Customer Reviews

Baseball: The Tenth Inning [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This will likely be an unpopular review, but I must be honest. "Baseball: The Tenth Inning" does not hold a candle to the original series. While the "Top of the Tenth" is pretty good - "The Bottom of the Tenth" is essentially a retelling of the steroids controversy and the Yankee/Red Sox rivalry. I will admit that these are the two biggest stories between 1999-2009 but it certainly is not the only stories -

Things that were neglected

- Only 10 seconds devoted to the White Sox World Series victory in 2005 breaking their 88 year drought between championships.
- No mention of the Detroit Tigers - One of the most interesting stories of the decade was how the Tigers went from an 119 loss season in 2003 to a World Series appearance in 2006? The 2006 series between the Tigers/Cardinals was a rematch of the classic '68 Fall Classic - however, less than 5 seconds of the 2006 World Series is shown.
- Never mentions the rise of Tampa Bay as a powerhouse
- Excludes the Minnesota Twins.... and their stars Joe Mauer, Johnan Santana, or Justn Morneau. The Twins and Oakland A's of the 2000-2010 were the antithesis of the Yankees and Red Sox , and despite not winning a World Series they should be considered as two of the dominant teams.
- No mention of Miguel Cabrera, Carl Crawford, Paul Konerko, Trevor Hoffman, Jim Thome, any of the Twins, or really any player who was unfortunate enough not to play on one of the coasts.
- The only player interviewed is Pedro Martinez... which is a great choice... but why couldn't players be interviewed?
- Why not have a segment on the announcers of the period... no Harey Caray, Ernie Harwell, Vin Scully, or Jack Buck

While it is missing many key ingredients there are moments that help you remember the magic of Ken Burns. The highlight of the 4 hours is the McGwire/Sosa homerun chase of 1998. Burns is able to tell the story with passion and reminds us how exciting September 1998 really was. Burns also does a great job in the telling of the 1994 strike and the angst that it created. I certainly do not have an issue with the time spent on the Yankees (they are unquestionably the team of the period) but it seems like 50% of the time is devoted to the Yankees and their rivals ...the Red Sox. I agree with one of the over-riding themes of the documentary - this was an golden era for baseball, but why wasn't more time given to what truly made it a golden era?

Final Verdict - Maybe my expectations were too high, but I can help but be disappointed in the amount of material that Ken Burns left out of the documentary. It is interesting but it is far from being the definitive documentary of this period... at least I hope so!

2 1/2 stars

I have to say, I enjoyed the "Top of the 10th"...it definitely encapsulated 90's baseball and my brother and I kept turning to each other and saying "I remember that", but after watching the "Bottom of the 10th" I felt like the only things that have happened in baseball in the last decade are the Mitchell Report and the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry.

How about the Phillies in 2008? How about the White Sox breaking a DECADES long (longer than the Red Sox) drought to win the world series. How about Albert Pujols, arguably the best player of the past decade, who IS NOT EVEN MENTIONED? How about the Rockies winning 20 games in 21 days to go to the World Series in 2007? That is a damn good story, and there are plenty more from the past decade that were left out. I hate to break it to Ken Burns, but Baseball does happen outside of the Northeast...some darn good baseball actually.

I think this chapter focused too much on the negative, and not enough on the positive, for example Barry Bonds got easily 30 minutes of coverage, while Ken Griffey Jr, Cal Ripken Jr, and Ichiro Suzuki got maybe 2 minutes each.

If I were reviewing the "Bottom of the 10th" alone, giving it two stars would have been generous, but the "Top of the 10th" bumped up my ranking.

An absolutely phenomenal documentary. Burns capsulizes the game, starting and ending with the greatest microcosm of our (1986-2008) era, Barry Bonds, interspersing him throughout to ground what is an otherwise capacious documentary. We watch as Bonds rises from his youth into stardom, and as he jealously observes his peers being celebrated for their power rather than his overall mastery of the game. This is constantly contextualized with looks at such other seminal players of the era--Ichiro, the Braves' phenomenal pitching staff, the great (well, maybe not so much in retrospect) participants of the home run chase--and we understand, if not accept, the circumstances of his meteoric rise and later fall into ignobility. The parameters of Bonds' career contain within the changes of the game, from steroids to mass popularity, and I thought it was an excellent choice to continually return to Bonds' career throughout to individualize the games' numerous changes.

