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30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
An annual rite of spring: watching "Baseball", April 1, 2001
Every spring I watch Ken Burns' celebrated documentary "Baseball" on the weekend of Opening Day. Even if I am not sitting glued to the tube while it is on, listening to John Chancellor tell the story of the game is an enjoyable experience. Each "inning" takes on a specific focus, providing a defining element in the way Ty Cobb played the game, the Black Sox Scandal, the way Babe Ruth played the game, the struggle of the Negro Leagues, the dominance of New York temas in the Fifties, the creation of Free Agency, etc. Concise profiles of many of the game's greatest players and managers are spread throughout the nine volumes. More importantly, virtually every great moment in the history of the sport is to be found, not to mention some wonderful old-fashioned baseball songs.Clearly, the climax of the documentary comes in Inning 6, "The National Pastime," when Jackie Robinson starts playing for the Dodgers. The series begins with a prologue on Ebbets Field and Robinson is laid to rest in the final episode. While the focus is on the Major Leagues throughout, Burns always checks back in with what is happening with the black players and the Negro Leagues, building towards Robinson breaking the color barrier. I think it is fair to say the documentary loses some steam after that point, but then that is the point where the series gets to players and moments that overlap our own lifetime. Once we get to colored images from television there is a different feel to "Baseball" from the black & white images to which we have become accustomed. Also, the more you know about the history of baseball the more you will see the glaring omissions. Stan Musial is the obvious example cited by other reviewers, but he is eclipsed in the episodes covering the 40's and 50's by Jackie Robinson and the New York teams, just as he was during his career. In terms of the talking heads it is hard to appreciate Billy Crystal and George Will, devotees of the game though they are, after listening to Buck O'Neill (who is the breakthrough "Shelby Foote" of "Baseball"). However, I prefer to ascribe these shortcomings to editorial decisions and the fact this is only a nine-tape set instead of maliciousness. So, yes, it could be better, and maybe it is too reverent, but there is a fundamental love of the game here comparable to such treasured feature films as "The Natural," "Bull Durham" and "Field of Dreams." All of these are necessary spring training workouts for preparation of enjoying the boys of summer.
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55 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
View it as entertainment, not as history, July 8, 2004
Ken Burns is becoming well-known as much for what he leaves out of his documentaries as for what he tells you and how he tells it. One sees it somewhat in the Civil War documentary (unless of course you are a Lost Cause devotee, in which case you view that series as horribly biased and riddled with errors), and it is definitely (and troublingly) evident in his Jazz documentary, where 40 years of jazz is virtually glossed over in favor of an almost obsessive fixation on Louis Armstrong. In the case of "Baseball," Burns again leaves out huge chunks of the story, although the end result is nonetheless entertaining.In the case of "Baseball," the unrelenting focus is on New York City, Babe Ruth & Jackie Robinson, and to be fair, there is no way you could discuss the subject of baseball without devoting a great deal of time to these subjects. However, the title of the documentary is "Baseball," not "The New York City, Babe Ruth, and Jackie Robinson Story," and it is possible to watch this documentary at times and come to believe that nothing else was happening out side of New York most of the time. I recall reading a Sports Illustrated article a few years ago that discussed the Philadelphia Athletics from 1929-1931, and made the case that that team was better than the famed "Murderer's Row" Yankees of 1926-1928, and possibly the best team in baseball history. The article's author crunched the numbers, compared the stats, and made a pretty compelling case. He then asked why so little attention has been paid to the A's over the years, and posited that because most of the nation's important papers and sportswriters were based in New York City; by default the majority of the great sportswriting was devoted to the Yankees, while relatively backwater Philadelphia languished in obscurity. It seems to be the same situation with Burns. While other incredibly dominant teams such as (in the early years) the Chicago Cubs, the A's, the Pittsburgh Pirates & the Detroit Tigers are given passing mention, they are quickly shoved on the back burner in favor of the Boston Red Sox & New York Giants. Then the Yankees & the Dodgers begin to coalesce, and it is all New York, all the