"Baseball" (1994)

It is not easy to express what a commitment it is to watch this film. A mini-series by Ken Burns of the complete history of baseball. By complete I mean 9 films [innings] around two hours each for a total of about 19 hours of film.

As you can imagine, while watching this lengthy film I pondered how on earth I was going to write a single simple review on so very much. So let's keep focused on if and why this is worth watching, and let's break it into three parts:

The first three films:
Our Game, Something Like a War, and The Faith of Fifty Million People delve into origins of the sport, the establishment of the rules, and the development of leagues. They are easily the most difficult ones to get through. Spanning from the mid-1800's to 1919 there are few players from this period that are widely recognized. It isn't until the third part that Babe Ruth is mentioned, and he fills much more in the 4th episode. The most memorable part for me (since he has been over a month since I actually watched the first three) was about Ty Cobb. He is painted in a very negative light and as the root of all that is wrong in baseball. A man that carries around lynching rope and opening opposed African-Americans in the National League. These were just average on their own.

The middle three films:
A National Heirloom, Shadow Ball, and The National Pastime are really the meat of this documentary. They contain the most emotional stories with Lou Gerrig in Episode 4 then Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and Jackie Robinson in Episode 6. Episode 5 lags and [in my opinion] strays from the history of the sport a little when they spend a very significant amount of time on politics and race. The Lou Gerrig portion was the most emotional for me, and Robinson's story is the most inspiring. Maybe some day I can convince my daughter to do a report on Jackie. There is also a lot about Babe Ruth spread across these three episodes, with a lot of interesting material. On its own Episodes 4 and 6 would get 9/10.

The last three films:
The Capital of Baseball, A Whole New Ball Game, and Home really go into depth on historic games. Starting in the 1950s and barely touching on the 80s and 90s this is the most East Coast bias portion of the series. You have to understand that baseball was only on the east coast for the majority of the first 5 or 6 films so this was really a chance to branch out and talk about the development of new teams, their survival, and acceptance nationally. Instead it was highly focused on New York and Boston teams. Which is fine, they did win a lot, and a lot of action was here. But it also contradicts itself when it focuses on the Mets and Dodgers in periods when they were awful rather than talk about the Cardinals, Reds, Twins, etc. at all. On its own these were just average also.

As a Rangers fan I was disappointed to hear next to nothing about my team. Sure they have only been around since the 70s and the two mentions were our owner Nolan Ryan, and the team moving from Washington, D.C. But it would have been nice to see something about a team from my area. Nothing on the Astros other than them building a dome. Nothing on Kansas City with the exception of the Black team a long long time ago.

I was also disappointed that they mentioned the minor leagues, e.g. the farm system. But they didn't spend any time on where these teams are. Which ones have been around for a long time. Which ones have tremendous support from their locals. They didn't talk about the draft or the inception of a professional draft. They didn't talk about the college game, or the College World Series. Nothing about the Little League World Series [something that might not have been around in 1994... I don't know], although they did have an "extra innings" portion at the end that talked about community leagues. Basically the scope of this film could have been wider given the run time. For 19 hours I wanted some of this stuff touched on.

If you love baseball watch this. Check your local listing for air times on PBS, MLB Network, check your library, or Netflix. I am amazed at how many people I've talked to have actually seen this mini-series. Overall I'm very glad I watched it.

Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108700/

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