On my local PBS right now- if you haven't seen it, it's damn good.
Ken Burns' "Baseball"
- Thread starter Nitt1300
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Thank you for the heads up. Im working three days a week and will definitely schedule so i can watch..
I love the series. However, Ken should issue a revised version given what has become known about the false narrative around Ty Cobb. He spends a lot of time perpetuating it, and it appears it may all be untrue.
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And he also really ignored the Phillies, partly due to their supposed racist history (it wasn't good--but no worse than say the Red Sox, who got a lot more mentions). Not sure how you can do a documentary on Baseball without Mike Schmidt though.
I caught parts of it the year it came out. It definitely brought me back to the baseball of my youth, from the late 60s through the late 70s and even the early 80s when the Pirates and Phillies were both competitive. I can still remember half of State College celebrating during the playoffs, and the other half antagonizing the other. I can laugh about it now.
Like any documentary, it often misses key characters. This may be do to bias on the part of the creator, access to material-photos, videos, written and in person accounts. Even with these voids, I have found his documentaries on Baseball and Country Music to bring back memories I had forgotten-Lyman Bostock in baseball anyone? and provide new stories and details.
Like any documentary, it often misses key characters. This may be do to bias on the part of the creator, access to material-photos, videos, written and in person accounts. Even with these voids, I have found his documentaries on Baseball and Country Music to bring back memories I had forgotten-Lyman Bostock in baseball anyone? and provide new stories and details.
That's pretty good. Yes, sporting venues have been the home to some of unhealthiest yet best marketed regional items we ingest...I avoided the use of the word food.
It's legitimately tragic that Ty Cobb's legacy was dragged through the mud the way it's been for generations. TV or radio personalities talking about Cooperstown's "character clause?" To this day, you could bet someone's bringing up and disparaging Cobb within seconds.
That said, Ken Burns Baseball is mostly fantastic.
I love baseball. it is so unique in sports. I recall taking a British guy to a Tribe game and having to explain the game to him. The Tribe was down by a run in the seventh when the opposing pitcher walked the first batter and went down 2-0 to the next batter. The crowd began to cheer. He was looking around because he thought he missed something. Players were standing around doing nothing between pitches and the crowd was stirring. WTF?
Baseball is a game of math. The balance of distance between bases and distance to home plate is amazing and has stood, with little adjustment, over time. The time from pitcher, to catcher, to second base to catch a guy trying to steal is magical. The dynamics of a player batting .300 or .250 is amazing. The areas that a player can cover on defense is crazy to think about. The ball/stike ratio, getting that first pitch over, batter knowing the pitcher needs that first strike, the change in batting average with/without a first strike, curves, sliders, changeups, working the four corners of the plate, the slide step, your move to first base. Baseball is a game of high tension and is a thriller like a slow-moving Hitchcock movie.
Nothing like waxing the car with the radio on listening to a good announcer call a game.
Baseball is a game of math. The balance of distance between bases and distance to home plate is amazing and has stood, with little adjustment, over time. The time from pitcher, to catcher, to second base to catch a guy trying to steal is magical. The dynamics of a player batting .300 or .250 is amazing. The areas that a player can cover on defense is crazy to think about. The ball/stike ratio, getting that first pitch over, batter knowing the pitcher needs that first strike, the change in batting average with/without a first strike, curves, sliders, changeups, working the four corners of the plate, the slide step, your move to first base. Baseball is a game of high tension and is a thriller like a slow-moving Hitchcock movie.
Nothing like waxing the car with the radio on listening to a good announcer call a game.
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If you subscribe to MLB.TV, you can still listen to Bob Uecker do Brewer radio broadcasts. He works about 3 or 4 innings a game. He's still an excellent announcer and even better when the game is about 8-0. Then he starts telling stories.
I've watched Burns' baseball series at least twice and never tire of a moment of it. Burns' baseball series and his Civil War series are the best shows ever presented on TV as far as I'm concerned.
