Baseball behind bars is nothing unusual, but the sport represented far more than recreation at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in 1911. "The Death Row All Stars" tells the true story of prison-team ballplayers who were made to believe that they’d be granted reprieves for their serious crimes only if they kept winning games against outside teams.
Here's an excerpt from "The Death Row All Stars":
“On July 18, 1911, under a blue and cloudless sky, the murderers, burglars, rapists, and confidence men that made up the Death Row All Stars emerged quickly from the baselines of the baseball diamond at the penitentiary and spread across the practice field for their first game. Alston, Gramm, and a host of other prison officials, as well as inmates, were on hand to watch. Inmates craned their necks to see the action from their barred windows and cheered the players on as they whipped the ball from base to base. Warden Alston had supplied the team with gloves, bats, and uniforms, and the ball club looked and played like professionals. There was no infighting, and players didn’t discuss the specifics of their criminal history with one another. The focus was the game.”
