that year. This award is given out by the Elysian Fields Quarterly, a literary baseball journal. [http://www.efqreview.com/NewFiles/dm2000winner.html]