'Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns' Episode Review: 'Inning Seven: The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960)'
Inning 7: The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960)
Written by: Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns
Directed by: Ken Burns
The 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.
Year after year, the Yankees are on top of the American League. Year after year, the Giants and the Dodgers fight for the National League crown. Starting in 1949, there is a New York team in the World Series for 10 straight years. And in six of those years, both teams are from New York.
On September 26, 1994, the 300 member stations of the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) broadcast The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960), the seventh episode (or "inning") of Ken Burns' nine-part documentary that chronicled America's national pastime from its beginnings in the 1840s to the early 1990s. Co-written by Burns with historian (and frequent collaborator) Geoffrey C. Ward (The Civil War, Jazz, The War, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History), Baseball explores the highs and lows, the winners and losers, the heroes and the goats, and the good, the bad, and the ugly aspects of Major League Baseball.
 |
| ©1994, 2010 The Baseball Film Project, Inc., Florentine Films, and PBS Distribution |
The 133-minutes-long The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960) is a bittersweet look at the tumultuous era in which New York City - the birthplace of America's signature sport - was the epicenter of the baseball world. The polyglot, multi-ethnic city of eight million people not only was the financial and media capital of the United States, but it also boasted three Major League Baseball teams: the Yankees, the Brooklyn Dodgers, and the Giants. Of the three, the New York Yankees were so dominant that they were often referred to as America's Team, much to the delight of New Yorkers but not so delightful to fans of, say, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago Cubs, or even their crosstown rivals, Branch Rickey's Dodgers, known to their loyal fans as "Dem Bums."
But even as residents of the Big Apple followed the triumphs and tragedies of their three teams throughout the Fifties, the country around "the Capital of Baseball" was undergoing vast changes. Even as Cold War fears of nuclear annihilation and war with the Soviet Union manifested themselves in Sen. Joe McCarthy's overzealous anti-Communist witch hunts and U.S. troops fought alongside 16 other nations against Communist armies in faraway Korea, the post-World War II economy was the envy of the world. Unemployment was low, and even though Republicans controlled the White House through much of the decade, taxes on the wealthy were high, federal budgets focused on national defense and massive infrastructure projects such as the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Interstate Highway System, and a new agency, the National Air and Space Administration, was taking its first tentative steps on a new mission: to send American astronauts into space.
All of these changes in America's role in the world would affect the sport of baseball. During the Korean War, Ted Williams would answer his country's call (albeit with some resentment) once again and rejoin the Marines when his name was drawn from a list of inactive reservists. The sport was now desegregated and other Negro players played alongside whites in the Major Leagues, thanks in no small part for the determination of the Dodgers' Jackie Robinson. And as more Americans moved to the El Dorado of the West for new opportunities and milder climates, new markets beckoned to many baseball franchise owners, including those in baseball's capital, New York City.
Inning Seven, The Capital of Baseball, takes viewers through the 1950s when New York City had three successful baseball teams and dominated the World Series. By the end of the decade, the Giants and Dodgers had left New York, a signal that the old game was changed forever. - PBS website: Episode Descriptions, Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns
My Take
That was the great tragic moment in the fifties in New York. It was the beginning of the decline we continue to observe today. Both O'Malley and Stoneham decided to pull their teams out. Both were profitable. There were just more profits to be made in California. It was a cynical, purely commercially oriented move which was immensely profitable in that narrow sense and ripped the heart out of New York City. - Stephen Jay Gould, paleontologist (and baseball fan)
It was like your uncle died. It was a death in the family. I wasn't a Dodger fan, but you loved that they were there because there was tremendous talent on that team - Jackie and Gil and Duke and Pee Wee and Roy. And even though I was a Yankee fan and we beat them every year with the exception of '55, you acknowledged that they were great teams. It really was like a death in the family, and there was great mourning, complicated by the fact that the Giants left. So two great teams really left New York. I think it was a really sad time. I felt bad about it because it was "if they could leave, baseball could leave, what's next?" - Billy Crystal, actor, writer, director (and baseball fan)
The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960) is a sprawling two-hour and 13 minutes-long saga that brings home both the joys of being a sports fan, a professional player, or even a chronicler of history and the sorrows that such endeavors entail. It's an awesome reminder of how outsized a role was played by one city in the history of baseball, and also how integral to the spirit of that city baseball was. And as seen through the eyes, hearts, and minds of director Ken Burns, co-writer Geoffrey C. Ward, and the various persons portrayed and/or interviewed for Baseball, the duality of Major League Baseball as both an incarnation of millions of fans' hopes and the business interests of team owners, is once again one of the series' dominant themes.
As the series gets to the "seventh inning stretch," there is a lot to celebrate - Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, and Ernie Banks are now playing in the same league as Ted Williams, Micky Mantle, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, and Phil Rizzuto. The long-suffering Dodgers win the World Series in 1955, and - of course, the New York Yankees ruled the Big Apple's baseball coop by beating "Dem Bums" and the New York Giants in five consecutive World Series from 1950 to 1954.
But all good things, as the saying goes, must come to an end, and with restive owners wanting to make more money in California, The Capital of Baseball becomes melancholic for many viewers who understand that while baseball team owners appreciate fan loyalty, their bottom line usually takes precedence.
Once again, the late John Chancellor lends his authoritative yet pleasant voice talents to the narration, and a vast array of theater, film, and TV actors joins the cast of voiceover performers and, in the case of Billy Crystal, as interviewees in this riveting and often heartbreaking episode of Baseball.
Here are some of the actors who perform the dramatic readings of letters, journals, and news media articles from the era:
- 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
And here are some of the historians, writers, baseball players, and prominent figures who are interviewed in the series:
- 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
If you are a baseball fan who loves the game but don't know the "big picture" of its long and rich history, or even if you're just a casual viewer, The Capital of Baseball (1950-1960) is a must-see episode of yet another outstanding documentary from Ken Burns. I strongly recommend it.
Comments
Post a Comment