Baseball - A Film by Ken Burns

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: I have come to the conclusion that Ken Burns
cannot make a documentary over 2 hours long.
He is repetitious and on
a soap box throughout this documentary. There are some
wonderful moments, but the east coast bias and the social
commentary get old very quick. How many times, I groaned
at the screen, "not again"...I get it Ken, I get it...show
me some baseball already. It is very apparent that
this documentary was made to be watched over the course of
2 1/2 months...it is unwatchable back to back. Pick any one
disk and it is very enjoyable, but then put it away for a while
before you watch another one. dissapointing.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: As a longtime baseball fan and historian I had high hopes for this series. It started out OK, and the volume concerning the 1920's was exceptional. By the 1970's volume it had petered out. I was just watching the tapes to get through them.

A major issue is the amount of time it spends focusing on the problems blacks have had in the game. Large portions of nearly every episode are taken up with this topic. Of all players, I believe Jackie Robinson is talked about more than anyone (even more than Babe Ruth). While his contribution was important, it should not constitute 10% of the complete history of baseball over the past century. The racial stuff was interesting at first, but then Burns completely drove it into the ground until I was thinking to myself "Cripes, not another segment on racial problems. I have heard it all 3-4 times already".

There was no real coverage of the stadiums themslves (just a bit here and there). Famous stadiums, and even crappy little parks were rarely mentioned, and never in how they were layed out, and how it impacted on play. There was also no mention at all of famous baseball movies (like "Pride of the Yankees", and others). As a social history of baseball and how it has been part of US culture I think they skipped a big part.

Finally, many of the great controversies were skipped or ignored (guess you have to make room for all of the Jackie Robinson worship), and lots of famous/spectacular plays were not covered.

Other than that it was decent. Many of the old pictures, films, and memorabilia were interesting. I would recommend it if you have nothing better to watch, and if you are VERY interested in baseball from a cultural standpoint.

Rating:
Summary: Sentimentality run amok
Review: I will acknowledge that I'm a once avid baseball fan who has soured on the sport, in part because it's become of a case of the rich get richer (read that the Yankees and Mr. Steinbrenner) and in part because of "innovations.'' I loathe the designated hitter and while I've come to appreciate the wild card for its ability to keep teams in the race long after they should be out, I still think it's a perversion of the sport I grew up with.

But what really turned me off was the segment on baseball in NY between the 50s and 60s, which is when I grew up as a fan of the Dodgers. The segment, it turns out, is 75 percent Yankees without mentioning that they were just as Steinbrenneresque in those days as they are now. (How CAN anyone be a Yankee fan if it's a lost season when you make it to the World Series and lose?)

So we get all about Mantle and Stengel and the Yankees (cleansing the part about Mantle's carousing shortening his career _ it's mentioned and brushed off). For all anyone can tell, the only players on the Dodgers and Giants were Robinson and Mays (Burns' description of the plight of black ballplayers is a strong part of the documentary, but that's overdoing it.) A little Snider and Campanella, no Hodges and Furillo and Don Newcombe, one of the best pitchers AND hitters of the era only in passing. A little Monte Irvin. No Don Mueller, Alvin Dark, Hank Thompson (hey, he forgot an African--American), Davey Williams.

There are factual errors _ Ralph Branca's career did NOT go downhill because of the stress caused by Thomson's homer. It went downhill because he had a sore arm that he hurt as a rookie. They didn't have Tommy John surgery or other medical advances in those days.

And omissions. As noted, Burns spends a lot of time on the plight of black players. He NEVER notes in this segment that the Yankees were one of the last teams to have one and the best _ Vic Power _ was shipped to what amounted to their farm team, the Athletics, because he wasn't the "right'' kind of black.

OK, I'm biased. I'm soured on baseball and my team the Mets, who grew from the ashes of the Dodgers and Giants, are horrible and mismanaged right now. (Another omission: nothing about the greed that drove O'Malley to California.) In fact, Burns has Stoneham taking the Giants there first when in truth, it was O'Malley who got Stoneham to agree that they would go together.