Burns touches on the world behind, or rather, atop baseball--the Clinton Scandal, 9/11 (a quick aside: I recall when Bonds promised $10,000 for each home run he hit following 9/11 to a victim's fund, and being willing then to forgive the game for all its faults, its greed and its cheating due to its greatest villain's contextualization of his meaningless endeavor; Burns constant progression through events reminds me of my feelings at the time)--but these are not the foci of his documentary; rather, these are considered insofar as they were escaped from in the verdurous, idyllic greens of America's splendid game.

Using such excellent commentators as Keith Olbermann, Mike Barnicle, and John Thorn Burns provides an excellent series of perspectives and related anecdotes on the game to humanize and further contextualize the game's numerous modulations. Some moments stand out--Olbermann talking to a man in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center' attack and Marcos Breton's remembrance of Roberto Clemente were particularly memorable--but each adds to the overall documentary, rather than being the purposeless digressions so often found in other televised documentaries.

Burns captures the game and the country in which it happened for these years, and touches on all the major (some things are certainly dismissed--the Tigers' World Series run (a personal favorite anyway), and the advent of interleague play, among others, but I felt he touched on the most significant events) issues and happenings of its expanses. This is the first documentary I've seen in which I knew an entire game's status and evolution were captured and saved for future generations while they were happening; for that, I applaud Ken Burns, and for that I recommend it to anyone who loves, has a general interest for, or harbors fond memories of what is still America's pastime. For any baseball fan, this is a capsule of our game's past 20 years, and it is something I suspect, though not relentlessly watchable, that will invoke these fond memories years from now, when we want to look back at America from the sticky-floored bleachers of the outfield.

The 10th inning is a very disappointing sequel to the much better earlier work of Ken Burns. The earlier work exploring baseball within the context of racism, labor and the emergence of free agency, was filled with the richness of a sport that has long passed.

I feel that far too much time was spent on the steroid issue. Far too much time spent on Barry Bonds. Far too much time wasted watching New York and Boston.

The 10th inning fails to address a major issue - that I believe lower income people are shut out of live viewing due to the outrageous costs of attending a game. Perhaps the film could have better addressed the lack of a salary cap and how that might have affected ticket prices. Or interviewed fans unable to afford attending a game.

A better documentary would have included an exploration into the decline of African-American participation in baseball since the last film.

I also found it offensive that I had to see, once again, the horrible film of planes crashing into the twin towers. That was totally inappropriate.

The "10th Inning" is nothing more than a highlight film coupled with the steroid drama and favoring the highlights of the big market teams. Again the film ignores the Chicago Whitesox.

Unbelievable!! The 2005 Whitesox had one of the most dominating post seasons of any team in history and with low salary base and team with players long gone.

Also why no mention of great players like future hall of famer Frank Thomas, whose great achievements were accomplished without the use of performance enhancing drugs? I counted about 4 seconds devoted to the 2005 Sox and no mention of the "Big Hurt.".

Ken Burns appends his 9 part PBS masterpiece. Unfortunately, the majesty that was 150 years of baseball spread over nine discs is lost in this microscopic close-up of 20 years spread over 4 hours. To make matters worse, the constant focus on the Red Sox and Yankees that was a quibble with the original film is full-on obnoxious in this episode. If you are a fan of the Yankees, or particularly the Red Sox, you'll probably love this film. For the rest of us it seems as long and drawn out as a game between these two same teams.

