March 28-29, 2026: Historic Baseball Teams: My Podcast’s New Second Season on Baseball at Manzanar

[In honor of MLB’s Opening Day, this week I’ve blogged about historic baseball teams! Leading up to this weekend post on the upcoming second season of my narrative history & baseball podcast.]

It’s finally here! This past Wednesday I shared the First Inning of Diamond in the Rough: Baseball, Bigotry, and the Battle for America, Season Two. That Inning embodies three layers to what y’all have to look forward to all season long, with new Innings dropping every Wednesday:

1. Amazing Baseball Stories: That time that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, fresh off winning the 1927 World Series, played a barnstorming game against Japanese American players, into the “Nisei Babe Ruth.” The 1935 “Japanese World Series” between the legendary Tokyo Giants and a Japanese American semi-pro team that more than held its own. The badass Japanese American women baseball (not softball, baseball) players who helped changed the sport. Just a few examples of the baseball stories that you’ll hear in the First Inning, and throughout this Season!
2. Inspiring Moments Amidst the Horrors: A Season on baseball at the Manzanar Japanase incarceration camp is going to feature more than its share of horrific histories, of course. But I promise to keep balancing them with inspiring moments that embody the best of America—like Coach Pop Miller, journalist Walt Woodward, six Japanese American high schoolers, and the response of Washington State’s tiny Bainbridge Island to the oncoming interment policy.
3. Crucial Contexts and Connections: As I discussed in my preseason Game Plan episode, Season 2 will have one significant difference from Season 1—the bottom half of each Inning will focus not on the specific histories and stories, but on connections and contexts. Many of those will be drawn from our own fraught moment, but they will also connect my subjects to key questions from across American history, as you’ll hear there in the First Inning.

Next series starts Monday,

Ben

PS. What do you think? Baseball or sports histories you’d share?