time. One gets no feeling for how dominant the 1929-1931 A's (or the St. Louis Cardinals of the mid-1930's) were, because Burns continually focuses on Babe Ruth & the Negro Leagues. When Burns gets to the 1950's he can be excused, because really it was a New York-dominated decade like no other. However, the other decades did in fact see a more competitive balance, and one would not get this impression from the documentary. It would have been nice if Burns hadn't crammed the last quarter century of his story into one "inning." Are you telling me that the stories since 1970 aren't as compelling as the early years of baseball. I don't believe that Burns would have had to devote that much more time to the post-1970 era to make it feel less cursory and rushed. This is a somewhat annoying tendency of his that was more griveously evident when he made "Jazz." Also, I get a little tired of the "poetry of baseball" school of thought. It isn't as though I am some knuckle-dragging troglodyte who gets all his news from sports radio; I am just as likely to go to the opera as to the ballpark. This baseball as metaphor for how the cosmos works gets on my nerves after a while (although I consider Roger Angell's comment "there's more Met than Yankee in all of us" to be priceless beyond description). It's not that baseball doesn't imbue our life with a little extra something special, it's just that some of these talking heads tend to get a little overwrought. I enjoyed watching the documentary the first time, and I have watched it probably half a dozen times since over the years. By comparison, I have watched "The Civil War" about 15 times, I would guess. I was so disappointed with "Jazz" that I managed only a second viewing. In any case, "Baseball" is very entertaining, and that is what largely accounts for my 4-star rating I would only caution those who don't know their baseball history that this documentary omits a great deal of what is a very good story.
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18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Beware of frequent interuptions on DVD version, October 28, 2000
This documentary - in its original form - is nothing short of magic. Poetry. While I am happy that I purchased this dvd set, I am very frustrated by the frequent interuptions to the narrative. Sometimes mid-sentence, breaks have been intentionally added in order to provide the viewer with the opportunity to "press the select button" to see the players stats as "extras" of the dvd. Keep in mind, there is no way to go back and get the ends of the sentences - they're simply not there. These interuptions completely disrupt the flow of the narration and leave the viewer feeling like their missing out. If you prefer the "extras" that the dvd has to offer including player stats, scene selection, etc., you will enjoy this set. However, if you want to experience this beautiful documentary in the form that Ken Burns had originally intended - buy the VHS version. You will NOT be disappointed.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
A problem of scope, February 26, 2005
There are two wonderful documentaries contained here. One is the story of New York baseball, from the Giants to Babe Ruth to the Brooklyn "Bums" to the '86 Mets. The other is the story of Negro League baseball and breaking the color barrier. These two separate documentaries come together wonderfully in the chapter on Jackie Robinson.
The problem is that the film wants to be something more. It wants to be the complete story of baseball, and that ambition comes up short. Many good players and valuable stories were given short shrift because they apparently didn't fit the narrative outline chosen by the film-maker.
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19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
If you love baseball, watching this series will tell you why, February 23, 1999
By A Customer
Throughout my life, I've always had a fondness for baseball. Being first a Yankee, then Mets fan, I learned the highs and lows of supporting your team. With heartbreaking disappointment in 1981 and 1988, I walked away from the game. In 1998, I fell in love again with the New York Mets, crossed my fingers watching the HomeRun Derby, even giving credit to the Yankees' (my mortal enemies) amazing season. After watching the Baseball series, I remembered why I love this game. Not only did I learn the game's origins and history, but I began to understand WHY this game is so interwoven into culture. Baseball cannot exist without America, America cannot exist without baseball. Time and time again this series shows us how the game renews itself, bringing pride, energy and unifying us as a nation. The 1994 strike has whittled away with last year's triumphs and tragedies. The game has once again returned to the American people.This is a must for baseball fans and students of the game alike. This is an investment. I only hope Ken Burns will add to the series in the future.
