A National Heirloom (21 Sep. 1994)

Baseball in the 1920's can be described in two words: Babe Ruth. George Herman "Babe" Ruth dominated the game in almost every respect. An accomplished pitcher, he was also the greatest ... See full summary »

Director:

Ken Burns

Writers:

Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns

Stars:

Grover Cleveland Alexander, Roger Angell, Adam Arkin

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Grover Cleveland Alexander	...	Himself (archive footage)
Roger Angell	...	Himself
Adam Arkin	...	Himself (voice)
Red Barber	...	Himself
Mike Barnicle	...	Himself (voice)
Keith Carradine	...	Himself (voice)
John Chancellor	...	Narrator (voice)
Ty Cobb	...	Himself (archive footage)
Calvin Coolidge	...	Himself (archive footage)
Bob Costas	...	Himself
Robert W. Creamer	...	Himself
John Cusack	...	Himself (voice)
Ossie Davis	...	Himself (voice)
Loren Dean	...	Himself (voice)
Gerald Early	...	Himself

Storyline

Baseball in the 1920's can be described in two words: Babe Ruth. George Herman "Babe" Ruth dominated the game in almost every respect. An accomplished pitcher, he was also the greatest batter the game had seen up to that time eventually moving to the outfield so he could play every day. Ruth spent most of his youth in a reformatory, his parents having had him declared incorrigible. He shone in the school's baseball team and was signed by the minor league Baltimore Orioles but was soon sold to the Boston Red Sox. It was a black day when they traded him to the New York Yankees and they would not play in a world series again for 25 years. Babe's conduct both on and off the field became a major issue and he was suspended at one point for 39 games by the Commissioner for refusing a direct order to stop barnstorming in the off season. His off field behavior offended a great many people but he was oblivious to it all. Christy Mathewson, to many the greatest pitcher of his generation, died ...

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Genres:

Documentary | History | Sport

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Details

Release Date:

21 September 1994 (USA)

Company Credits

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

"Mood Indigo"
Written by Irving Mills, Barney Bigard & Duke Ellington
and
"The Mooche"
Written by Duke Ellington
Published by Mills Music Inc. and Famous Music
Performed by Duke Ellington, courtesy of Columbia Records
By arrangement with Sony Music Licensing

User Reviews

The One and Only Babe

Baseball: Inning Four 'A National Heirloom' (1994)

**** (out of 4)

The fourth episode in Ken Burns series takes a look at the years between 1920 and 1929. As usual, narration, photos and video help show what was going on in the sport during this period and we get stories about such things including Ray Chapman's death when he was hit in the head by a ball, the Negro Leagues continuing to grow, the sport writers, the radio broadcasts, building Yankee Stadium, Walter Johnson winning a World Series, the death of Christy Mathewson, Murderers Row and Ty Cobb's retirement. We also look at players like Rube Foster, Rogers Hornsby, Lou Gerrig but the majority of the running time is given to Babe Ruth. Overall this is another terrific episode that baseball fans should love and even those not too familiar with the sport should enjoy because it's simply so well made and entertaining. The majority of the running time is devoted to Ruth, which is quite understandable considering all the ways he changed the sport. We hear about his troubled upbringing, the personal details of his horrid and tragic marriage as well as the countless issues that he ran into with managers, fans, the commissioner and umpires. Then, of course, there are the countless home runs, popularity and everything else that the man did. As with the previous films, this one here features all sorts of terrific photos but more importantly is all the video footage. Considering a lot more stuff was being filmed during this decade it makes sense that we get more video footage so getting to see some of these legendary players in motion was great fun to see.