During the summer of 1937 in the midst of the Great Depression a group of young boys from an Italian immigrant neighborhood of Boston forms a baseball team.

During the summer of 1937 in the midst of the Great Depression a group of young boys from an Italian immigrant neighborhood of Boston forms a baseball team. They hunt up uniforms and equipment and join a citywide league alongside 27,000 other boys. Against all odds they reach the championship game and a chance to play baseball in Fenway Park.

A photograph taken that day in Fenway memorializes the team and is passed down to children and grandchildren and with it the story of their victory.

The inspiration for the documentary is that very photograph. Through interviews and archival footage “One Heck of a Game” recounts a single baseball game but it also reminds us how the game of baseball captures the essence of the American spirit.

Originally from East Boston, MA, Karen DeLuca Stephens is a writer of Boston stories. “Hitting Home,” a feature film screenplay based on “One Heck of a Game” and the Italian-American immigrant experience is currently in development.