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Before you watch the Natural, For Love of the Game, or Bull Durham, you need to take a week and watch Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns. Each video covers a different era of the game, including the players, the parks, the owners, managers, the myths, the legends, the music and more. As each of the nine innings unfolds, you the viewer become more and more a part of America's Passtime. Filled with stories as told by the writers, fans, and players themselves. This is the absolute essential video collection for any American, baseball fan or not. Each of nine parts is divided into the top and bottom of an inning, covering a era, from the formation of the game, right up to the 1990s. Each episode tells the stories by noted writers, historians, and players. But this story goes beyond facts and dates. Each episode unfolds like a gift at Christmas, filled with pictures, videos, eye witnesses, and actual radio broadcasts, until you know not just what happened and when, but why that event became so important to the history of the game. When I watched The Natural, I was awestruck by the great story it made. But after watching Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, I could see how all the pieces fit together, and how the main character was built. It had been 13 years since I watched the series on PBS. I started watching the series again last Friday, and simply couldn't stop watching until this morning at 7AM. I've decided to make this series a part of my annual step-up to the beginning of the baseball season.Read full review
In its complete and total 100% greatness, "Baseball" is a story about our national past time from the 1840's to the Present day with "present day" being 1990. Under the concept if innings, Burns covers the history of the game from the Civil War era to the turn of the 20th Century. From there, inning titles describe the era discussed in each part. "The Faith of 50 Million People," "Shadowball," "The Capital of Baseball," and "A Whole New Ballgame" are just some of the titles presented in the series. As expected, a good deal of Baseball's heroes are covered in this series including Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Aaron, and countless others. Eras covered include but are not limited to the 1919 Black Sox Scandal, the game during the 1950's, and the fight for more money by the players which led to nine work stoppages including the 1994 strike which was ongoing when this series first aired on PBS. Expert Interviews include the following: Buck O'Neill: who spends time on his day in the sun and also baseball as a whole. Bob Costas: He is recognized as a baseball fan through and through and his recollections include discussions on the baseball world as a whole including his experiences as a Yankee fan growing up and his work in the clubhouse for NBC during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series. And: Doris Kerns Goodwin: She recounts her family's roots as Brooklyn Dodgers fans including her father watching the building of Ebbets Field, her joy of the team finally winning the World Series before bolting town in 1957, and her rebirth as a Red Sox fan including her recounting of Games 6 and 7 of the 1986 World Series. For the most part, "Baseball" glosses over some history such as that of Pittsburgh Pirates great Honus Wanger and the team of 1979, and the 1991 World Series between the Twins and Braves. However, that is to be expected since Ken Burns only had 21 hours to recount just over 150 years of history. There are plenty of resources out there to cover everything there is to know about the game, but for the buck, "Baseball" is a good introduction to the game's history.Read full review
I have enjoyed many of Ken Burns documentaries. The Civil War and Baseball are two of his best. I bought this on VHS because it is much less expensive than the DVD version. I saw this many years ago and am now watching it again with my young boys who have recently developed a fascination with baseball. They are learning many practical facts about American history and the history of Baseball. I think this video series is helping them to be better baseball players and is giving them important information about the history of America. If you are interested in sharing this with your kids I would caution you that it does have some language and real life situations. (drinking, affairs, etc) It is broken down into many smaller chapters on each video so you can watch a tape at a time or just a few chapters for those with shorter attention spans. I would recommend this series to those interested in American history even if you are not that interested in baseball.Read full review
This nine-inning set is superb. It's about the history of our national pasttime, from the Abner Doubleday myth and its actual roots to the emergence of Ty Cobb to the Black Sox scandal that nearly endangered the game to the star power of Babe Ruth to the Negro Leagues to the signing of Jackie Robinson to the relocation of two New York teams to the expansion to the West to the present day (as of 1994). I can't wait for September 28 (the day the 10th inning will be broadcast).
This boxed set started out well, with no problems and a nice low price. But on Tape 6 ("The Sixth Inning") there is no sound--no audio. The video portion is fine, but there is no audio. On Tape 7 the audio works fine, and I have not yet checked Tape 8 or Tape 9. I don't want to give a totally bad review based on one tape, but the defective tape does lower my rating of this product.
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