Friday, February 13, 2015

What baseball team is mentioned in the Old Man and the Sea?

Santiago mentions the New York Yankees of the American League; however, he also alludes to a couple of other teams.


The old fisherman, Santiago, who has gone without catching anything for eighty-four days, is in a dire situation. If it were not for the little boy named Manolin, who steals or begs to be sure that Santiago has food and bait, the old man probably would have died. 
When Manolin brings his old friend food, they eat together and the boy asks Santiago to tell him about baseball. Santiago's favorite player is the legendary Joe (Jolti' Joe) DiMaggio of the New York Yankees. Santiago admires DiMaggio for his athletic ability, of course, but also for the player's ability to endure great pain from heel spurs and a shoulder that sometimes pops out of its socket. He exemplifies the "grace under pressure" of the code hero, and Santiago has great respect for him because he, too, possesses these qualities of the code hero.


As the old man and Manolin talk baseball in the exposition of the novella, Santiago also alludes to Dick Sisler. (While Sisler was in Havana he and author Ernest Hemingway became good friends.) Sisler played first base for the St. Louis Cardinals, then he went to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Still another team alluded to is the Brooklyn Dodgers, and another player is John J. McGraw, star third-baseball of the Baltimore Orioles, one of the first baseball stars, and, later, the famous manager of the New York Giants. He also came to Cuba where he enjoyed betting on the horse races.

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