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.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.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.
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- Narrator
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- Self
- (as Robert Creamer)
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Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsEarly the narrator says "Baseball in the only game the defense has the ball." Not only does Cricket's defense have the ball but Cricket is mentioned at least three times.
- Quotes
Narrator: It measures just 9 inches in circumference, weighs only about 5 ounces, and it made of cork wound with woolen yarn, covered with two layers of cowhide, and stitched by hand precisely 216 times. It travels 60 feet 6 inches from the pitcher's mound to home - and it can cover that distance at nearly 100 miles an hour. Along the way it can be made to twist, spin, curve, wobble, rise, or fall away. The bat is made of turned ash, less than 42 inches long, not more than 2 3/4 inches in diameter. The batter has only a few thousandths of a second to decide to hit the ball. And yet the men who fail seven times out of ten are considered the game's greatest heroes. It is played everywhere. In parks and playground and prison yards. In back alleys and farmers fields. By small children and by old men. By raw amateurs and millionare professionals. It is a leisurely game that demands blinding speed. The only game where the defense has the ball. It follows the seasons, beginning each year with the fond expectancy of springtime and ending with the hard facts of autumn. Americans have played baseball for more than 200 years, while they conquered a continent, warred with one another and with enemies abroad, struggled over labor and civil rights and the meaning of freedom. At the games's heart lie mythic contradictions: a pastoral game, born in crowded cities; an exhilarating democratic sport that tolerates cheating and has excluded as many as it has included; a profoundly conservative game that sometimes manages to be years ahead of its time. It is an American odyssey that links sons and daughters to father and grandfathers. And it reflects a host of age-old American tensions: between workers and owners, scandal and reform, the individual and the collective. It is a haunted game, where each player is measured by the ghosts of those who have gone before. Most of all, it is about time and timelessness, speed and grace, failure and loss, imperishable hope, and coming home.
- SoundtracksStar Spangled Banner
Lyrics by Francis Scott Key and music by John Stafford Smith
Performed by Branford Marsalis & Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Hornsby courtesy of RCA Records
**** (out of 4)
The first episode in Ken Burns' nine part documentary taking a look at the history of baseball. This first episode takes a look at the sport during the 1800s as we learn where it basically came from, how it developed over time and the various new rules that were constantly being added. We also hear about how at first rules were in place that no players were to be paid and we hear how this began to change over the years and how eventually there were three leagues simply because no one could agree on the business side of things. BASEBALL: FIRST INNING is certainly a great way to start the series. What's so entertaining about this episode is that the majority of the viewers watching are going to know the current rules of baseball so it was great getting to hear about the original ones and how they developed over the decades. Some of the most interesting stuff deals with the early days of you recording an out by hitting the running with the ball. Also interesting are the changes that deal with base stealing, the "crooked" side of a curve ball and various changes dealing with the number of innings. It's funny but one of the most interesting thing comes from a historian talking about the 90-feet baselines and how no one knows why this number selected but then he talks about why it was so perfect for the sport. Throughout the film we get some terrific photos from the various stages of the sport, which was certainly interesting and the stories behind them even more so. Just hearing about baseball being played during the Civil War, how race became an issue and how a fight turned into a stadium being burned down.
- Michael_Elliott
- Jun 5, 2012
Details
- Runtime1 hour 52 minutes