'Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns' Episode Review: 'Inning 4: A National Heirloom (1920-1930)'

Inning 4: A National Heirloom (1920-1930)

Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward & Ken Burns

Directed by: Ken Burns

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. America finds relief in the boom market and the Jazz Age. Baseball finds its own boom market in a player with a Jazz Age personality; a troubled youth from a Baltimore reformatory school who can hit the ball farther than anyone.

George Herman "Babe" Ruth is one of the best pitchers in baseball. But he loves to hit even more. In 1919, he hits 29 homers for the Red Sox, more than any player has ever hit in a single season.

On September 21, 1994, at the height of a long strike by Major League Baseball players, 300 member stations of America's Public Broadcasting System aired A National Heirloom (1920-1930), the fourth "inning" of Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns. For many baseball-deprived fans, this nine-part series was the only way they could get a look at their favorite sport on television that fall.

(C) 1994-2010 PBS Distribution and Florentine Films

Co-written by Burns with his frequent collaborator Geoffrey C. Ward, A National Heirloom covers the tumultuous decade that followed the infamous Black Sox Scandal of 1919. From the start of the Prohibition era to the stock marker crash of 1929 that ushered in the first dark, dreary years of the Great Depression, this inning explores baseball and its survival during a tumultuous decade.

"Baseball," the poet Donald Hall told us in a filmed interview, "because of its continuity over the space of America and the time of America, is a place where memory gathers." It was our intention to pursue the game — and its memories and myths — across the expanse of American history. We quickly developed an abiding conviction that the game of baseball offered a unique prism through which one could see refracted much more than the history of games won and lost, teams rising and falling, rookies arriving and veterans saying farewell.

The story of baseball is also the story of race in America, of immigration and assimilation; of the struggle between labor and management, of popular culture and advertising, of myth and the nature of heroes, villains, and buffoons; of the role of women and class and wealth in our society. The game is a repository of age-old American verities, of standards against which we continually measure ourselves, and yet at the same time a mirror of the present moment in our modern culture — including all of our most contemporary failings. - From "Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns"/About the Film at http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/baseball/about/

Though A National Heirloom (1920-1930) discusses the creation of the minor league "farm system" by an innovative baseball executive named Branch Rickey, the role of radio in baseball's increasing popularity as "America's pastime" and the resilient nature of the sport in hard times, it might as well be "The Babe Ruth Story."  

Much of Baseball's fourth inning is devoted to the story of George Herman Ruth, Jr, the pitcher-turned-outfielder who is better known as the legendary "Babe" Ruth. Born in Baltimore, Maryland on February 6, 1895, Ruth (also known as the "Sultan of Swat") was the dominant star of the game for much of his career. Infamously sold by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees in 1920 (the same year which marked the start of national Prohibition and the tragic death of Ray Chapman - the only major league baseball player to die after being injured during a game), the 6'-2", 215 giant of a man would become one of the greatest players of all time. 

While he was a Red Sox, young Ruth was an excellent pitcher. But what he really loved was to hit, so when he joined the New York Yankees, he switched positions from the pitcher's mound to outfield, where he completed his transformation into one of the best power-hitters of all time. He would wear the Yankees' pinstriped uniform for 15 seasons, playing in 2,000 games and set a record for home runs - 714 - that would stand for nearly 40 years. 

We learn, too, about Ruth's hardscrabble youth, which included being sent to Baltimore's St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a reformatory and orphanage, when he was seven years old. He spent most of his childhood years leading the rough-and-tumble life of a wild child, avoiding school and developing a precocious love for beer. which he drank whenever his saloon-keeping dad wasn't looking. Labeled as "incorrigible" by the authorities, young George most of his early years away from home at St. Mary's.

But if Ruth didn't have much of a formal education, he did have athletic abilities ideal for someone who wanted to play professional baseball. He began by playing in a minor league team called the Baltimore Orioles for a few months in 1914. But the team fell into hard times and Ruth was sold to the Red Sox for an undetermined amount of money. (Some accounts say Boston paid the Orioles $25,000 for the 19-year-old pitcher; others say the Orioles only got $8,500 for the future baseball legend.)

The fourth "inning" also delves into Ruth's appetite for cigars, booze (which flowed easily if rather illegally throughout much of Ruth's professional career), and women. Like most people, "the Babe" was a contradictory man; Ruth was a devout Catholic who went to Mass every Sunday even if he had caroused the night before, yet he cheated on his wife Helen so many times that the couple eventually separated in 1925. Helen Ruth died six years later when the house where she was living burned down in a fire. She was 31 years old.

