Sam Pollard’s “The League” Is Not Your Typical Baseball Doc.
The documentary filmmaker grew up in the 1960s watching the St. Louis Cardinals, whose roster of players included Black or Latino players including Bill White, Curt Flood, Orlando Cepeda and Lou Brock, but did not know much about the Negro Leagues that existed when the sport was still segregated.
“I knew who Jackie Robinson was and that it was because of him Blacks had integrated the Major Leagues in 1947,” says Pollard. “But what I did not know much about in 1964 at the age of 14 was that he had come out of the Negro Leagues and that the Negro Leagues had been home to Black and Latino ballplayers who had to play segregated baseball during the height of the Jim Crow era.”
While some segregation in the sport always existed, the color line in baseball was not rigidly enforced until...
The documentary filmmaker grew up in the 1960s watching the St. Louis Cardinals, whose roster of players included Black or Latino players including Bill White, Curt Flood, Orlando Cepeda and Lou Brock, but did not know much about the Negro Leagues that existed when the sport was still segregated.
“I knew who Jackie Robinson was and that it was because of him Blacks had integrated the Major Leagues in 1947,” says Pollard. “But what I did not know much about in 1964 at the age of 14 was that he had come out of the Negro Leagues and that the Negro Leagues had been home to Black and Latino ballplayers who had to play segregated baseball during the height of the Jim Crow era.”
While some segregation in the sport always existed, the color line in baseball was not rigidly enforced until...
- 7/7/2023
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
In eye-opening documentary The League, director Sam Pollard tells a fully-rounded tale of how Black baseball used to thrive
Sam Pollard inherited his love for baseball from his father, a fan of the St Louis Cardinals – Black America’s team in the 1960s. Growing up in New York just made it a long-distance affair. “They had some phenomenal players,” Pollard recalls to the Guardian. “Lou Brock, Curt Flood, Bob Gibson, Bill White. And then when I got to be 14, 15 years old, I really wanted to understand their lineage. Where did they come from?”
Decades later, the director retraces that Black baseball genealogy in The League – a new Questlove-produced documentary on the rise, fall and last impact of the Negro Leagues, the professional baseball association that sprang up in the long shadow of Jim Crow. It’s a history famously touched on in Ken Burns’s seminal docuseries Baseball. But in The League,...
Sam Pollard inherited his love for baseball from his father, a fan of the St Louis Cardinals – Black America’s team in the 1960s. Growing up in New York just made it a long-distance affair. “They had some phenomenal players,” Pollard recalls to the Guardian. “Lou Brock, Curt Flood, Bob Gibson, Bill White. And then when I got to be 14, 15 years old, I really wanted to understand their lineage. Where did they come from?”
Decades later, the director retraces that Black baseball genealogy in The League – a new Questlove-produced documentary on the rise, fall and last impact of the Negro Leagues, the professional baseball association that sprang up in the long shadow of Jim Crow. It’s a history famously touched on in Ken Burns’s seminal docuseries Baseball. But in The League,...
- 7/5/2023
- by Andrew Lawrence
- The Guardian - Film News
Seventy-five years after he shattered baseball’s history of racial segregation, Jackie Robinson is being rightfully celebrated for his tenacity and activism. But what about those Black superstars who soon followed in his large shadow? The illuminating History Channel documentary After Jackie (executive produced by LeBron James) focuses on three players who spent their glory years in the late 1950s and ’60s with the St. Louis Cardinals—Bill White, Curt Flood, and pitching ace Bob Gibson—helping take the team to the World Series and a title win. As they discovered while finding fame on the diamond during America’s civil-rights movement, integration didn’t necessarily mean equal treatment. Each fought back against prejudice on and off the playing field: segregated housing during spring training in Florida, a racist manager (later fired) who felt Gibson and Flood weren’t smart enough to be in the starting lineup. “It was tough...
- 6/18/2022
- TV Insider
History Channel has set the premiere date and launch plan for its original documentary “After Jackie,” a look at the second wave of Black professional baseball players who followed the trailblazing Jackie Robinson.
