Release Year: 2008

Duration: 60 min

Availability:

Related: History, International, Politics, Sports & Hobbies, ITVS, PBS

Set against the backdrop of the choppy history of U.S.-Cuban relations, GREENER GRASS documents how baseball has operated as both bridge and barrier between the two lands. Since 1866, Cubans have lovingly played the game that has represented both independence and modernity. At the time of Fidel Castro’s revolution, 10 percent of Major League players were Cuban, and Americans played on Cuban teams as well. The Havana Sugar Kings were poised to join the Major League until Castro banned professional sport from the island.  40 years later, the Baltimore Orioles went to bat against the Cuban National Team in a historic two-game series. GREENER GRASS explores more than a century of baseball history, culminating in the defection of Cuban pitcher Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez.  Diverse voices are central to this vivid, musically rich film, which reveals how the sport reflects divergent national identities, as well as underlying tensions of race, democracy and opportunity.