Ken Burns adding a 10th inning to `Baseball'

[WillTheThrill]

This is awesome news! Even though it's 18+ hours long, I've watched Ken Burns' documentary about the history of baseball two times... and I'm always disappointed that it ends in the 80's.

I wonder what he'll have to say about steroids and Barry Bonds???

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_en_ot/tv_pbs_baseball_1

Ken Burns adding a 10th inning to `Baseball'
Wed Jan 7, 7:34 pm ET

LOS ANGELES – Filmmaker Ken Burns is adding a tenth inning to his nine-part "Baseball" documentary series that aired in the '90s on public television.

PBS said Wednesday that the new film, titled "The Tenth Inning," will air in spring 2010, along with a rebroadcast of the original nine-part "Baseball" documentary series that debuted in 1994. Meanwhile, the series is running Tuesday nights on the new MLB Network.

The new film will track baseball history from 1993 through 2008, beginning where the original series ended, and feature interviews with Felipe Alou, Joe Torre and other baseball figures.

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[McCovey]

I look forward to it! I haven't shared this with many people. But I'll always remember the night I watched the original documentary back in 1994. I watched it with a roommate that night. They very next morning she killed herself. :(

[WillTheThrill]

I look forward to it! I haven't shared this with many people. But I'll always remember the night I watched the original documentary back in 1994. I watched it with a roommate that night. They very next morning she killed herself. :(

Wow. I'm not quite sure what to say to that. What a horrible experience for you to go through. :(

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[Bear]

I look forward to it! I haven't shared this with many people. But I'll always remember the night I watched the original documentary back in 1994. I watched it with a roommate that night. They very next morning she killed herself. :(

I am saddened to hear this but remind me never to watch TV with you.:eek:

[McCovey]

I am saddened to hear this but remind me never to watch TV with you.:eek:
Her best friend was one of the other two roomates. And she found the body later than morning. :(

[SF Kid]

Must be the off season. I'm depressed now. :cry:

[TkleMstr52]

Things like that remind me how unimportant sports really are. I still love my sports tho!!

[RrCoX22]

interesting... never watched any of them but sounds like some good documentaries

[Bear]

interesting... never watched any of them but sounds like some good documentaries

Best work done on baseball for TV to date. There is a very good book that goes with the series which is great too!:beerbang:

[McCovey]

I liked the series but it was very New York/Boston-centric. Legends like Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial were hardly mentioned. Someone recently told me they timed that amount of time Hornsby was a the topic and it came out to 90 seconds. Now, I realized that with documentary on such a history-laddened topic like baseball it would be impossible to cover everything., So I wasn't that bothered by the focus on East Coast baseball. I know some people who are baseball history buffs that just hate the Ken Burns documentary, though.

[TkleMstr52]

Any ex-Giants in the docu?

[McCovey]

Any ex-Giants in the docu?
Mostly New York Giants. Even Willie Mays is covered mostly as a New York Giant I seem to remember.

[TkleMstr52]

Id like to see his portion of this, I really wish Id seen him play live!!

[Bear]

I liked the series but it was very New York/Boston-centric. Legends like Rogers Hornsby and Stan Musial were hardly mentioned. Someone recently told me they timed that amount of time Hornsby was a the topic and it came out to 90 seconds. Now, I realized that with documentary on such a history-laddened topic like baseball it would be impossible to cover everything., So I wasn't that bothered by the focus on East Coast baseball. I know some people who are baseball history buffs that just hate the Ken Burns documentary, though.

I bet I know what forum they hang out at!:pound:

[Bear]

Id like to see his portion of this, I really wish Id seen him play live!!

Willie was as great as you have heard times 10.:eek:

[McCovey]

Here are cool youtube videos of Willie. I, too, wished I could have seen him play in his prime. :beerbang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuuVS4HuKU4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYi6LI4cTT4

[WillTheThrill]

Here's more on that "Tenth Inning" of Ken Burns' Baseball documentary:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2010/01/22/burns_sends_red_sox_to_extra_innings/

Some highlights of the article in case you don't want to read the whole thing: It will air in October over two nights on PBS and be four hours long. It will cover the time period of 1992 to 2004 or perhaps even as recent as 2008. A few juicy quotes from the article:

As for whether this will be the last installment, Burns said, he never says never. "I don't like to update any of my films, but this one seemed to warrant it," Burns said. "God willing, maybe in 15 or 16 years, there may be an 11th inning."

The top of the 10th inning will begin with footage of polarizing slugger Barry Bonds, who was the last player to appear in the original’s ninth inning, then as a wiry outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

“That period was really an extraordinary one for baseball,’’ said Burns, who cited the steroid scandal, the emergence and impact of Japanese players, the recovery from the ’94 players’ strike, and the sport’s reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks as among the most compelling topics. “It was an incredibly fertile time for change, and there was just a remarkable number of fascinating events that took place and personalities that emerged or faltered, or in some cases both, in what was a relatively brief time.’’

