Baseball (TV Mini Series) Home (1994) User Reviews

A Little Of This, A Little Of That As The Series Ends

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 12 August 2007]

This last segment covers 1970 all the way to the early '90s. The series was shown on television in 1994, so it probably finished filming segments in 1993.

Topics include manager Earl Weaver and the Baltimore Orioles, Willie Stargell and the Pittsburgh Pirates, "The Big Red Machine" of the Cincinnati Reds and the Yankees rise and fall under George Steinbrenner. We also witness more horrible losses by the Boston Red Sox. What a shame this series wasn't continued and Sox fans could finally be shown celebrating the end of their dreaded "curse" in 2004.

In between these stories are more labor discussions and tributes to Roberto Clemente, Carl Yazstremski and Pete Rose.

I was sorry to see this nine-part series end. It had a definite bias on certain issues but it was great to watch, each one of the two-hour segments. I would have enjoyed them discussing the home run records being smashed and the steroids scandal that has gone with that. I'm sure they would have amended their tribute to Rose, too. At any rate, each decade in baseball provides tons of heroes and controversial subjects.

Fifteen Years in a Couple Hours

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 26 January 2015]

Here we have Roberto Clemente, the Baltimore Orioles, the death of Jackie Robinson (with a lot to be done concerning minorities), the efforts to do away with the reserve clause, the Yankees (of course), the Red Sox curse continues (with poor Bill Buckner focused on again, though the game had been tied through a series of other events besides him), Carl Yastrzemski and on and on. The Al Campanis stupidity on Nightline with Ted Koppel. Pete Rose breaks all the records, was truly one of the best that ever played and still he couldn't stay away from the betting game. The start of people doping up. So much more to say but no matter what I say can't do it justice.

The Home Stretch

[Michael_Elliott · 21 June 2012]

Baseball: Ninth Inning 'Home' (1994)

**** (out of 4)

The ninth and final entry in Ken Burns' original series takes a look at the sport during the 1970s and 80s. Topics covered include the Curt Flood lawsuit, honoring Jackie Robinson who would die ten days later, promotions to get fans back into stadiums, the designated hitter, the Big Red Machine, the 1975 World Series, the curse of the Red Sox, free agency, drug use in the sport, Al Campanis' Nightline interview, Gibson's miracle home run and the World Series earthquake. Players looked at include Bo Jackson, Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench, Roberto Clemente and the recorded breaking Pete Rose as well as his ban from the sport. This final episode clocks in just under two and a half hours but you can tell that it's somewhat jammed with information since they try to pack two complete decades. It really doesn't hurt anything as this remains a wonderful episode with some terrific video of the events as well as interviews with the likes of Bob Costas and Buck O'Neil. As you'd expect, Burns does a marvelous job at educating the viewer on the history of baseball from one years to the next and it really does seem like you get to see or know about all the major events from the two decades. Some are given a bit more detail like the 1975 World Series and the Red Sox collapse in 1986 but these two events really deserve it. This here contains more video footage than any of the previous episodes, which is to be expected but perhaps the best comes from Jackie Robinson's final speech as well as the footage from his funeral. History and baseball fans will certainly enjoy this.