“Baseball was a kind of secular church that reached into every class and region of the nation,” wrote Philip Roth, “and bound millions upon millions of us together in common concerns, loyalties, rituals, enthusiasms, and antagonisms.” In conjunction with the traveling exhibition Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American, the New Center presents a conversation among some of Boston’s leading baseball writers about the role of the game in the acculturation of American Jews – as players, fans, executives, and writers – and the related experiences of other immigrant and minority groups. Moderated by Bill Littlefield, host of NPR’s “Only a Game”, the conversation features Bob Ryan, retired columnist for The Boston Globe and regular commentator on ESPN; Michael Silverman, who covers baseball for the Boston Herald and is currently writing a book with Pedro Martinez; and Ilan Stavans, acclaimed writer and scholar of both Jewish and Latino cultures, who has written and edited dozens of books, including Beisbol.