There's some good stuff here. Buck O'Neil is a wonderful character, certainly very positive for a man barred by his color from playing in the major leagues. But too many flaws. Too many mistakes.

Sorry, but only three stars.

Rating:
Summary: Those who hate baseball, just give it a try
Review: I am now watching Ken Burn's Baseball for the second time. It is an amazing piece of art and story telling. I am enjoying it and learning about America through Baseball.
I have to say, let's hear it for Buck O'Neil! What a neat way for Americans to learn about a loveable guy like Buck O'Neil.

But I have to say there are some really weird people who have commented on this documentary. Here is my response to what I have seen here:

1. Of course Ken Burns' has opinions about baseball. However, I have to disagree with some of people's comments. Jackie Robinson is NOT the only focus. He isn't in the documentary until the 6th episode. Curt Flood did face discrimnation: He was black and worked in the south. As American's we say that things are "As American as Baseball, Mom, and Applepie." That is a pretty sweeping statement we make all the time. That means we need to look at Baseball in a sweeping context. Are you going to say that there isn't any discrimination in America?

2. What is wrong with focusing on the East Coast? That is where baseball started and focused itself professionally for a long time.

3. If you think baseball and this documentary is boring, there isn't much I can do for you.

4. This is an admirable documentary that shows people another way of looking at America: Through the lense of Baseball. That is what all good history books do. And here is a way for people to learn something if they won't read a book.

5. Of course there are non-baseball people commenting in this documentary. The point is to look at AMERICAN history, not just BASEBALL.

6. It is too bad there weren't more baseball players in this documentary, but what are you going to do about it? Most of the big names were dead.

So, get over it you big meanies--Baseball is a wonderful experience!


Rating:
Summary: Irresistible for any baseball fan
Review: This exceptional series from documentarian extraordinaire Ken Burns is a baseball lover's delight. For a huge number of Americans, the game of baseball holds a special place in our hearts that cannot be effaced by other interests or supplanted by another sport. It embraces a host of paradoxes and yet seems pure and primal and simple in a way that other team sports do not. It has emerged as the thinking-person's sport, with a wealth of literary works-whether fictional, historical, analytical, or statistical-that dwarves the literary products of all other sports combined (only boxing can even remotely make the same kinds of literary claims). Yet, it is almost impossible to express all the reasons for the appeal that baseball holds for its fans. Usually a case has to be made obliquely, by teasing out the maze of puzzles at its heart-e.g., it is the only major sport where you score without the ball or the only sport where the ball begins in the hands of the defense-and for those impatient to dismiss the sport as boring it is not an easy case to make. But for the nonfan, this superb series can at least provide some hints for why some of us love it so much. For the fan, it is heaven.

Burns's and his crew follow the history of baseball from its earliest days all the way down to the present (or at least circa 1990, the series debuting in 1994). Some of the most fascinating parts of the series consists in the remarkable photographs and footage shown in the first two or three episodes. I had never previously seen Ty Cobb in action, or any footage at all of Christy Mathewson, and while I had read about Walter Johnson's sidearm, almost underhanded, throwing motion, what that precisely looked like, I had no idea. Now I do. The series provides a host of revelations about idols from the past. Some of the footage is unbelievable, such as a clip featuring Babe Ruth where he actually shuffles up to the front of the batter's box to get a better angle on a pitched ball before slugging it. I didn't think that such a thing was possible (though a friend of mine has informed me that Ted Williams on at least one occasion did the same thing to attack an Eephus pitch, towering curve that arrives with a massive arch and minimal velocity), but constant replays on the DVD confirmed it. On nearly every major figure in the history of baseball there is either remarkable footage or spectacular photographs. And the ballparks! I now have a better idea of what Forbes Field and the Polo Grounds looked like than I ever did before.

The series also excels at covering some of the more important aspects of the history of baseball. For instance, the shameful treatment of African Americans, banning them from baseball, despite the fact that many black players were among the best players of their age, or even of all time. Burns's covers the careers of such great black players as Rube Foster, Satchell Paige, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell, all of which is brought even more vividly to life through numerous interviews with Buck O'Neill. The Jackie Robinson story is given especial and proper focus, and actually begins early in the series by covering carefully the early career of the great Branch Rickey.

