Week of July 23: Revisiting "Baseball"

By Sylvia Gurinsky

Recently, PBS rebroadcast Parts (or Innings) 5, 6 and 7 of Ken Burns' 1994 documentary, "Baseball." It was something of a lead-in to "The Tenth Inning," which covers the last two decades and will air September 28.

But the entire series, which is available on DVD, is worth another look. It begins with "Our Game," which was not invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, N.Y., but may have had its origins during the 1700s, or may have evolved from a British game called Rounders, or maybe something else. In any case, "Our Game" covers the 1800s in baseball.

"Baseball" is OK as history (For those who don't know the game, it's a good introduction, but there are some mistakes and some overemphasis on certain historians and commentators), but at its best as social commentary, tracking the history of the major leagues' exclusion of blacks until Jackie Robinson suited up for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. That story is told in "The National Pasttime," and sources include Robinson's widow, Rachel. That was one of the three parts ("Shadow Ball" and "The Capitol of Baseball" were the other two) in the PBS rebroadcast.

The original series was narrated by the great NBC newsman John Chancellor. "The Tenth Inning" will be narrated by actor Keith David, who narrated the Burns documentary "The War."

The 1994 airing proved something of a salve to baseball fans infuriated by the strike that cancelled that year's World Series. When the ratings were in, 42 million viewers had watched.

That strike, the Steroid Era, the Red Sox' two world championships and Cal Ripken's setting of the all-time record for consecutive games will be part of "The Tenth Inning."

And no, the Chicago Cubs still haven't won a World Series since 1908.

See you next week. Until then, Happy Viewing!