The Pitcher and the Dictator: Satchel Paige’s Unlikely Season in the Dominican Republic by Averell “Ace” Smith (review)

In recent years Alan M. Klein, Rob Ruck, and April Yoder have published comprehensive accounts of the history of baseball in the Dominican Republic that assess dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo’s (1930–1961) role in promoting the sport’s growth on the island. In The Pitcher and the Dictator, Smith focuses on one episode from the Trujillo era—the 1937 “Re- election of President Trujillo Tournament”—when the dictator ordered island businessmen with money and political power to offer large salaries to a number of star players in the United States Negro League to entice them to play in the Dominican Republic for just this single season. Basing his account on Satchel Paige’s two autobiographies and the “official” Dominican newspaper, Listín diario, Smith adds little to what has already been written concerning Trujillo. The book’s greatest value lies in his emphasis on the importance of the Negro Baseball Leagues in the United States before 1940 and his descriptions of the stark contrast in race relations between the island and the mainland.

After coming to power in 1930, Trujillo encouraged sugar refineries to create teams of cane-cutting laborers to play baseball during the idle months of cultivation. Fostering a high level of competition, this organizational structure continued to mature, stimulating growth in the popularity of the game. By 1937 the dictator was determined that the team representing the capital city, “Los Dragones of Ciudad Trujillo,” should win the annual tournament. To insure success, he hired Satchel Paige, the star pitcher of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and five other U.S. players to fill the Los Dragones roster. In their initial games, the all-star team failed to live up to expectations. Reveling in life without the shadow of segregation, the Americans spent their nights carousing and their days losing close games to their rivals, who were also stocked with great players. To restore discipline, Trujillo appointed Dr. José Enrique Aybar as the team’s managing director and Miguel Ángel Paulino, the leader of his death squads, to organize and discipline the players. Paulino’s men followed the Americans everywhere and placed bars and nightclubs off limits. Forced to practice seriously, the Dragones rallied and won the tournament with Paige pitching the final game. At that point, their guards disappeared, and the players could celebrate before quickly returning to the United States.

Although the quality of play during the tournament was the finest seen on the Island, the season’s aftermath was disastrous. First, in October 1937 Trujillo provoked an international incident by ordering the massacre of thousands of Haitians, many of whom had been living and working on the Dominican side of Hispaniola for years. Second, once the visiting Negro Leaguers departed, the Dominican pro game collapsed. The salaries paid to the Americans exhausted the finances of owners of the Dominican teams, and baseball was reduced to amateur competitions at local level until the 1950s. Finally, on their return to the U.S., players who had broken contracts to play for Trujillo were banned by their former teams. For the remainder of 1937 they barnstormed across America as the Ciudad Trujillo All-Stars, wearing their Dominican uniforms.

Along with his rather disjointed biography of Paige’s career, Smith emphasizes the high quality of Negro League baseball in the 1930s, emphasizing that it was “fast, brash, and flash” and featured speed, aggressiveness, flamboyance and a sense of humor (57). The black players scorned the conservative play that characterized the all-white Major Leagues. For example, Negro League first baseman Dave “Showboat” Thomas was famous for routinely catching throws behind his back, and pitcher Paige featured a dizzying array of windups and deliveries. On a less positive note, most Negro League team owners used proceeds from the numbers racket to underwrite their franchises and paid their players salaries considerably lower than those earned by white...