Gene Leahy didn’t like what he saw. Rushville’s baseball field was one of the finest in Nebraska, thanks to the generosity of two bachelor brother ranchers. But the diamond saw little action. 

So, Leahy — big brother to Frank, Notre Dame’s legendary football coach — convinced the Milwaukee Braves in the mid-1950s to host an annual summer baseball school in this Sandhills town of only 1,200 residents. Teens and young men traveled hundreds of miles to attend.

This coverage is made possible through partnerships between Grist and WABE in Georgia, Blue Ridge Public Radio in North Carolina, Flatwater Free Press in Nebraska, Interlochen Public Radio in Michigan and WBEZ in Chicago. Reporters Jake Bittle, Emily Jones, Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, Vivian La, Anila Yoganathan, Katie Myers and Clayton Aldern contributed to this report.

A cool morning breeze floated through the serene, green middle of the Highlander development in the heart of North Omaha, and on that breeze wafted the gentle exhortations of a yoga teacher.

“Inhale, breathe in,” the teacher, Lindsay Decker, urged 15 people stretching toward the sky on the deck of a community gathering space. “Exhale, let it go.”