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
Very Good But Not Excellent, July 25, 2000
Few filmmakers are better than Ken Burns when it comes to shooting documentaries. Burns' Baseball series is further proof that he is one of the best documentary filmmakers around today, although Baseball pales in comparison to Burns' Civil War series. This anthology has some great things going for it; for instance, it's for the most part very well written and is accompanied by great photos. The music is also quite good. Many of the people who were interviewed for these films offer superb commentary, especially the former Negro Leaguer Buck O'Neil, one of the most delightful personalities the game has ever produced. Most of baseball's best moments are highlighted with proper detail. Unlike most baseball histories (books or films), Burns' documentary gives extensive coverage of the Negro Leagues, which only makes the series better. For the most part, this is a very strong, very well-done series. Unfortunately, it does suffer from a few shortcomings. Many people have complained that Burns chose to focus too much on certain teams, like the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox. These critics may have a legitimate complaint, but they have to realize that those three teams are steeped in baseball history and do deserve a lot of coverage, although probably not as much as they received. Because those three clubs were focused on so heavily, many teams and players were given the shaft. Stan Musial doesn't even get mentioned in the video that focuses on the 1940s, a decade in which he became one of the five or ten best ballplayers of all time. But at least he gets mentioned (on some of the other videos). Mike Schmidt, generally considered the greatest third basemen who ever lived, isn't mentioned even once during the entire 20-hour series. This type of oversight is tremendous and cannot be ignored. The fact of the matter is that Schmidt played in the 70s and 80s, two decades (along with almost half of the 90s) that were crammed into the same video. As a result, much of modern baseball history is neglected. Where is the famous George Brett Pine Tar Incident? What about all the player strikes, especially the one in 1981 that split the season in half? Why isn't the amazing 1991 World Series covered in greater detail? The answer is that Burns tried to cover too much time in the last video. The 70s was certainly a good enough baseball decade to warrant an entire video, and Burns could have covered the 80s up to the present with another video. But that would have meant having ten videos instead of nine, thus eliminating the opportunity to call each series installment an inning (oh boy, that would've ruined it). Another problem is that some of the people who are interviewed are way too sentimental. John Thorn, for instance, goes completely off the deep end with his comments several times, especially when he compares baseball to "the promise of eternal life." One can do justice to baseball without resorting to careless sap. Unfortunately, this series gets sappy more often than it should. Yes, baseball is a great game, but it is not the meaning of life. Despite all of these problems, the series is extremely informative and very entertaining. Worth buying if you love the game.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A tribute to baseball by Ken Burns and his team, December 25, 2007
This volume contains a lot that is very good. Its structure is a bit forced (nine innings, or periods, of baseball history). The 9th inning, as others have noted, covers a large time frame compared with earlier "innings." I'm not sure that the decade is the best way of organizing baseball history, either. Still and all, that's more a matter of taste than anything else.
The book's authors candidly observe that they will focus on eastern teams, e.g., Boston Red Sox and Brooklyn Dodgers, "because we felt their stories especially rich in the human drama that accompanies the history of every team." However, I agree with a reviewer (who bears the name of one of Detroit's best first basemen ever) who laments that this really does slight the deep baseball history that covers much more territory than New York to Boston. Again, though, certainly not a fatal flaw by any stretch in this book.
This book is seen as complementary to the documentary series on PBS, designed to elaborate certain issues in ways not possible in the TV medium. Some of the special features in both the documentary and book are the recollections of Buck O'Neil; interviews with historians, writers, managers, and players. Finally, essays by a number of "guests" represent an interesting twist. Roger Angell has a wonderful Introduction, "Hard Lines," in which he juxtaposes the apparent ease of playing baseball with the harsh realities of players often fighting just to stay in the big leagues or losing the joy for the game (note the brief discussion on Carl Yastrzemski). He observes that: "Once we understand how really hard it is, we become citizens of baseball, admiring its laws and just paths, even when the luck of the day hasn't gone our way." Other guest commentators include George Will, Bill James, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.