Great post Obli, you summarize why many of us love the game.I love baseball. it is so unique in sports. I recall taking a British guy to a Tribe game and having to explain the game to him. The Tribe was down by a run in the third when the opposing pitcher walked the first batter and went down 2-0 to the next batter. The crowd began to cheer. He was looking around because he thought he missed something. Players were standing around doing nothing between pitches and the crowd was stirring. WTF?
Baseball is a game of math. The balance of distance between bases and distance to home plate is amazing and has stood, with little adjustment, over time. The time from pitcher, to catcher, to second base to catch a guy trying to steal is magical. The dynamics of a player batting .300 or .250 is amazing. The areas that a player can cover on defense is crazy to think about. The ball/stike ratio, getting that first pitch over, batter knowing the pitcher needs that first strike, the change in batting average with/without a first strike, curves, sliders, changeups, working the four corners of the plate, the slide step, your move to first base. Baseball is a game of high tension and is a thriller like a slow-moving Hitchcock movie.
Nothing like waxing the car with the radio on listening to a good announcer call a game.
The great British mathematician G.H. Hardy was a cricket aficionado who fell equally in love with baseball when he was a visiting professor at Harvard. He’s go to Fenway at every opportunity.
What’s wrong with baseball – mathematically that is?
Investigator Stanley Eigen writes: What’s wrong with baseball – mathematically that is? I don’t know but apparently G.H. Hardy did. Hardy was a pure mathematician in Cambridge. Ou…
www.improbable.com
Thanks for that.The great British mathematician G.H. Hardy was a cricket aficionado who fell equally in love with baseball when he was a visiting professor at Harvard. He’s go to Fenway at every opportunity.
What’s wrong with baseball – mathematically that is?
Investigator Stanley Eigen writes: What’s wrong with baseball – mathematically that is? I don’t know but apparently G.H. Hardy did. Hardy was a pure mathematician in Cambridge. Ou…
Bottom line is that baseball is a Hitchcock movie (suspense and drama). Other sports are Marvel comic movies. Baseball is North by Northwest, Rear Window, Cape Fear. Other sports are Indiana Jones, Transformers and Spiderman. Nothing wrong with them, just appealing to a different taste.
One of my great memories was watching this series with my dad. Mom and dad were visiting (we lived about 5 hours apart) in conjunction with Dad's Army reunion. Each night the series would cover a decade of baseball. My dad made lot of comments about the 20's, and 30's when he was a kid and I had little knowledge. He got real animated about the 40's. We both made comments about the 50's and 60's. This was just a great time I shared with Dad.
Setting aside other things, Cobb was a know-it-all.
My uncle, who was in baseball for about 50 years, at one point managed a minor league club out west affiliated with the Yankees. Cobb had put his son in charge of running his local Coca-Cola bottling plant in the area, and periodically, he would come out to check in on him. While there, he'd usually attend a game, and then come over to my uncle's afterwards and talk baseball. There is a wonderful picture of him down on his hands and knees in the back yard explaining to my aunt the "correct" way to plant a particular type of flower.
I love baseball. it is so unique in sports. I recall taking a British guy to a Tribe game and having to explain the game to him. The Tribe was down by a run in the third when the opposing pitcher walked the first batter and went down 2-0 to the next batter. The crowd began to cheer. He was looking around because he thought he missed something. Players were standing around doing nothing between pitches and the crowd was stirring. WTF?
Baseball is a game of math. The balance of distance between bases and distance to home plate is amazing and has stood, with little adjustment, over time. The time from pitcher, to catcher, to second base to catch a guy trying to steal is magical. The dynamics of a player batting .300 or .250 is amazing. The areas that a player can cover on defense is crazy to think about. The ball/stike ratio, getting that first pitch over, batter knowing the pitcher needs that first strike, the change in batting average with/without a first strike, curves, sliders, changeups, working the four corners of the plate, the slide step, your move to first base. Baseball is a game of high tension and is a thriller like a slow-moving Hitchcock movie.
