Cookie Rojas: A Baseball Life

A professional baseball prospect given little chance of making the big time, Octavio Cookie Rojas proved his evaluators wrong by flourishing at the sport's top level during a 16-year major league career. Never breaking ties with the profession he loved, after leaving the field as a player Rojas continued in the game well into his 70s in the varied roles of coach, scout, manager, and broadcaster.

Rojas broke into the big leagues in the early 1960s, a seemingly bygone era when there were only ten teams in each major league and the World Series was exclusively performed under the autumn sun. A native of Cuba, Rojas had to leave behind his country following the Cuban Revolution in order to pursue his ultimate baseball dreams. In this regard, his side story of cultural assimilation, like those of his many ball-playing compatriots of the time, is a unique account of perseverance and dedication and an undeterrable desire to succeed for himself and his family.