National Pastime tells the story of two men — one Black, one white — who, aided by friends and family, united to break the baseball color line

Young Kwak photo

Bryan Harnetiaux, Spokane Civic Theatre’s long-time resident playwright.

The very first scene that playwright Bryan Harnetiaux wrote for his play National Pastime was also its most severe.

Although it’s often referred to in euphemistic shorthand as “the office scene,” the first-act finale depicts the real-life episode in which Branch Rickey, then club president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, met with a 26-year-old Black baseball player named Jackie Robinson.

Their 1945 meeting was about Robinson pursuing a Major League career

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