History Channel will premiere the two-hour documentary from LeBron James’ Uninterrupted production imprint, director Andre Gaines (“The One and Only Dick Gregory”) and producer Stanley Nelson on Saturday, June 18 at 8 p.m. Nelson’s Firelight Films also produced in association with Major League Baseball and in consultatin with the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
History Channel disclosed the launch plan on Friday to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s history-making move to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball. On April 15, 1947, Robinson started at first base with the Brooklyn Dodgers, marking the first time a Black man played in the modern Major Leagues and breaking the color barrier in the sport.
“When the Hall of Famer...
History Channel will premiere the two-hour documentary from LeBron James’ Uninterrupted production imprint, director Andre Gaines (“The One and Only Dick Gregory”) and producer Stanley Nelson on Saturday, June 18 at 8 p.m. Nelson’s Firelight Films also produced in association with Major League Baseball and in consultatin with the Jackie Robinson Foundation.
History Channel disclosed the launch plan on Friday to coincide with the 75th anniversary of Robinson’s history-making move to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball. On April 15, 1947, Robinson started at first base with the Brooklyn Dodgers, marking the first time a Black man played in the modern Major Leagues and breaking the color barrier in the sport.
“When the Hall of Famer...
- 4/15/2022
- by William Earl
- Variety Film + TV
The History Channel has set a premiere date for its upcoming documentary about the Black Major League Baseball players who came after Jackie Robinson in honor of the 75th anniversary of the iconic athlete breaking the color line in the League.
“After Jackie” will premiere on June 18, the network announced Friday — which marked three-quarters of a century since Robinson’s historic first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Prior to that game, the sport had been segregated for more than 50 years.
The two-hour documentary is executive produced by another sports legend: LeBron James. James is producing the doc through his production company, Uninterrupted, with Maverick Carter, alongside Stanley Nelson, Andre Gaines and in association with the MLB.
“After Jackie” will tell “the often overlooked story of the second wave of talented Black baseball players after Jackie Robinson,” according to a statement from The History Channel. Those players include Bill White, Curt Flood and Bob Gibson,...
“After Jackie” will premiere on June 18, the network announced Friday — which marked three-quarters of a century since Robinson’s historic first game with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Prior to that game, the sport had been segregated for more than 50 years.
The two-hour documentary is executive produced by another sports legend: LeBron James. James is producing the doc through his production company, Uninterrupted, with Maverick Carter, alongside Stanley Nelson, Andre Gaines and in association with the MLB.
“After Jackie” will tell “the often overlooked story of the second wave of talented Black baseball players after Jackie Robinson,” according to a statement from The History Channel. Those players include Bill White, Curt Flood and Bob Gibson,...
- 4/15/2022
- by Katie Campione
- The Wrap
Exclusive: Sam Pollard has been tapped to direct The League, a documentary centered on the tumultuous journey of Negro league baseball. Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson of the Roots is serving as executive producer along with Jon Kamen, Dave Sirulnick and Jen Isaacson of RadicalMedia.
Told through the personal experience of notable Negro League umpire Bob Motley, the pic explores Black baseball as a stage for some of the world’s best athletes, an economic and social pillar of Black communities, and the unintended consequences of MLB integration. The rise and fall of the Negro Leagues follows the arc of race history in the United States.
Featuring interviews from Negro League players like Buck O’Neil and Hall of Fame Inductees Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron, The League celebrates some of the 20th century’s best athletes and entrepreneurs while grappling with America’s difficult march toward equality, including a discussion...
Told through the personal experience of notable Negro League umpire Bob Motley, the pic explores Black baseball as a stage for some of the world’s best athletes, an economic and social pillar of Black communities, and the unintended consequences of MLB integration. The rise and fall of the Negro Leagues follows the arc of race history in the United States.
Featuring interviews from Negro League players like Buck O’Neil and Hall of Fame Inductees Monte Irvin, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron, The League celebrates some of the 20th century’s best athletes and entrepreneurs while grappling with America’s difficult march toward equality, including a discussion...
- 11/23/2020
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Updated With Video NFL team owners “have colluded” to keep free agent Colin Kaepernick from playing professional football, said the Rev. Jesse Jackson on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher tonight. Placing Kaepernick in a “lineage” of such black athletes as Jackie Robinson, Tommie Smith, John Carlos, Curt Flood and Muhammad Ali, Jackson said “We should honor Kaepernick.” Taking a brief respite (more or less) from all things Trump, Maher and Jackson spoke about Kaepernick…...
