Author Kat Williams joins us to discuss the remarkable life of Isabel "Lefty" Alvarez, who came to United States at fifteen, speaking no English, to play professional baseball. Williams take us on a journey from Cuba to the AAGPBL and through years of anonymity and alcoholism before baseball once again gave her life meaning.
Baseball's advanced statistics can be confusing. WAR. FIP. wOBA. wRC. What does it all mean? Anthony Castrovince joins us to discuss how to make sabermetrics accessible to all fans, even those who are most comfortable with traditional metrics like wins, batting average and RBIs.
In the early days of the 20th century, a group of young immigrants formed the first professional and semi-professional Japanese baseball teams on either side of the Pacific. But for more than a century, the story of these trailblazers had been lost to history. Robert K. Fitts joins us to explain how he unearthed the fascinating tale of Harry Saisho, Ken Kitsuse, Tom Uyeda and others who made baseball an integral part of the Japanese-American experience.
Three lively Mexican-American communities once stood in the hills that are now home to Dodger Stadium. Author Eric Nusbaum joins us to discuss an incredible story of impassioned immigrants, Red Scare politics and how the dream of baseball in Southern California affected countless lives.