Just Call Me Minnie: My Six Decades in Baseball

One of Minoso's claims to fame is having played professional baseball for six decades until 1993, a record; another is having been one of the pioneer Latin American players--especially beloved among black Latinos--in U.S. ball. He has spent most of his career with the Chicago White Sox as player, coach and currently roving goodwill ambassador, but he also served in the pre-integration Negro Leagues with the Cleveland Indians and, when his major league years ended, in Mexico. As a strongly anti-communist Cuban, he severed his ties with his native land in 1961 after his property there was expropriated, but he helped many members of his family emigrate to America. Assisted by Fagen ( The Lost Loves of Autumn ) he gives readers an appealing portrait of a good man with a strong work ethic and deep sense of loyalty. Whether his book will sell well outside Chicagoland is questionable, though. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)