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Baseball - A Film by Ken Burns
List Price: $149.88Price: $31.00 You Save: $118.88 (79%)Prices subject to change.
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780780605480
Format: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 0780605489
Label: Pbs Home Video
Languages: English (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: Pbs Home Video
Number Of Items: 9
Publisher: Pbs Home Video
Release Date: April 16, 1995
Studio: Pbs Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: September 18, 1994
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Editorial Review:
After the national success of his 11-hour epic, The Civil War--the highest-rated miniseries in public-television history--many wondered if Ken Burns could capture the same energy and passion with smaller subjects. His reply, the 18-hour history of America's greatest sport, Baseball, not only quieted these worries, it also perhaps surpassed his prior achievement. Massive in scope (it covers more than 100 years), exhausting in detail, and filled with celebrities, journalists, politicians, historians, and the men who played the game, Burns's romantic love letter to the game achieves the impossible: even those who hate baseball can't help but become immersed in it. This is because Burns doesn't just detail the great players and the memorable plays and games; he also presents baseball as a cultural and social mirror, reflecting the beauty and hypocrisy of the nation that created it. Divided into nine innings, two hours each in length, the video examines complex social issues such as segregation, racial inequality (its section on Jackie Robinson, baseball's first African American player, should be required school viewing), labor battles between owners and players, politics, technology and gender conflicts, among others. Then, of course, there's fascinating footage and biographies on the players--troubled icons such as Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb, heroes such as Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle, and tragic figures such as Pete Rose and Lou Gehrig--the men who, despite a rocky and often hypocritical history, constructed baseball's tradition and preserved its invincibility. --Dave McCoy
4 cassettes / 4 hours
Read by Ken BurnsThe companion AudioBook to Ken Burns's magnificent PBS Television SeriesThe authors of the acclaimed and history-making bestseller The Civil War now turn to another defining American phenomenon. Their subject is Baseball.During eight months of the year, it is played professionally every day; all year round, amateurs play it, watch it, and dream about it. Baseball produces remarkable Americans: it seizes hold of ordinary people and shapes them into something we must regard with awe. Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio . . . truly gifted human beings acting out universal fantasies that, for whatever reason, are most perfectly expressed on a baseball field.All this and more rings through Ward and Burns's moving, crowded, fascinating history of the game - a history that goes beyond stolen bases, triple plays, and home runs to demonstrate how baseball has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced our national life: politics, race, labor, big business, advertising, and social custom. The audio covers every milestone of the game: from the rules drawn up in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright to the founding of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players in 1885, from the 1924 Negro World Series through Jack Roosevelt Robinson's major-league debut in 1947, and Nolan Ryan's seventh and last no-hitter in 1991.Monumental, affecting, informative, and entertaining - Baseball is an audio that speaks to all Americans.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - The Old Ball Game
Only the sport of baseball could lend itself (via its long, rich heritage) to a Ken Burns-style documentary. Of course, Burns nails it once again.
Though not as emotionally touching as his Civil War or World War II documentaries, Baseball captures the essence of America's pastime. From Walter Johnson, Babe Ruth, and Ty Cobb to Willie, Mickey, and the Duke, to Yaz, Pete Rose, Mick Schmidt, and everyone in between, Burns recounts all the rousing stories that old fans will recite from ... Read More
Rating: - A tribute to baseball by Ken Burns and his team
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, ... Read More
Rating:  - Baseball is too broad a title for this narrow look
Call the film something other than "Baseball". That word is far too broad for what we get to see.
Let's look at one installment: "Inning 8: 1960-1970".
Point One: There must be very little baseball history in the midwest U.S. because "Baseball" tells very little from it. This must be mentioned as a disclaimer. However, there are stories from the midwest that should never be overlooked. For example, the 1968 season in Detroit seemed to fit so well into the flow of the documentary. ... Read More
Rating: - The consummate set of videos about Baseball.
Contained in these ten DVD's are just about every historical moment in baseball.
Inning 1 Baseball from its inception in the 1840's to the 1900's This explores baseballs roots from Abner Doubleday to the beginnings of what we know as modern day baseball.
Inning 2 1900 to 1910. The beginning of the World Series. Great footage and photos of old parks and players.
Inning 3 1910 TO 1920. Covers Babe Ruth, the Black sox, Grover Cleveland Alexander and more. Footage of Fenway ... Read More
Rating: - Good, but not absolutely great
I hate to say it, mainly because I don't want to come off as racist, but this documentary spends a little too much time on the Negro Leagues. For a league no longer in existence, I think Burns could have spent as much time as he did on the other forgotten leagues. By the middle innings you are left wondering if this is a documentary about the Negro Leagues or about Baseball. He spends less time on the All American Girls Baseball League then it actually existed. This was America's first attempt at creating a women's ... Read More
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