Baseball

Seasons

1994

USA

9.2

TV-PG

A documentary on the history of the sport with major topics including Afro-American players, player/team owner relations and the resilience of the game.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Our Game

In 1840s New York City, people need a diversion from the "railroad pace" at which they work and live. They find it in a game of questionable origins.

S1 • E2

Something Like a War

In 1894, a sportwriter named Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson takes over a struggling minor league - the Western League - and turns it into a financial success.

S1 • E3

The Faith of Fifty Million People

Before and after World War I, a steady stream of immigrants lands on the shores of America. They want to become American. To pursue the American dream. To play the American game.

S1 • E4

A National Heirloom

The 1920s begin with America trying to recover from World War I and baseball trying to recover from the scandal of the 1919 World Series.

S1 • E5

Shadow Ball

The title refers to a common pre-game feature in which the players staged a mock game with an imaginary ball. Though unintended, the pantomime was an apt metaphor for the exclusion of blacks from major league play at that time.

S1 • E6

The National Pastime

In Europe, in the Pacific, on the homefront, both African-Americans and whites fight to make the world safe for democracy. When the world ends, Major League Baseball becomes, in fact, what it has always claimed to be: the national pastime.

S1 • E7

The Capital of Baseball

Americans are on the move. Moving to the suburbs. Moving across the country. They are, it seems, restless. Of course, if you're a baseball fan in New York, you don't want to move. You're in baseball heaven.

S1 • E8

A Whole New Ballgame

The 1960s are a turbulent decade for America. There are race riots, anti-war protests, hippies, Woodstock. It is also a turbulent decade for baseball, as one by one its "sacred" institutions fall.

S1 • E9

Home

America and the world are seeing more changes than at any time in history. And so is baseball.

S1 • E10

The Tenth Inning: Top of the Tenth

This latest entry covers the period from the early 1990's onward. Labor relations deteriorated badly in the early part of that decade leading to the players strike in August 1994. The Montreal Expos were the best team in baseball at the time but when a Federal judge blocked the owners from unilaterally imposing a contract (which would have let them use replacement players) it quickly came to an end and the players returned to work under the old contract. Attendance dropped after that but the game recovered quickly with the heroics of Cal Ripkin Jr. By the end of 1990's, fans were caught up in the home run derby presented by Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. There was also the first whiff of scandal when McGwire was accused of using steroids. It was also an era when new baseball stadiums were built in many cities, evoking an earlier age when the parks were built specifically for the sport. The curse of the Bambino finally came to an end with the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004. Barry Bonds broke McGwire's three year-old season home-run record and later Hank Aaron's HR record. The issue of drug use eventually led to Congressional hearings after the BALCO scandal and the Mitchell Report, which named many stars as having used performance enhancing drugs. This inning is dedicated to the late, great Buck O'Neil.

S1 • E11

The Tenth Inning: Bottom of the Tenth

As the new millenium dawns, Baseball is more popular and profitable than ever, but suspicions and revelations about performance enhancing drugs keep surfacing, calling the integrity of the game itself into question.