Ed Schmidt’s play takes us to a spring day in 1947. Branch Rickey, the powerful general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, summons heavyweight champion Joe Louis, tap star Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, and actor Paul Robeson to his hotel room in Manhattan. Rickey wants their support when he chooses Jackie Robinson to be Major League Baseball’s first black player. But a power struggle ensues when Robeson raises questions about Rickey’s motivations to integrate white baseball.

Includes interviews with baseball historian Lee Lowenfish, and former Major League pitcher Al Downing.

Recorded before a live audience at the DoubleTree Suites, Santa Monica in May of 1996.