'Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns' Episode Review: 'Inning 1: Our Game (1840s-1900)'
Inning 1: Our Game (1840s-1900)
Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns
Directed by: Ken Burns
In New York City, in the 1840s, people need a diversion from the "railroad pace" at which they work and live. They find it in a game of questionable origins. On June 19, 1846, at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, a team of well-dressed gentlemen, the Knickerbockers, play the first game of baseball. By 1856, the game is already being called "the national pastime," or simply, "Our Game." But the nation is about to be torn apart. And in the midst of the Civil War, there is one thing that Americans North and South have in common: baseball. - from the DVD episode guide blurb.
On September 18, 1994, nearly four years after the debut of Ken Burns' The Civil War, the 300 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) aired Our Game (1840s-1900), the first "inning" of Burns' nine-part documentary Baseball. Co-written by Burns and his frequent collaborator, historian Geoffrey C. Ward, the series is a loving overview of the game that many Americans consider to be the national pastime.
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| (C) 2010 PBS Distribution and Florentine Films |
Narrator: It is played everywhere. In parks and playgrounds
and prison yards. In back alleys and farmers' fields. By small children and old
men. Raw amateurs and millionaire professionals. It is a leisurely game that
demands blinding speed. The only game in which the defense has the ball. It
follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of
springtime, and ending with the hard facts of autumn. It is a haunted game, in
which every player is measured against the ghosts of all who have gone before.
Most of all, it is about time and timelessness. Speed and grace. Failure and
loss. Imperishable hope. And coming home.
Ebbets Field would be torn down in 1960, three years after the borough's team, now called the Brooklyn Dodgers, moved west to Los Angeles, California. But for 43 seasons, the stadium would be the home to the team affectionately known by Brooklyn people as "Dem Bums." And it would be at Ebbets Field that many of the sport's legendary players - Babe Herman, Dazzy Vance, Casey Stengel (who would later go on to manage Brooklyn's crosstown rivals, the New York Yankees), and Jackie Robinson - played "Our Game."
Narrated by the late John Chancellor, Our Game covers the first half-century of baseball. From its origins in two British bat-and-ball games (rounders and cricket) to the birth of what is now known as Major League Baseball, the episode is full of fascinating facts about a sport that began in the big cities, yet evokes visions of America's rural and pastoral heritage. Baseball, as Ward and Burns explain, was an antidote to the rushed pace of life in cities such as New York, Brooklyn (which was independent of its larger neighbor till the 1890s), Boston, Pittsburgh, and Chicago.
It also explodes the old myth that Civil War hero Abner Doubleday, a major general in the Union Army, invented the game. Baseball's "origins myth" was created by a man named Abner Graves and was eagerly seized upon by National League president Abraham Mills and Chicago Cubs president Albert Spalding. Both men sought to prove that baseball originated in the United States independently from Britain's rounders or cricket; Graves' claim, made in letters to the Akron Beacon Journal in April 1905, stated that Doubleday modified a game called "town ball" in 1839 in Cooperstown, New York.
Our Game (1840s-1900) is presented in a style that should be familiar to viewers of The Civil War, The West, Jazz, The War, Prohibition, and The Vietnam War. Cinematographer Buddy Squires, editor Paul Barnes, and series director Ken Burns use a mixture of visual techniques involving the use of still photographs and paintings, newsreel clips from the period, and contemporary (1990s) interviews with historians, sportswriters, and fans to make the early history of the game come alive.
Featured in Our Game are such commentators as:
- Roger Angell
- Thomas Boswell
- Bob Costas
- Robert Creamer
- Billy Crystal
- Mario Cuomo
- Shelby Foote
- Buck O'Neill
- Daniel Okrent
- George Plimpton
- Studs Terkel
- Ted Williams (archival footage)
And as in The Civil War, Burns and producer Lynn Novick use a cast of great actors to give voices to many of the historical characters whose lives are chronicled in Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns. The list of luminaries includes:
- Adam Arkin
- Philip Bosco
- Keith Carradine
- David Caruso
- Wendy Conquest
- John Cusack
- Ossie Davis
- Julie Harris
- Anthony Hopkins
- Derek Jacobi
- Garrison Keillor
- Gregory Peck
- Jason Robards
- Paul Roebling
My Take:
I'm not a devoted baseball fan. However, I have been to at least three Major League games in my home town of Miami, Florida. I saw the Yankees (the Bronx Bombers, as they are affectionately called) play an exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles at the now gone Bobby Maduro Stadium in the late 1970s. In 1993, I saw the then-Florida Marlins play against the Cincinnati Reds during the regular season; they would go on to win their first World Series in the post-season, five years after Miami was awarded its first MLB franchise.
But, in all honesty, I don't follow the Marlins with the same passion of a true fan. I might scan the headlines in the sports pages or check the team's standings occasionally, sure, but a devotee of America's pastime I am not.
For all that, I am an American. I love my country. I love its culture and its history. And because baseball is an integral part of both, I have been watching Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns. And even though it sounds odd to people who know me well, I have enjoyed every minute of it.
For starters, Ken Burns is one of those rare documentary filmmakers who can take any historical topic and make it come alive for the average television viewer. He is a natural storyteller, and he surrounds himself with talented men and women - Geoffrey Ward, Buddy Squires, Paul Barnes, Stephen Ives (who also directed The West), Lynn Novick, Jacqueline Schwab, Susanna Steisel, and Molly Mason - who share Burns' commitment to telling America's stories in a moving and fascinating way.
Second, Our Game (1840s-1900) is structured - as are the other eight original episodes - like a game of baseball. It begins with the playing of The Star Spangled Banner, it ends with a rendition of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, and is divided into two halves, the "top of the inning" and the "bottom of the inning." Narrator John Chancellor, a former NBC News anchor, does the "play-by-play," while interviewees provide "color commentary" during the episode.
If you're a baseball fan (or even if you're not), Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns will inform, entertain, and even inspire you. As the blurb on the DVD collection's slipcover puts it, the series is:
An epic overflowing with heroes and hopefuls, scoundrels and screwballs.
- Babe Ruth
- Jackie Robinson
- Shoeless Joe Jackson
- Sandy Koufax
- Satchel Paige
- Pete Rose
- Roberto Clemente
- Casey Stengel
- Hank Aaron
- Joe DiMaggio
- Ichiro Suzuki
- Barry Bonds
- Pedro Martinez
It is a saga spanning the quest for racial justice, the clash of labor and management, the immigrant experience, the transformation of popular culture, and the enduring appeal of the national pastime.
Truly, if there's any such thing as "must-see TV," then Our Game (1840s-1900) surely must count as such.
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