Talk:Carmen Castillo

Birthplace?

Just where was Castillo born anyway? I find him in both the San Pedro de Macorís and San Francisco de Macorís pages, listed as a notable native of each place. These cities are more than 200 km apart, in different provinces, on opposite sides of the country. What authority is there for his wikipedia article giving the latter place? The Baseball Cube and Baseball Almanac agree, but Baseball Reference and RetroSheet both say San Pedro. He doesn't have any page in the Spanish wikipedia. Does anybody know him, or have any reliable information? DutchmanInDisguise (talk) 23:37, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

There is a book available about baseball players from San Pedro: The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris. I do not have the book, but would consider it a good source on this issue. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.126.51.51 (talk) 13:42, 7 July 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for the tip on the book. I'll see if I can find it at a local library. Did the author, Mark Kurlansky, actually interview the players he profiled, get the information from local people in San Pedro, or what? If somebody has already read the book and has an opinion, please let us know. DutchmanInDisguise (talk) 05:44, 9 July 2010 (UTC)

I had somebody check out Kurlansky's book for me from a library in another town. Carmen Castillo isn't mentioned anywhere in the book. The author seems to have meticulously indexed everybody he mentions. He has an Appendix entitled "The First Seventy-nine Major League Baseball Players from San Pedro de Macorís" in which he gives a little biosketch for each player, including several who were lesser known and who had briefer careers than Castillo. While I can't be 100% sure of the accuracy of such a list, I believe we need to stick with San Francisco de Macorís as Castillo's birthplace until somebody can produce some compelling evidence to the contrary. I am updating his page today, deleting the category line which conflicts with his birthplace information. I will also update the San Pedro page by deleting Castillo from it. DutchmanInDisguise (talk) 17:20, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

I'm still not 100% convinced that Kurlansky's omission of Castillo from his book proves that Castillo wasn't born in San Pedro de Macorís. Please see my discussion of the accuracy of Kurlansky's research on his talk page. I won't argue that such errors discredit Kurlansky, merely that they make me want to exercise extreme caution in using Kurlansky as a source, or authority, for anything. DutchmanInDisguise (talk) 05:17, 29 August 2010 (UTC)