Pitching Man
Satchel Paige-Defying Time
Today black athletes are central to the American sports scene. No major league baseball team is without its roster of black stars. But it was not always so. From the 1880's until the late 1940's American baseball was segregated.
This hour long documentary, narrated by James Earl Jones and produced by Refocus Digital Media, chronicles the rich history of black baseball and examines the re-integration of the game. There Was Always Sun Shining Someplace: Life in the Negro Baseball Leagues documents these athletes struggles and achievements.
The program contains rare historical footage which details the lives of the players. It features interviews with Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell, Monte Irvin, Buck Leonard and Judy Johnson, former Negro Leaguers who have been immortalized in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Highlighted by recently discovered game footage from the 1930's and 40's, this documentary is the result of four years' work by producers Craig Davidson and Donn Rogosin. They traveled throughout the United States filming the recollections of former Negro League athletes. The player's private collections of film and photographs combining with unique archival imagery brings this period to life.
Davidson says: "This was more than a simple baseball story. Negro League baseball intertwined complex personalities, intrigue, first-rate baseball and triumph of the human heart. For me, the four years spent on this project were the most important of my life."
This film, as well as being the definitive treatment of this fascinating chapter of black and sports history, brings to light the celebrity status of the Negro Leaguers in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Latin America. It further details the relationship between black baseball and the black gangsters of the period, and sheds a new and unexpected light on the role of the Negro Leaguers in the integration of major league baseball.
Co-writer/Sports Historian Donn Rogosin adds: "These great baseball players dealt with adversity in a most admirable manner. It was a glorious chapter in black history."
