Wenceslao Gálvez y Delmonte, First Sports Writer in Cuba
We are already at the Book Fair, always welcome, in Matanzas. I am going to recall the first book dedicated to sports, published in Cuba, which bears the signature of a Yumurino, Wenceslao Gálvez y Delmonte, whose work is little disseminated.
The book, with the extensive title El béisbol en Cuba. Historia del béisbol en la Isla de Cuba, sin retratos de los principales jugadores y personas más caracterizadas en el juego citado, ni de ninguna otra, published in 1889 by the Imprenta Mercantil de los Herederos de Santiago S. Spencer in Havana, had wide repercussion in the 19th century and has remained a jewel of sports literature in our country.
In a letter addressed to Gálvez, Dr. Benjamín de Céspedes (in the prologue) praises the work and considers it «full of sporting wisdom, describing gracefully the adventures, incidents, and events of these recreations, because if yesterday, as a retired player, today as an umpire, and always as a chronicler of your festive action on the ballfields, you have well established the fame of a skillful authority and teacher; now, those who read your book (I know that in the technique and practice of the game you have few rivals), as for the naturalness in wit and the elegance of style, you are inimitable.»
As a tribute to this former player, also a member of the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame — since he was a standout shortstop for the Almendares team in the Cuban Professional League — we remember him during these book days and present part of the first chapter of his work, dedicated to baseball:
«The baseball grounds in Cuba will disappear after the cockfighting rings and the bullring, because it has taken root in this land in a firm way, as proven by the hundreds of clubs constantly organized in almost all parts of the Island.
«Our youth dedicates itself to practicing this exercise with perseverance, and the game, gratefully, returns to them health and skill, while at the same time tempering their spirit for the struggle.
«I don’t understand,» a gray-haired gentleman told me, «how you ballplayers, some already with mustaches, spend the day hitting it with a stick.»
«I can explain it to you,» I replied disrespectfully. «You, who have seen, not only with mustaches but even with graying hair, on festive days, excitedly watching cockfights, where the fate of slaves depended on their spurs, and who have also seen them surprised by dawn while surrounding the gambling table, cannot easily understand that youth abandons the arenas and attends ball games without forgetting card games, which are almost impossible to discard.»
«That ball game that seems childish to you is a gymnasium superior to others. It is practiced outdoors, and that is its first advantage. The bat and ball are not those pulleys and bars of gymnasiums that are lifted a determined number of times with no other mediate or immediate object than developing muscles.»
«Each baseball exercise, while invigorating the body, sharpens the understanding….»
«But what nonsense! I am talking about baseball as if the reader, however little a fan, could not explain it better to me.»
«The game is so well known in Cuba that even its terms have been Hispanized, and thus we have the regular verbs ‘pichar,’ ‘quechar,’ etc., which street players continuously conjugate.»
