'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...