Chasing dreams.

• Position: Athletic Arena

THERE ARE PEOPLE whose contributions to baseball history went far beyond mere batting averages or stolen bases. They did not just play the game; they changed the game. For generations of American Jews and other minorities, they served as athletic, cultural, and ethical role models.

"Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American" highlights these game-changers and--just as importantly--the fans, ideals, and culture they inspired. This is the first large-scale exhibition to use the story of Jews and baseball to highlight ways in which our national pastime is part of the history and ongoing narrative of how immigrants and minorities of various backgrounds--including Italians, Asians, Latinos, African-Americans, and many others--become American, to feel a part of the society in which they might otherwise be on the margins.

"Chasing Dreams" features more than 130 original objects, including game-worn uniforms, game-used objects, correspondence, newspaper accounts, board games, awards, baseball cards, signed baseballs, Jewish ritual objects, ballpark giveaways, stadium seats, Little League memorabilia, and more. Original films feature interviews with baseball executives and everyday fans. Interactive displays offer visitors various opportunities to play, participate, and learn.

"Since the 19th century, baseball has been an exhilarating metaphor for America, a land of so much promise and opportunity and, for minority communities in this country, the sport has long served as a path to learning and understanding American values, representing a shared American identity, and sometimes highlighting our differences. It is, in short, a mirror of America," says co-curator Josh Perelman, chief curator and director of collections and exhibitions at the National Museum of American Jewish History.

Visitors to "Chasing Dreams" can explore baseball's legends and myths, its heroes and flops, its struggles and moments of triumph. The exhibition will celebrate well-known Jewish heroes such as Hank Greenberg and Sandy Koufax and iconic baseball pioneers like Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio, Roberto Clemente, and Ichiro Suzuki, as well as baseball's extended family of vendors, team owners, minor leaguers, amateur players, scouts, broadcasters, journalists, novelists--and especially, fans.

The exhibit explores how baseball has served as an arena in which values, identity, ethnicity, and race have been projected, contested, and occasionally solidified. It poses...