Other baseball players are covered in A National Heirloom, of course. The unfortunate Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a beanball and dies in 1920; Christy Matthewson, known as "the Christian Gentleman." passes on in 1925. The segregated Negro Leagues grows in popularity and produces outstanding players of their own, including Cool Papa Bella and Willie Wells. And, since the passage of time spares no one from aging, some of the early 20th Century legends go off into retirement, including Ty Cobb.

A National Heirloom (1920-1930) is divided into the following chapters:

1. Top of the Fourth
2. Baseball
3. A National Heirloom
4. That Big Son of a Bitch
5. Incorrigible
6. Beethoven and Cezanne
7. I Fear Nobody
8. An Everest in Kansas
9. The Fellow Who Carries the Wallop
10. House of David
11. The Background Music of America
12. Bottom of the Fourth
13. A Tough Epoch for Kings
14. Not Commerce
15. Some Ball Yard
16. A Privilege
17. Their Greatest Asset
18. This Can't Be Helped
19. Betcha A Nickel
20. A Dollar Sign on the Muscle
21. I Can't See Him Yet
22. Our Arithmetic 
23. Murderer's Row 
24. Rueful Memories

 As in the previous three innings, director Ken Burns and producer Lynn Novick rely on archival footage and still photographs from the period to create the visuals for A National Heirloom. This is intercut with contemporary (1990s) cinematography by lensman Buddy Squires that features interviews with Daniel Okrent, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bob Costas, and Shelby Foote.

In addition to "talking head" sequences with baseball fans, sports commentators, and historians who share their insights and anecdotes about Babe Ruth and the tumultuous 1920s, this "inning"of  Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns also has a great voice cast: 

Narrated By

John Chancellor

Voices

Adam Arkin
Mike Barnicle
Philip Bosco
Keith Carradine
John Cusack
Ossie Davis
Loren Dean
Anthony Hopkins
Garrison Keillor
Delroy Lindo
Amy Madigan
Charley McDowell
Arthur Miller
Michael Moriarty
Gregory Peck
Jody Powell
Jason Robards
Paul Roebling
Jerry Stiller
Studs Terkel
Eli Wallach

My Take

One of the greatest talents any storyteller can have is the ability to get an audience's attention on a topic - be it the Civil War, the history of jazz, the Central Park Five case, Prohibition, or the Vietnam War - and maintain that hold from the beginning of the story to the end. 

It helps a documentary maker like Ken Burns if there is a large number of people who are already predisposed to watch something like The War, which many viewers had asked him to do for many years despite his reluctance to do another similarly themed film after 1990's The Civil War.  And in 1994, due to the Major League Baseball strike that deprived millions of fans of their game, Burns had a large number of potential viewers because to them, even a documentary about baseball was better than no baseball at all.

As a result, the original nine-part series got great ratings and went on to win the Television Critics Association (TCA) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Specials and a TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sports. In addition, Baseball won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series, as well as an armful of nominations in other categories.

However, the best measure of any documentary - or any movie or other visual work in any genre - is the ability to hold the attention of someone who is not predisposed to watch it because of its topic. 

I'm not much of a sports fan. When I do watch sports on TV - something I don't do often - it's more than likely going to be a football game or a soccer match, especially during the World Cup. I have watched far more NFL games and World Cup matches than I've watched - or attended - baseball games. 

And yet, Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns has proved once again how Ken Burns' talents as a filmmaker and his passion for American history can grab the attention of someone who is not enamored with the game of baseball - and not lose it. 

Over the past few years, I've been adding many of Ken Burns' best-known documentaries to my DVD/Blu-ray collection. I started with the first DVD set of The Civil War around 10 years ago, then purchased The War, Prohibition, The West (which Burns farmed out to Stephen Ives because he was still making Baseball), The Central Park Five, Prohibition, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History, and The Vietnam War.

Some of those films told stories which I was already somewhat familiar; others did not. But they were all entertaining and informative, and they all were tiles in the mosaic that is American history. 

So, yeah. I decided to buy Baseball. 

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. 

A National Heirloom (1920-1930) is structured - as are the other eight original episodes of the series - like a game of baseball. Each episode 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 114 minutes, A National Heirloom is almost as long as your average action-adventure movie. However, its narrative is so compelling that you don't notice the running time.