Players pose for a group portrait during the Negro National League annual meeting held in Chicago on January 28,1922. (Photo: Courtesy)
Shadow Ball, an episode selected from the documentary “Baseball,” will be showing at 6:30 p.m. tonight in the Wyoming Union Family Room, and it will be followed by a talk back session. The event is free to students and the public.
Shadow Ball is the fifth episode of nine in the PBS documentary Baseball by Ken Burns.
“It is an 18 and a half hour long documentary, and, because of the limited time available, we will be showing one half of a two hour episode.” Chicory Bechtel, Project Coordinator for Multicultural Affairs, said.
Aaron R. Lozano, graduate student in African-American and Diaspora Studies, will be leading the talk back session that will follow.
“Talk back sessions are an excellent opportunity for the audience to share and discuss their thoughts and reactions to the film,” she added.
Shadow Ball brings to light inequality across the board in the 1930s as well depicting how racism affected baseball.
“By showing a film that focuses on baseball it attracts a wider audience than what would typically attend MLK Days of Dialog events and allows for the information to affect a larger group of people,” Bechtel said.
This film offers true baseball lovers a chance to learn about this period of time and players who are often overlooked in the history of America’s favorite past time.
“During this time in history, the Negro League was considered less important resulting in records not being kept as thoroughly as the white league,” Bechtel said.
“Information on games won and player statistics from some of the most brilliant players of this time have been lost forever due to the obstacle of racism.”
The film works back and forth between white baseball experience and the African-American baseball experience to show the contrast between the two. It also poses the question of what it means to be an American depending on race and time period.
“Shadow Ball also provides the opportunity to learn about the history of American, where we have come from and what it means to be an American. I believe it is a valuable opportunity for that,” Bechtel said.
This film is being shown in partnership with PBS. UW has partnered with them in the past to bring Freedom Writers and Prohibition, another Ken Burns film, to campus.