Fans of Ken Burns will be happy to know that he is also working on a six-hour history of the Prohibition, scheduled for broadcast in 2011. And he has begun work on future films about the Dust Bowl, the Roosevelts and the Vietnam War. :beerbang:

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[Bear]

Here's more on that "Tenth Inning" of Ken Burns' Baseball documentary:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2010/01/22/burns_sends_red_sox_to_extra_innings/

Some highlights of the article in case you don't want to read the whole thing: It will air in October over two nights on PBS and be four hours long. It will cover the time period of 1992 to 2004 or perhaps even as recent as 2008. A few juicy quotes from the article:





Fans of Ken Burns will be happy to know that he is also working on a six-hour history of the Prohibition, scheduled for broadcast in 2011. And he has begun work on future films about the Dust Bowl, the Roosevelts and the Vietnam War. :beerbang:

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This is a program the Bear will not want to miss. Thanks for the update.:D

[WillTheThrill]

Bump. :D

I'm keeping my eyes out for any new information about "Baseball", inning 10. I'll let you guys know as soon as I found out anything!

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[jimm]

Can't believe I haven't seen this yet :wtf1:

[WillTheThrill]

Not a whole lot of new information about the Tenth Inning here...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2010-05-12-kenburns12_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

... but it does confirm that it will air over two nights on September 28th and 29th. :beerbang:

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[Bear]

Not a whole lot of new information about the Tenth Inning here...

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2010-05-12-kenburns12_ST_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

... but it does confirm that it will air over two nights on September 28th and 29th. :beerbang:

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That is really all we need to know.:beerbang:

[WillTheThrill]

Good article and interview with Ken Burns. I agree with a lot of what he says here about putting astericks next to certain accomplishments. The game has changed a LOT over the years.

I can't wait to see his take on the steroids era and excessive salaries, etc. This "Tenth Inning" should be good! :)

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/06/ken_burns_lates_documentary_ta.php

Ken Burns' New Documentary Takes a Nuanced Look at Baseball's Steroid Era

By Ellis E. Conklin
Tuesday, Jun. 29 2010


​Ken Burns, the nation's most prolific documentarian, has chosen for his next opus baseball's steroid era as a postscript to his 1994 landmark Baseball series. Entitled The Tenth Inning, a two-part, four-hour documentary that will air September 28-29, the film delves into the rise of Latino and Asian players, the proliferation of new (and smaller) ballparks, interleague play, wild cards, sabermetrics and skyrocketing salaries.

But it is the revelations about performance-enhanching drugs and all the angst and rage that has spawned that most occupies Burns' attention.

For Burns, a student of the game and ardent Red Sox fan, the notion of somehow imposing an asterisk beside the astonishing feats of, say a Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Roger Clemens or a Mark McGwire, should never be permitted.

​"Take Babe Ruth," Burns begins in an interview earlier today at the Chase Park Hotel. "He never played with blacks. He never traveled like they do now or played night games. Should we put an asterisk on him? No, of course not."

In taking a non-judgmental approach to the sensitive subject of steriods, Burns notes that even with the widespread usage of enhancements, still no one reached.400, surpassed DiMaggio's 56 consecutive hit games, nor was there any appreciable increase in the number of players hitting .300.

"We were all complicit in this," says Burns. "There is a lot of complicated shades of grey here. As a society, we've always thought that there's a pharmacalogical solution to everything."

Burns says it saddens him the way the public has turned so venomously against its one-time heroes. "We dispose of people so quickly."

In an age of globalization, deregulation and speculation, posits Burns, The Tenth Inning tries to demonstrate that the national pasttime continues to be mirror of the country -- at its best and at its worst.

A good deal of the film that Burns has made with his longtime producing partner Lynn Norvick is devoted to Bonds, the home run king, of whom Burns predicts will eventually be enshrined in Cooperstown, as opposed to the "one-dimensional" McGwire..

"Did Bonds have a phenomenal work ethic? Yes. Was he a student of the game? Yes. Did he take steroids? Yes."

Bonds, says Norvick, is a fascinating subject -- godson of the always press-wary Willie Mays; son of ex-Giants Bobby Bonds, a boozer who was never particularly popular with his teammates.

The film chronicles the thrilling 1998 home run chase between Sosa and McGwire, a spectacle, says Burns, that instilled within Bonds so much resentment and jealousy that he too would make the fateful decision to join the steroids club.

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[McCovey]

I don't understand Burns' Ruth Ruth anology? :shrug: So Ruth didn't have an opportunity to play against black ballplayers? And?

[WillTheThrill]

I don't understand Burns' Ruth Ruth anology? :shrug: So Ruth didn't have an opportunity to play against black ballplayers? And?

I think that Burns was just trying to point out that in different eras, players had different things going against them and for them. Some players didn't have to worry about night games, for example... some didn't have transcontinental flights... some competed against the greatest athletes of their generation... some didn't.

I'm pretty sure he was pointing out that Ruth DIDN'T necessarily compete against the greatest athletes of his generation since he didn't have to (or get to?) play against black players.

That was how I interpreted it, anyway.

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[WillTheThrill]

So what'd you guys think of "The Tenth Inning"??? :shrug: I'm assuming that most, if not all, of you guys have seen it by now?

What did you think of the Giants' "coverage"? Obviously, most of it was about Bonds. I thought it was a very fair and honest portrayal of the "home run king", warts and all.

They also showed a few minutes of our heart-breaking 2002 World Series loss to the Angels. Tough to watch that again.

And I thought that the discussion of how MLB has become multi-national, focusing on the latin american influence on the game, Ichiro Suzuki, etc. was really good, too.

Of course they spent too much time on the Yankees and Red Sox, but what are you going to do? The documentary was so good at manipulating emotions that I actually was kind of rooting for the Yankees (just a little bit) when they were talking about Joe Torre.

Good stuff. Agree or disagree??? :)

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[Bear]

Totally agree. Burns is a master at his craft and I hope he does the 11 inning in 2020.:beerbang: