Baseball (TV series)

Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns is an Emmy Award-winning 1994 documentary series by Ken Burns about the game of baseball. First broadcast on PBS, this was Burns' ninth documentary.

Format

Baseball is similar to Burns' previous documentaries (most notably, The Civil War) in that he uses archived pictures and film footage mixed with interviews for his visual presentation. Actors provide voice over reciting written work (letters, speeches, etc.) over pictures and video. The episodes are interspersed with the music of the times, whether taken from previous Burns series, original played music, or recordings ranging from Louis Armstrong to Elvis Presley. Former NBC News anchorman John Chancellor narrated.

The documentary is divided into nine parts (each appropriately referred to as an "inning", following the division of the game). Each "inning" reviews a particular era in time, and begins with a brief prologue that acts as an insight to the game during that era. The prologue ends with the playing of "The Star Spangled Banner" (just as a real baseball game would), with the particular rendition played as it might have been in the era being covered in that inning (most notably, while covering the 1960s, the rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" used is the version played by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock). In some "inning" episodes, a period version of the baseball anthem "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is used. Before the main feature, a brief preview and the events of the time of the "inning" to come follows.

Major themes explored throughout the documentary are those of race, business, baseball and society, and labor relations.

The Nine Innings

1st Inning - Our Game

This inning serves as an introduction to the game and the series, and covers baseball's origins and the game as it evolved prior to the twentieth century.

Original airdate: Sunday, September 18, 1994.

2nd Inning - Something Like A War

This inning covers approximately 1900 to 1910, and includes the formation of the American League and its integration with the National League, culminating in the establishment of the World Series. Ty Cobb is discussed in depth (the title of this inning comes from one of his many quotes). Many of the quotes used in this inning and of the other early innings are taken from Lawrence S. Ritter's The Glory of Their Times.

Original airdate: Monday, September 19, 1994.

3rd Inning - The Faith of Fifty Million People

This inning covers approximately 1910 to 1920. It heavily focuses on the Black Sox Scandal, taking its title from a line in the novel The Great Gatsby. The line refers to how easy it was for gamblers to tamper with the faith that people put in the game's fairness.

Original airdate: Tuesday, September 20, 1994.

4th Inning - A National Heirloom

This inning covers approximately 1920 to 1930, and focuses on baseball's recovery from the Black Sox Scandal, giving much of the credit to the increase in power hitting throughout the game, led by its savior Babe Ruth. During an interview given to MLB Network during the series' re-airing in 2009, Burns stated that he originally wanted to title the 4th Inning, "That Son-of-a-Bitch", a name given Ruth by many in the game during that era.

Original airdate: Wednesday, September 21, 1994.

5th Inning - Shadow Ball

This inning covers approximately 1930 to 1940. While Burns has not shied away from discussing the plight of African-Americans up to this point, a great deal of this inning covers the Negro Leagues, and the great players and organizers who were excluded from the Major Leagues. Also the episode deals with organized Baseball's response to the Great Depression.

Original airdate: Thursday, September 22, 1994.

6th Inning - The National Pastime

This inning covers approximately 1940 to 1950. The emphasis here is on baseball finally becoming what it had always purported to be: A national game. As African-Americans are finally permitted into Major League Baseball, led by Jackie Robinson. This inning also looks at how the game was influenced as a result of World War II.

Original airdate: Sunday, September 25, 1994.

7th Inning - The Capital of Baseball

This inning covers approximately 1950 to 1960. Burns emphasizes the greatness of the three teams based in New York (the Yankees, the Giants, and Brooklyn Dodgers). This inning also covers the major changes that are coming to baseball as teams begin to relocate.

Original airdate: Monday, September 26, 1994.

8th Inning - A Whole New Ballgame

This inning covers approximately 1960 to 1970. As the nation underwent turbulent changes, baseball was not immune. Expansion and labor are major topics in this inning.

Original airdate: Tuesday, September 27, 1994.

9th Inning - Home

The final inning covers approximately 1970 to 1993. While baseball survived the 1960s, the changes were not over, and in some ways its most bitter conflicts were just beginning. Major topics include the formation of the players' union, the owners' collusion, free agency, and drug scandals. The documentary ends with an ironic boast that baseball, and indirectly the World Series, could never be stopped. The 1994 World Series, the series to be played the year the film was aired, was canceled due to a players' strike. This marked the first time since 1904 that the World Series was not played.

Original airdate: Wednesday, September 28, 1994.

A 10th inning - At a preview screening of his 2007 documentary The War, Ken Burns spoke of very possibly coming up to date in the history of baseball with a "10th Inning" episode of his Baseball documentary, and it can be found on the Florentine Films web site. [1] This was offically confirmed by Burns in an MLB Network interview, and later to NBC LA web site during the winter Television Critics Association media tour January 8, and will air in 2010 covering the period from the 1994 strike through the 2008 season.

Reairings have been on PBS. As of 2009, the series airs on Tuesday nights at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT on the MLB Network.

Interview subjects

The following is a non-exhaustive list of people not involved in baseball who were interviewed in the documentary:

• Arthur Ashe, tennis player
• Roger Angell, editor and writer, The New Yorker
• Thomas Boswell, Washington Post columnist.
• Billy Crystal, comic actor
• Mario Cuomo, former governor of New York (and a former prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates system)
• Robert Creamer, writer, Sports Illustrated
• Gerald Early, Professor of Modern Letters, Washington University, St. Louis
• Shelby Foote, writer and historian
• Doris Kearns Goodwin, writer and historian
• Stephen Jay Gould, evolutionary biologist
• Donald Hall, poet and 14th U.S. Poet Laureate
• Charley McDowell, journalist
• Willie Morris, writer
• Daniel Okrent, public editor, The New York Times
• George Plimpton, writer
• Shirley Povich, sports writer, Washington Post
• John Sayles, filmmaker (most notably Eight Men Out)
• Studs Terkel, writer and journalist
• John Thorn, historian
• George Will, political commentator

The following is a non-exhaustive list of people who were more involved in the game of baseball, and were interviewed in the documentary:

• Henry Aaron
• Red Barber, broadcaster
• A.B. "Happy" Chandler, Commissioner of Baseball
• Bob Costas, broadcaster
• Charles "Chub" Feeney, executive, New York/San Francisco Giants
• Bob Feller
• Curt Flood
• Milt Gaston
• Billy Herman
• Bill "the Spaceman" Lee
• Mickey Mantle
• Marvin Miller, union organizer for Major League players
• Buck O'Neil
• Double Duty Radcliffe
• Jimmie Reese
• Rachel Robinson, widow of Jackie Robinson
• Mamie Ruth, sister of Babe Ruth
• Vin Scully, broadcaster
• Clyde Sukeforth, scout and manager, Brooklyn Dodgers
• Ted Williams

DVD

The entire series was released on a ten-disc DVD set on October 17, 2007, with each inning on a separate disc and a tenth disc of unaired material titled Extra Innings featuring a making of Baseball among other features.

External links

• PBS page on Baseball
• Baseball at IMDb