Cuba Loves Baseball

According to the New York Times, Cuba is at an historic turning point. As Cuba catches up with political and economic changes, baseball will inevitably catch up and change as well. In Cuba Loves Baseball, photographer Ira Block, who has spent the past three years photographing the culture of Cuba through baseball, has assembled more than one hundred images of baseball players of all ages. In doing so, Block helps to preserve baseball's enduring presence in Cuba. The colorful photos cover everything from grass roots baseball to the pro teams, from portraits of old-timers to children playing baseball in the streets, and from exuberant fans at stadiums to vendors selling traditional food before the games. Cuba Loves Baseball incorporates sport with culture in a country that has been "closed" for so many years. It makes the perfect gift for sports fans, people interested in Cuba and travel, men and women who played baseball as children in cities or rural areas, and parents who have children playing baseball now.

Ira Block is an internationally renowned documentary photographer, lecturer, and workshop leader who has produced more than thirty stories for the National Geographic magazine and its affiliates. His books include Backroads America and Saving America’s Treasures. His photographs have been exhibited in the United States, Japan, and Great Britain. Among his workshop destinations are Bhutan, Mongolia, Tibet, Laos, and Cuba. Block resides in New York City and attends baseball games whenever he has the chance.

“These unforgettable photographs remind us that baseball, in all its various forms, is Cuba’s national pastime—just as it is ours.” -Bob Costas
“Colors, culture, purity of an amazing game. As you look through the photos captured in this book, it tells the story of the game of baseball—but in a light that can only be seen in Cuba. There is a timelessness in the way the game is felt, loved, engrained into who they are that these photos so beautifully capture. And yet, in a way, the photos lend a contrast between how the game is captured in Cuba and how the game is captured here in the US.” -Jessica Mendoza, ESPN baseball analyst and Olympic Gold Medalist
“Both artistic and journalistic, Cuba Loves Baseball presents an insightful look at the sport from the streets to the major stadiums. Ira Block's photographs portray the close intertwining of the culture of Cuba and the sport. A masterful photographer, Block's volume is revealing and enjoyable on many levels.” -Kent Kobersteen, Former Director of Photography, National Geographic Magazine
“Ira Block’s photographs reminds me of playing baseball when I was a kid in Cuba. It brings back great memories.” -Luis Tiant, Former Boston Red Sox pitcher
“There is no social soil so stony that baseball cannot grow there. Ira Block has captured the compound of love and urgency that fuels Cuba’s astonishing role as an incubator of talent.” -George F. Will
"The colors are rich, [and] the framing is exquisite." -Tom Hoffarth, Farther Off the Wall