'Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns' Episode Review: 'Inning 2: Something Like a War (1900-1910)'

Inning 2: Something Like a War (1900-1910)

Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns

Directed by: Ken Burns

It is a decade of revolution. In China. In Central America. At Kitty Hawk. In Henry Ford's factory. And on America's baseball fields.

In 1894, a sportswriter named Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson takes over a struggling minor league - the Western League - and turns it into a financial success. In 1900 he changes its name to the American League and begins talking about challenging the big city monopoly held by the National League. The revolution takes only three years. In 1903, the first World Series is played between the American League Boston Pilgrims and the National League Pittsburgh Pirates. - from the DVD episode guide blurb

On September 19, 1994, the 300 or so member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) presented Something Like a War (1900-1910), the second "inning" of Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns. Co-written by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns and historian Geoffrey C. Ward, the nine-part series examines the history of "America's game" and the role it plays in American culture and social history. 

(C) 1994, 2010  PBS Distribution and Florentine Films 

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.

Something Like a War (1900-1910) covers the tumultuous events of the first decade of the 20th Century, especially the growth of major league baseball, the creation of the new American League by "Ban" Johnson, a newspaperman-turned-baseball executive who sought a more respectable alternative to the rough-and-tumble National League. Johnson wanted a cleaner, less rowdy style of play; to achieve this goal, he lured many NL players to his new league, including early superstar Christy Matthewson.

Something Like a War also covers the early career of one of baseball's greatest players, Georgia-born Tyrus Raymond Cobb, better known as Ty Cobb. Nicknamed "The Georgia Peach" by fans and baseball writers of the time, Cobb was an outfielder who played the game for 22 seasons, most of them as a player/manager for the Detroit Tigers.

According to series writers Ken Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward, Cobb had serious anger-management issues and, like many Southerners of the era, had extremely racist views about African-Americans. He also played the game with an aggressive outlook; he approached baseball as "something like a war." (This quote, taken from Lawrence Ritter's oral history The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It, gives the episode its title.)

The series' second "inning" is divided into the following chapters

1. Top of the Second
2. Baseball
3. Something Like a War
4. The American League
5. 'Nuf Ced
6. A Hardy Feeling
7. The Look of Eagles
8. Small Truths
9. The Christian Gentleman
10. Free and Equal
11. One Of The Noisiest
12. A Skirt-like Effect
13. Hitless Wonders
14. Casey at the Bat
15. Bottom of the Second

Something Like a War (1900-1910) also covers the establishment of the World Series in 1903, colorful characters such as the "Royal Rooters," the rowdy Boston Red Sox fans led by bar owner Michael T. McGreevey, best known as 'Nuf Ced McGreevey, and baseball-related pop cultural gems along the lines of the poem "Casey at the Bat."

Like all of Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns, Something Like a War is presented in a visual and editorial style that viewers of The Civil War, The West, Jazz, The War, Prohibition, and The Vietnam War know so well. The team that includes cinematographer Buddy Squires, episode editor Yaffa Lerea, and series director Ken Burns uses a combination 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 history of baseball's early decades come alive. 

Something Like a War (1900-1910 features commentary from such luminaries 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 other Florentine Films documentaries, 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 voice actors 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

As I said in my recent review of Our Game, I have never been a diehard baseball fanatic. I might have tried to play a pick up game or two when I was a kid growing up in Miami, Florida, but I was not good at it. I have been to a few Major League Baseball games, most recently during the then-Florida Marlins' first championship race back in 1993. But I have never met a professional baseball player; the only guys I know that played the sport were members of my high school's baseball team. 

As for watching a MLB game on TV, my record is even worse. The last game I remember watching with any interest was the (Atlanta) Braves-(Los Angeles) Dodgers game on April 8, 1974 to see Hank Aaron break Babe Ruth's home run record when he hit homer No. 715 off Dodgers pitcher Al Downing. Then, as now, I was aware of baseball's cultural significance in the U.S. and other countries, so I watched that event live on NBC TV. 

Because I love the way that Ken Burns tells the stories of America, I recently purchased the 2010 box set of Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns (Includes "The Tenth Inning")  on DVD. 

Why Baseball?

Two reasons, really.

First, I was born and raised in the United States. I have lived here for 48 of my 54 years. As such, I identify more with American culture than I do with that of my parents, who were both from Colombia.

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.

Second, Ken Burns is one of the few 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. 

Something Like a War (1900-1910) is structured - as are the other eight original episodes of the series - 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." The late, great John Chancellor, a former NBC News anchor, does the "play-by-play," while interviewees provide "color commentary" during the episode. 

At 103 minutes, Something Like a War is slightly longer than Baseball's opening episode Our Game. Nevertheless, its narrative is so compelling that the viewer doesn't notice the running time. 

The one issue that more knowledgeable fans of baseball have called to my attention is the series' depiction of Ty Cobb as a violent and racist man. They call out Ken Burns and his frequent collaborator for perpetuating what some say is mythology created by Cobb's early biographer Al Stump. Stump is known to have fanned the negative fires around the legendary outfielder, and some of his accounts have been dismissed by later researchers as being totally bogus.

But much of this episode was, as I said earlier, derived from The Glory of Their Times, including quotes by Cobb himself, so it's possible that some of the accounts about the Hall of Famer's anger issues mentioned in Something Like a War might have basis in fact. 

What is true is that Cobb did not like blacks when he was younger and favored their exclusion from Major League Baseball. This was a common sentiment held by many whites throughout the United States (not just the South), and it was manifested by the baseball establishment's infamous "Gentlemen's Agreement."  This was an unwritten but strictly observed promise by all the team owners that they would not hire any Negro players under any circumstance.

To his credit, Cobb's views on race mellowed after he retired from baseball. But that story, dear reader, comes later in the series.

If you like baseball, or if you want to learn more about the American character through the prism of its culture, Something Like a War is definitely worth watching.