Most of the great moments in the history of baseball are covered, such as Ruth's supposed called shot, Bill Mazerowski's World Series ending homerun, a severely hung over Grover Cleveland Alexander's groggily walking out to the mound to pitch an inning in the World Series the day after he celebrated his victory in the previous game, Bobby Thompson's home run heard around the world, Hank Aaron's 715th homerun, Willie Mays's spectacular catch of Vic Wertz's drive to deep center field, and Brooks Robinson's almost surreal throw from the 3rd base coaches box to snag a runner at first. Not all of the great plays are included. As a Cub fan, I was disappointed to see one of the most famous home runs in baseball history, Gabby Hartnett's "Homer in the Gloamin'" omitted, and I am utterly perplexed as to why the Cubs' famous collapse in 1969 received no mention. Any Cub fan is aware that that season virtually defines the post-1945 Cubs, and ignoring it also meant ignoring Billy Williams and Ron Santo. These omissions do point out the only serious fault I find in the series: the extreme New York-Boston bias of the series. One can come away from it with the impression that virtually nothing of importance to baseball took place outside of those two northeastern cities. Granted, there have been times when the game did seem to exist primarily there, such as the 1950s, but baseball has definitely been played elsewhere as well.

The guest commentators are, for the most part, eloquent and articulate. No one individual stands out in the way that Shelby Foote did in Burns's THE CIVIL WAR, not even Foote, who makes some a couple of appearances, but as a group they are either quite entertaining or insightful. My one regret is that more of the game's great players did not participate. In many instances this isn't a surprise. Joe DiMaggio, one of the more unpleasant personalities in the history of baseball despite the love the public lavished on him, certainly would not have been interested. Sandy Koufax would have been great, but his desire to stay out of the limelight probably precluded his involvement. Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Bob Feller, and a few others appeared, but they are far surpassed by the great players who did not appear. This I very much regret.

I hope that this remarkable series might someday be brought out in a new DVD edition. We expect far more in the way of extras today than when this first appeared as a DVD set, and one can imagine that there is a large body of material eligible for inclusion. One can access "Baseball Cards," for instance, of the key players, but these could have been so much more interesting, including stills and even film footage. Even as it is, however, this series will be essential viewing for any person who cares at all for the American pastime. For those who don't love the game, it can serve as a great introduction to understanding those of us who do.

Rating:
Summary: left wing history cloaked via baseball
Review: One has only to suffer through disc 9 covering 1970-1994 to be made painfully aware of all of Mr. Burns biases. This 2 hours and twenty minutes covers about 30 minutes of baseball with the rest obsessed by racial and labor issues which are presented from a predictably leftist perspective. It's the type of twisted liberal viewpoint that reeks of contempt for American culture as a cesspool of injustice. Who would want to live in the society depicted here if one was to only judge from this DVD?
Of smaller note is the incredible East Coast bias. The perceptive fan might learn of baseball outside of NYC or Boston but he better not blink or it will be missed (about the only west coast moment is Kirk Gibson's heroics from '88).
Finally, the various interviewees are almost uniformally non players and non baseball people for that matter, often complete nobody's whose only common thread (save George Will) is their leftist dogma. They ( espescially Gould and Goodwin) are insufferable.
An edited version without the obsession with racial and labor issues would come down to 3 DVD's which just might be watchable.
Laughable asides: the disc from the 40's suggest women are being unfairly kept out of the majors as players, while a comment on the 60's disc compares the labor situation in baseball to slavery. Burn's, you should be ashamed, however you're likely to proud and angry to see or acknowledge these comments as legitimate

Rating:
Summary: if you love baseball
Review: I think that this book is great. I also own the PBS series on video. I like how it focuses on the human side of the history of baseball. It doesnt just tell all the numbers and stats. If you are a baseball fan I'm sure you will enjoy this.