The "national pastime" has occasioned more intellectual rumination than any other athletic endeavor in American—perhaps even world—history. Intellectuals and sports writers have turned the metaphysical implications of the game into something of a cottage industry.
The story spans 60 years, and as Broderick tells the tale of Roza Mojewska and Otto Brack he tells the story of Poland itself, touching on Hitler’s goal of annihilating the Poles to give the Germans space.