'Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns' Episode Review: 'Inning 3: The Faith of Fifty Million People (1910-1920)'

Inning 3: The Faith of Fifty Million People (1910-1920)

Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns

Directed by: Ken Burns

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

But even as thousands of Americans pick up a ball for the first time, even as the country endures a world war, baseball is trying to endure a decade that includes the meanest, vilest, angriest player ever to step onto a field and a scandal that almost destroys the game. - from the DVD episode guide blurb

On September 20, 1994, the 300 or so member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) premiered The Faith of Fifty Million People, the third "inning" of the nine-part series titled Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns.  Co-written by Burns and historian Geoffrey C. Ward, this documentary examines the history of the sport of baseball and its influence on American culture and society. 

(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.

The Faith of Fifty Million People covers the decade between 1910 and 1920, an era in which the national pastime grew in popularity in a nation that was well on its way to becoming a leading world power, yet was nearly undone by a scandal involving gambling and the 1919 World Series.

Remembered today as the Black Sox Scandal and immortalized in such films as Eight Men Out and Field of Dreams (a baseball-themed fantasy that featured Ray Liotta as "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, one of the eight Chicago White Sox players who agreed to throw the World Series in exchange for money from a gambler), the incident not only focused attention on the seamier side of professional baseball; it threatened to shatter the "faith of fifty million people" that loved America's national pastime. 

As the narration (delivered by the late NBC News anchorman John Chancellor) points out, the scandal did not come out of left field. In those early decades of the sport, baseball players - including star players like Christy Matthewson, Connie Mack, Nap Lajoie, and Honus Wagner - were not paid "superstar salaries." Instead, they were subject to the major leagues' reserve clause, which favored team owners and kept players' salaries low. 

The players also hated the reserve clause because they had no say as to where they would or would not play. Free agency was not possible back then, and there was no owner-player negotiation on any issue. This, above all, was the root cause of the Black Socks Scandal that rocked the sport in 1919.

Aidan Quinn: [as grand jury investigator] Does Mrs. Jackson know that you got five thousand dollars for helping throw these games?

Keith Carradine: [as Joe Jackson] She did that night, yes.

Aidan Quinn: [as grand jury investigator] What did she say about it?

Keith Carradine: [as Joe Jackson] She said it was an awful thing to do.

The Faith of Fifty Million People covers other topics besides the reserve clause and its ramifications in its 117 minutes of running time, of course. Director and co-writer Ken Burns and his frequent collaborator also turn the viewers' attention to legendary (and often controversial) individuals along the lines of Grover Cleveland Alexander, John McGraw, and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a renowned jurist who became baseball's first Commissioner in 1920 - a position he held till his death in 1944.

The episode also chronicles the career of Detroit Tigers outfielder/manager Ty Cobb, a man whose prowess of the game is indisputable, yet earned a reputation for being irascible and even violent, especially against African-Americans (then called Negroes) and anyone who aroused his temper.

In one anecdote, Cobb is said to have savagely attacked a heckler at a game in 1912. This is disturbing in itself, but even more appalling is the fact that the victim was a disabled man.

The Faith of Fifty Million People (1910-1920) is divided into the following chapters:

1. Top of the Third
2. Baseball
3. A Tough Racket
4. The Faith of Fifty Million People
5. The Black Mark
6. Damn
7. The Wolf Pack
8. Tears
9. Kids
10. Incredible Greenness
11. Pigtown
12. The Bottom of the Third
13. Free Agents
14. A Kind of Citizenship
15. What's Killing You?
16. Hard to Know
17. Better Than You
18. Leonardo in Baseball
19. The Carmine-Hosed Warriors
20. Business As Usual
21. The Star-Spangled Banner
22. An Awful Thing to Do 
23. The Law
24. Bring 'Em Back

The Faith of Fifty Million People includes interviews and archival footage that feature such luminaries as:

• Red Barber
• Charles Comiskey
• Grover Cleveland Alexander
• Shelby Foote
• Doris Kearns Goodwin
• Joe Jackson
• Kenesaw Mountain Landis
• Christy Matthewson
• Charley McDowell
• Daniel Okrent
• Studs Terkel

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

I am not a diehard baseball fanatic. I may 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. Still, I've gone 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. 

I don't watch baseball games on television, either. 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. 

And yet, 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 would a non-baseball fan want to buy Baseball, let alone watch it?

Two reasons, really.

First, I am a native-born citizen of the United States. I have lived in this country for most of my life. 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. 

The Faith of Fifty Million People (1910-1920) is presented - as are the other eight original episodes of the series - like a game of baseball. It starts 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 117 minutes, The Faith of Fifty Million People is almost as long as your average Star Wars movie. 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 derived from a book titled The Glory of Their Times, which includes direct quotes by Cobb himself, so it's possible that some of the accounts about the Hall of Famer's anger issues mentioned in Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns might be based on truth. 

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 change of heart will be discussed in later episodes.