Leroy 'Satchel' Paige

Having fled to Mexico from the U.S. many years ago for killing his father's murderer, Martin Brady travels to Texas to broker an arms deal for his Mexican boss, strongman Governor Cipriano Castro. Brady breaks a leg and while recuperating in Texas the gun shipment is stolen. Complicating matters further the wife of local army major Colton has designs on him, and the local Texas Ranger captain makes him a generous offer to come back to the states and join his outfit. After killing a man in self-defense, Brady slips back over the border and confronts Castro who is not only unhappy that Brady has lost his gun shipment but is about to join forces with Colton to battle the local raiding Apache Indians.

Throughout the 1900's, before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier in 1946, black baseball talent blossomed in the Negro Leagues. Baseball buffs still sing the praises of Josh Gibson who could be counted on to hit 70 homeruns in a season, and Satchel Paige who pitched over 100 no-hitters in his career. Only the Ball Was White pays tribute to the many topflight players from the Negro Leagues. Narrated by actor Paul Winfield, the program documents a bygone bittersweet era in baseball and the men who were denied stardom by the color line. Ballplayers throughout the country were interviewed for this program, all of them quick to tell tales of the life, the competition, and the camaraderie. These include: Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella, Buck Leonard, Jimmy Crutchfield, David Malarcher, Effa Manley, and Quincy Trouppe.

Johnny Barrows, a young man heading toward a life of juvenile delinquency as his home life spirals out of control, sneaks into the 1948 World Series and seeks friendship by playing a sympathetic orphan. He finds stability and mentorship in sportscaster Mike Jackson and the Cleveland Indians, who try to set Johnny on the right path in this touching story for the whole family.

We know a lot about how major league baseball was strictly segregated before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. But strangely, few of us know much about the decade-long, fierce, organized efforts to bring that about. Lester Rodney, sports editor and writer for New York’s Communist Party newspaper The Daily Worker, made it his crusade beginning in 1936. This riveting 10-minute film, much of it in Lester Rodney’s own words, tells about the man, his passion for baseball, why he fought for equal treatment of “Negro” ball players, and his perspective on the far reaching impact of baseball’s desegregation. Enjoy this eye-opening mini-documentary about Lester Rodney (1911-2009), the unsung hero who helped desegregate Major League Baseball, narrated by baseball legends Vida Blue and Marty Lurie.

Chronicles the history of Negro Leagues baseball by using rare historical footage and interviews with black baseball greats.

Celebrate the life of baseball’s most enduring legend; Satchel Paige was the single most important player in the old Negro Baseball Leagues