Books by Tim Wendel

In this visionary sequel to Castro's Curveball, former Minor League catcher Billy Bryan finds himself back in Havana in 2016 with a small film role. He soon realizes that this place and his past remain as star-crossed as when he played winter ball in the Cuban capital decades before.

From the author of High Heat, a compelling look at the 1968 baseball season- "The Year of the Pitcher"- when the game was played to perfection against the backdrop of one of the most divisive and turbulent years in American history.

Going as far back as the mid-nineteenth century, to the early days of Cuban baseball, Wendel traces the spread of American baseball fever in the Caribbean and Mexico; discusses lesser-known historical standouts, including Adolfo Luque and Martin Dihigo; and describes the days when only light-skinned Latinos wereallowed to participate in Major League competition as well as the linguistic barrier many Latinos faced when playing on teams with "English only" rules.Featuring interviews with Latino superstars past and present; a foreword by Bob Costas; the first-ever-published Latino All-Century Team, featuring players selected by Omar Minaya; and photos taken by award-winning Sports Illustrated photographer Victor Baldizon, The New Face of Baseball helps fans of America's favorite pastime to understand the history of those who bring hope and honor every season to the teams they have given their lives to, and the Hispanic culture that, if allowed, can lie hidden and unnoticed under a team jersey.

When Eric Wendel was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 1966, the survival rate was 10 percent. Today, it is 90 percent. Even as politicians call for a "e;Cancer Moonshot,"e; this accomplishment remains a pinnacle in cancer research.The author's daughter, then a medical student at Georgetown Medical School, told her father about this amazing success story. Tim Wendel soon discovered that many of the doctors at the forefront of this effort cared for his brother at Roswell Park in Buffalo, New York. Wendel went in search of this extraordinary group, interviewing Lucius Sinks, James Holland, Donald Pinkel, and others in the field. If there were a Mount Rushmore for cancer research, they would be on it.Despite being ostracized by their medical peers, these doctors developed modern-day chemotherapy practices and invented the blood centrifuge machine, helping thousands of children live longer lives. Part family memoir and part medical narrative, Cancer Crossings explores how the Wendel family found the courage to move ahead with their lives. They learned to sail on Lake Ontario, cruising across miles of open water together, even as the campaign against cancer changed their lives forever.

Widowed and retired, Billy Bryan is "coming to the end of many things." Then a long-forgotten scrapbook stirs memories of a distant past - and beckons him and his grown daughter on a reluctant journey to relive his role in history. In 1947, Bryan was playing winter ball in Cuba, his future as uncertain as the island country's.

The distance between Cuba and the United States: tantalizingly close yet worlds apart. When a beautiful showgirl married to Cuba's most famous baseball player escapes to the sea, only a boy and a boat and a belief in the "American Dream" keep her afloat. Planning to rendezvous with her husband after an exhibition game in El Norte, the showgirl risks everything only to discover that crossing the straits might be easier than spanning allegiances. Set against the backdrop of actual games played between the Cuba National Team and the Baltimore Orioles, Habana Libre is the story of people caught between home and hope.