- 8/26/2017
- Deadline TV
Curt Flood is not enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame and if you just look at his statistics, that seems reasonable enough. Flood won seven Gold Gloves, which confirms and cements his reputation as one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball history. But Garry Maddox won eight Gold Gloves and didn't receive a single vote when he became HoF eligible, proving that baseball writers either don't respect defense (plausible) or don't respect the value of a Gold Glove (more plausible). Flood led the league in hits once and retired with a career batting average of .293 (very...
- 7/13/2011
- by Daniel Fienberg
- Hitfix
This Wednesday at 9/8c, Criminal Minds presents an hour that, for a season finale, might be a little light on pyrotechnics, but nonetheless is high on drama. What’s in play? A possible “art imitating life” shake-up at the Bau, coupled with the (at one time seemingly unlikely) return of fan favorite A.J. Cook, as former team member “Jj” Jareau. TVLine welcomed the chance to speak with Joe Mantegna, aka FBI Special Agent David Rossi, about the major goings on both on and off screen at the hit CBS procedural.
Tvline | The big question is: Can a season finale that...
Tvline | The big question is: Can a season finale that...
- 5/18/2011
- by Matt Webb Mitovich
- TVLine.com
Is there a more literary game than baseball? Novelist Joseph Finder hails an entertaining new companion to America's favorite pastime.
The writer George Plimpton once proposed what he called the Small Ball Theory of sports writing: the smaller the ball, the better the literature. Football and soccer and basketball have yielded a few decent books, he pointed out, whereas baseball has inspired fine literary work by such authors as Philip Roth, John Updike, Bernard Malamud, David Halberstam, Ring Lardner, Walt Whitman . . .
Related story on The Daily Beast: The Beginning of History
Until the great ping-pong bildungsroman comes along, I'm dubious about Plimpton's theory. Yet there's no doubt that baseball has spawned a greater quantity of books, fiction and nonfiction, than any other sport. The latest of these is The Cambridge Companion to Baseball edited by Leonard Cassuto and Stephen Partridge-which, if you buy only one book for the baseball fan in your life,...
The writer George Plimpton once proposed what he called the Small Ball Theory of sports writing: the smaller the ball, the better the literature. Football and soccer and basketball have yielded a few decent books, he pointed out, whereas baseball has inspired fine literary work by such authors as Philip Roth, John Updike, Bernard Malamud, David Halberstam, Ring Lardner, Walt Whitman . . .
Related story on The Daily Beast: The Beginning of History
Until the great ping-pong bildungsroman comes along, I'm dubious about Plimpton's theory. Yet there's no doubt that baseball has spawned a greater quantity of books, fiction and nonfiction, than any other sport. The latest of these is The Cambridge Companion to Baseball edited by Leonard Cassuto and Stephen Partridge-which, if you buy only one book for the baseball fan in your life,...
- 4/22/2011
- by Joseph Finder
- The Daily Beast
For once, the players' union isn't blinking-playing hardball against the league monopoly. Sports writer Allen Barra on what to expect this week and why a win for the players is a win for everyone.
So what just happened? For months, the sports media has been telling us that the National Football League Players Association was about to be crushed in their contract negotiations with the league owners. Because, we all know, football players are supposed to be too spoiled and too immature to hold together as a real union.
Related story on The Daily Beast: NFL Owners' Lockout Ego Trip
And yet, the owners have now, twice, asked for an extension to the expiration date of the Current Bargaining Agreement. How do we know it was the owners who backed off? Because, for the first time in the history of their union, the players looked into the eyes of the...
So what just happened? For months, the sports media has been telling us that the National Football League Players Association was about to be crushed in their contract negotiations with the league owners. Because, we all know, football players are supposed to be too spoiled and too immature to hold together as a real union.
Related story on The Daily Beast: NFL Owners' Lockout Ego Trip
And yet, the owners have now, twice, asked for an extension to the expiration date of the Current Bargaining Agreement. How do we know it was the owners who backed off? Because, for the first time in the history of their union, the players looked into the eyes of the...
- 3/6/2011
- by Allen Barra
- The Daily Beast
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