“War on the Diamond” tells the story of the hundred year rivalry between the Cleveland Indians and the New York Yankees from the Cleveland perspective. It grows out of a tremendous three-way pennant race in 1920 between these two teams and the soon to be disgraced White Sox. The death of Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman after getting hit in the head by a Carl Mays pitch at Yankee Stadium in the middle of that race serves as the thread the holds the story together.

The documentary jumps around in time. We learn about Chapman’s early life then fast forward to modern playoff games between the two teams. We hear from writers, broadcasters, fans, players, management, and family about the experiences of the big games. Sandy Alomar, Jr. explains how he was able to take Mariano Rivera deep in the 1997 ALDS. A mid- 1990s interview with Ray Chapman’s sister gives us insight into the star. Audio interviews with Carl Mays provides his side of the story.

I did not know the story of George Steinbrenner’s failed attempt to buy the Indians in 1970. Steinbrenner owned a basketball team in the early 1960s, the Cleveland Pipers. He had a chance to get them into the NBA, but didn’t have the $25,000 deposit. He essentially stole the money from a friend who was part of the Stouffer family, which owned the Indians. Despite negotiating close to a deal for the Cleveland franchise, the head of the Stouffer family simply would not sell to the boss. What could have been!

The movie is also a visual pleasure. The brightness of the modern interviews and the reenactments serves as a perfect counter-point to the tragedy of the subject matter.

Let me leave you with a quote from Lesley Visser, that is more about the game than the rivalry:

I have a couple of pieces of advice for my girlfriends. I always tell them you must never love a man who doesn’t love baseball. And the reason is that baseball is everything. It’s history, it’s geometry, it’s patient. You can talk between the pitches. It breaks your heart, it gives you joy. Baseball taps every emotion that you want to feel, or you want in a friend.

The film is well worth the watch on a winter evening.