But the book is about baseball, so the nine innings are themselves the heart of this book. The early years, up until 1900, feature a strange game to us today, with very different rules--as well as the origins of racial segregation in the game (the issue of race is one of the main themes of the book). The second inning discusses the game as "Something like a war," when players played and fought hard. And so on. No need to provide a full chronology. Some special segments: the role of Babe Ruth, in the Fourth Inning, helping baseball dig out from under the disaster of the Chicago Black Sox, who threw a World Series. The Sixth Inning features the end of segregation in baseball, with Jackie Robinson's big league debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
A final quotation from Buck O'Neil illustrates how the game can be addictive--to players (and even to fans), when he says: "There is nothing in life like getting your body to do all the things it has to do on the baseball field."
All in all, an ambitious work, trying to capture the spirit of baseball, its sins, and its contributions. While I do have some questions about this volume, as already noted, it ends up not quite being a home run, but it surely is extra bases.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
A moving history of the National Pastime, March 6, 2006
I remember watching this on television when it first aired in 1994. I've since purchased the collection on VHS and have watched it once almost every year since.
Ken Burns weaves a wonderful tapestry of nostalgia, emotion, photographs, newsreels and personal reflections into the history of 20th-Century America through the lens of baseball. The American Pastime mirrors the social changes of our country - good and bad - and Burns demonstrates this throughout.
Burns probably needs to be forgiven for his 'obsession' with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. While both figures are dominant in the broadcasts, the stories are indeed moving and I remember shedding several tears during the original telecast during these sequences. The New York and Boston teams are emphasized - which is fine; it would be impossible to encapsulate all of the rich history of baseball on just nine tapes or discs. Although a strong Cardinals fan, I didn't feel 'slighted.' Ken Burns is from the East Coast, anyway, so it's entirely understandable that his historical emphasis would reflect this.
To me, the highlights are the rare newsreel footage of both Ruth and Robinson, the priceless reflections from Buck O'Neil, the perspectives from Dan Okrent, the 'Black Sox' Scandal, and the simultaneous interweaving of the Negro Leagues with the Major Leagues. Burns has a tendency to make political points (at the expense of improving the production) in subtle and overt ways. The only color footage shown in the production prior to the 1960's is that of the Negro Leagues and Ladies' Professional Leagues. I can't believe that that wasn't deliberate - I'm sure that Burns had access to historic color footage of the Major Leagues, but chose not to incorporate it.
Overall, however, this set is a wonderful collection for the baseball fan of all ages - very intelligent and very moving.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Blockbuster, April 12, 1999
By A Customer
A tour de force of a book to accompany the PBS video series. This book is one of the best to examine the history of baseball and its impact on America and the American people. Highlights include the coverage of Jackie Robinson and the Negro Legues, particularly the interviews with Buck O'Neil (who should be in Baseball's Hall of Fame). The only disappointment was that it was a bit short on information about Mickey Mantle. Still, this is a major work that belongs on the coffee table of baseball lovers everywhere.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
Fantastic Baseball Chronicle, June 21, 2000
I was so impressed with this collection. When it first aired on PBS, I was glued to the set. Anyone who wants to know in depth history of baseball, this is a great source. I have rented the videos a ton of times. One of my favorite episodes is "Shadowball" which focuses on the Negro Leagues and the admission of minorities into Major League Baseball. Buck O'Neil, the charismatic player, coach, and historian has some great insight to the old game. By the way, if you are ever in Kansas City, stop by the Negro League Hall of Fame. Chances are Buck will greet you personally and spend time discussing baseball with you for as long as you like. It was one of my most cherished baseball moments. Burns triumphs with a granular look at the various eras in baseball. For the die-hard fan, this is a must for your collection. I tear up every time I hear Gehrig's "luckiest man alive" speech, sing along with the "Say Hey" song, etc. Burns puts you right in the moment. You'll love it. I just wish Burns would add one more volume to update until the end of the century. But we would always be going back for more as long as the game is played.
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