Long considered America's favorite pastime, baseball is also one of America's notable exports. In the 19th century, baseball took root in the Spanish-speaking nations of the Caribbean. In 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the American major league color barrier, there were 3 Latin players in the majors. In 2005, 44% of professional baseball players come from Spanish-speaking countries. While the latter fact is impressive, little has been cinematically produced to document the struggles endured by Latinos decades ago as they blazed trails followed by so many.

In Viva Baseball, filmmaker Dan Klores spotlights the magnificent history of Latinos in baseball generally and the major league in particular. From an original interview, New York Mets and former Boston Red Sox star Pedro Martinez introduces the documentary and appropriately sets the tone of the film with his acknowledgement of the difficulties that are a consequence of immigrating to a new nation to ply your trade. Moreover, Martinez insightfully declares his profound gratitude for the Latino ballplaying trailblazers. With palpable sincerity, Martinez states, "I owe those [players] and the legacy that they left for us."

Narrated by balladeer Marc Anthony and backed by a soundtrack of 30 songs, themes of race, culture, language and personal conflict structure the film that traces the Latin invasion of the American pastime from the 19th century until the present day. These themes are developed from rare archival footage and more than 100 hours of interviews with today's superstars David Ortiz, Alex Rodriquez, Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran and Miguel Tejada as well as renowned Latino members of Baseball's Hall of Fame - Rod Carew , Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, and Tony Perez, plus footage of the great Luis Aparacio. In addition, Viva Baseball features touching segments with the widow and children of the great Robert Clemente.

Richly satisfying and poignantly portrayed, Viva Baseball is well worth multiple viewings. M

September 2005