The two-part, four-hour documentary add-on to Ken Burns' 1994 documentary series Baseball airs this coming Tuesday, September 28th and Wednesday, September 29th. -G
This is the greatest. I just re-watched 'Baseball' in it's entirety last month. Love the 1st 8 innings but the 70's/80's segment sucked. It ignored the 1981 strike, every world series from 82 to 85 and the growth of polyester uniforms. There is a lot that has happened since 94. Let's hope he pulls no punches with regards to steroids and prices.
I watched the first part tonight. It basically went from the strike to the home run chase between Sosa and McGwire. It starts with the strike, (Expos ) Talks about how much everybody hated baseball, then goes on to how Ripken was the first savior. Two segments on the Braves and Yankees, appropriate considering they dominated the nineties. A long segment on Bonds' early years, then the home run chase, all the while reminding us that it was kind of weird that guys went from hitting 20 home runs to 50 over night, yet we all denied it because we wanted to believe. I had heard some serious critiques of the program, specifically, that it was Red Sox Yankees, non stop, but they didn't even mention the Sox in the first half. So I thought it was good. My only critique would be to hear from more players and managers, people in the game. I think we only heard from Pedro Martinez, Joe Torre and very briefly Omar Vizquel. MEanwhile we heard on and on from writers I've never heard of. I have a very low opinion of sportswriters in general, so I don't need to hear more from them. One of my favorite nuggets was Pedro talking about how he watched Sosa and McGwire and cheered them on! That was way better than some writer I've never heard of talk in obtuse language about how baseball is the only sport with history.