Play Ball: The History, Culture & Politics of Baseball: Diversity

In the Dominican Republic baseball is not only a game but a national obsession. Exported from the United States and still controlled by it, the game is also an arena of intercultural relations. Sugarball describes how Dominican baseball fosters national pride and competition with the United States while at the same time promoting acceptance of the North American presence in the country.

Pultizer Prize finalist Espada's poetry collection describes everything from his father's experiences watching baseball during the color line era to a pilgrimage to the tomb of Frederick Douglass and an encounter with the swimming pool at a torture and execution center in Chile.

Before Jackie Robinson, the Negro League was established in the late 1800's as a way for African Americans to play professional baseball.

Toni Stone was the first woman (of only three) to play for a professional baseball team after being hired by the San Francisco Sea Lions, a Negro League team. Due to persistent sexism and lack of play time, she retired from the sport early, though her impact and significance to the game is still recognized today.

In 1943, a washed-up ballplayer is hired to coach in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League while the male pros are at war. Reluctant at first, he finds himself drawn back into the game by the heart and heroics of his team. Based on a true story.