Congratulations, Ken Griffey Jr., You made the cover of The 10th Inning... and that's about it. The man who is arguably the greatest player of his era in light of the steroids scandal is talked about as much in a documentary covering the years 1992-2009 as Roberto Clemente, who died in 1972. In contrast, Barry Bonds hit 168 home runs from 2000-2002 and I'm reasonably sure Burns shows footage of every single one after spending 10 minutes talking about his childhood, college career, and early pro career in Pittsburgh.
John Chancellor passed away in 1996 and is replaced as narrator by Keith David, which by itself gives this chapter a different feel than previous ones and it might take another viewing to adjust to the change. One thing that didn't change was Burns' obsession with beating particular topics HE cares about to death. After spending 2 chapters respectively bludgeoning us with ridiculous stories of Babe Ruth hitting balls into orbit and Satchel Paige throwing pitches that broke the sound barrier, 3/4 of this 4 hour installment is spent on Bonds, McGwire/Sosa and the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry.
The only redeeming qualities of The Tenth Inning are the great coverage of the 2001 season in the wake of 9/11 and the interviews with Joe Torre, Pedro Martinez, Kieth Olbermann and a few others. Hopefully, Burns will make The 11th Inning worth waiting for, because this one fell short.

Even if it's still a good, nice documentary about baseball, Ken Burns's 10th inning is the weakest entry of the whole "Baseball" series. The amazement about the game, the joy of sharing something wonderful and meaningful is just not there.

Some important events of the last 15 years are not even covered, such as MLB's poor handling and fiasco of the Montreal Expos situation and the departure for Washington. I also dearly miss the former narrator...

Still, 10th inning is about Baseball and it can't be all that bad.

When the Ken Griffey Jr. chapter starts (around 19 minutes into the disc) my Panasonic BD80 and my sister's BD65 stop playing the disc. If you skip this chapter the disc plays fine. Seems to be a mastering error since other reviewers had the same problem.

...because the last 15-20 years of Major League Baseball has been checkered, at best. The owners don't care about the fans. The players don't care about the fans. Every single, solitary year the Yankees will be in the playoffs, or win the World Series. The teams they play will all be fine, for a year or so, until NY signs their best players. A-Rod, Clemens, Bonds, Sosa, Palmeiro, McGwire and countless others have cheated to try and win. That may not be a "legal" statement, but it's the damn truth. As fans, we know good and well what's cheating and what isn't. They cheated.
And, guess what? That's part of what this film documents.
Cal Ripken was a damn fine ball player. And Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire brought a whole lot of smiles and good feeling to a checkered part of baseball history. What else? Keith Olbermann, Tom Boswell, Joe Torre and Pedro Martinez are eloquent spokesmen for the game.
The ballgames they play in Japan, in Haiti, in Puerto Rico, in the Dominican Republic, in Mexico, etc. are every bit as fun to watch and enjoy as the game is here in the U.S.
That's all a part of what this film documents, too.
Is this a "definitive" history of the era we live in?
No. A generation, by definition, can't define itself historically.
Is this film a worthwhile investment for a baseball fan who wants to complete his collection, and hand it down to the grandchildren?
You bet.
If you can leave your prejudices at the door, you'll enjoy it for what it is: a damn fine film.

The strike, Cal Ripken, home runs, steroids, the Braves, the Yankees, 9/11, Ichiro Suzuki, Barry Bonds, sabermetrics, the Red Sox, the Mitchell Report. That's more or less what the Tenth Inning covers, more or less in order.

Which is fine. Those are obviously most of the most salient stories of the past decade and a half of Major League Baseball.

But where is Hideo Nomo? The breaking of the single-season AL wins record, first by the Yankees, then just three years later by the Mariners? QuesTec? The effects of revenue sharing and the luxury tax? Albert Pujols? Trevor Hoffman? Pitch counts? Roy Halladay?

I understand the program's only four hours long. But Ken Burns could have cut out quite a bit of the I Love the '80s-style commentary (especially given the surfeit of anti-juicing chatter) to make room for more substance.

Overall, though, while it could have been better, the Tenth Inning is still well worth watching. It's quite entertaining--even moving at times. I enjoyed it, anyway.