Nothing like waxing the car with the radio on listening to a good announcer call a game.
Obi - Dad took us to Tribe games every summer to see the KC A's. That was his team. Always a double header in August. The A's would change uniforms between games. My brother was a big Cleveland fan. Vic Davaillo, Leon Daddy Rags Wagner (if I remember correctly) , Sam McDowell, Rocky Colavito. Remember when you got Cleveland baseball players card when you bought that certain kind of luncheon meat. Name escapes me at this time. Indians would shoot off fireworks after every homer. We would stop by the local nut shop in Sharon to buy a huge bag of peanuts before heading to Municipal Stadium. We walked around the warning track when I was 8 for little league day. Still have a bat from bat day. Can you imagine the fights today if they had bat day again in any city? First time going to the bathroom and was washing hands at the sink in the center of the bathroom and the water stopped. Didn't know that you stood on the bar on the ground for the water to flow. Something new. Saw Mantle late in his career. Although, this is my biggest memory from going to baseball games and you picture above reminds me. I had my first foot long in Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
I didn't become a Tribe fan until I moved here later in life. I grew up a pirates fan and love Richie Hebner, Willie Stargel, Freddie Patek, Rennie Stennet and Al Oliver.
My uncle, who was a wheeler and dealer (I have posted stores about him getting into ND and Wampum basketball games) took me to a game once. We didn't have tickets so would stand in line at three rivers. The guy in front of us asked "can you give me a couple of press tickets?" So when we got up, my uncle said "I'll take two more of those press tickets". They were general admission prices but you had a seat on wheels, a little table, a heating element and waiters that would take your order and go get food. The downside was they were in the outfield and you didn't have a great view of the main scoreboard. However, I used to take my friends to games and impress them with the tickets I'd get.
Good times!
I love both those series. I was disappointed when they were taken off Amazon Prime Video because I would often come back to them when nothing else really caught my eye.
It is so true about documentaries. Burns did a great job on Country Music but so many greats were omitted or a passing mention. I guess you have to grab segments and decide what is most important. Baseball is also fantastic.
Yes, his episodes on Hank Williams and the Carter Family were sublime.
It was really interesting how corporatized country music was from the very first recordings.
Last night was a true treat for baseball fans as the Tribe's Shane Beiber (last year's Cy Young winner at age 26) matched up against the White Sox Lucas Giolito. Giolito is one of the up and comers in baseball and is a potential Cy Young winner who is looking to dethrone Beiber. These guys were dealing it...seriously. Both were throwing north of 75% strikes. Giolito pitched 7 innings and gave up three hits (two infield) with 8 strikeouts. Beiber also gave up three hits in 9 innings with 11 strikeouts. Of these six hits, I don't think more than two or three were hard hit. The game went into extra innings tied 0-0. Both pitchers knew a single mistake would cost them the game. Hitters, wanting to win for their ace, were feeling the pressure.
It was a great game full of tension and intrigue as these two matched up. It was one of the best-pitched games I've seen in years. The Tribe won in the 10th off of a reliever when the guy on second (the new rules in extra innings of having a guy placed on second) was sacrificed to third and then scored on an infield hit. Rattled, the pitcher then gave up a double. When the sox came up to bat, the guy on second was meaningless (with a two run deficit) but the game ended on a long fly to the warning track. Just a great game if you are a baseball fan.
It was a great game full of tension and intrigue as these two matched up. It was one of the best-pitched games I've seen in years. The Tribe won in the 10th off of a reliever when the guy on second (the new rules in extra innings of having a guy placed on second) was sacrificed to third and then scored on an infield hit. Rattled, the pitcher then gave up a double. When the sox came up to bat, the guy on second was meaningless (with a two run deficit) but the game ended on a long fly to the warning track. Just a great game if you are a baseball fan.
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