Soul of the Game

This original HBO production documents, in dramatic form, the rivalry between Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson to see who would be the first African-American to play Major League Baseball. Paige (played by Delroy Lindo) and Gibson (Mykelti Williamson) are more aggressive about seizing ...more

After a shaky opening, with a reporter interviewing Willie Mays (played by an actor who looks nothing like the "Say Hey Kid") in 1954 as a device for a flashback to the 1940s heyday of the Negro Leagues, Soul of the Game settles into a surprisingly melancholy account of the breaking of baseball's color line. This is not a celebration of Jackie Robinson's immense courage, but a rumination on the cruel circumstances that denied his more talented colleagues, pitcher Satchel Paige and catcher Josh ...more