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New baseball film chronicles life of African Americans, Afro-Latinos who followed Jackie Robinson’s footsteps

It’s been 70 years since Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

His story has been well chronicled in Hollywood including the 2013 film 42. But Robinson, who died in 1972, was hardly alone in his struggle.

A new documentary, A Long Way from Home: The Untold Story of Baseball's Desegregation, chronicles the experiences of African-American and Afro-Latino players who followed Robinson’s footsteps into baseball.

Directed by award-winning documentary filmmaker Gaspar González (Muhammad Ali: Made in Miami, Havana House), the film features interviews with pioneering players such as Jim “Mudcat” Grant, Grover “Deacon” Jones, Jimmy Wynn, Orlando Cepeda, and Tony Pérez, who often played their minor-league ball in small, remote towns where racial segregation remained a fact of life well into the 1960s.