User Reviews

This is devoted to a couple of important events of the final period that Ken Burns had in his bag. These are the events following 9/11 and the use of performance enhancing drugs. It focuses on all those guys whose accomplishments now have an understood asterisk. Since this time, the 73 home runs of Barry Bonds, the production of McGwire, Sosa, and the rest, juicing up. It focuses on the rise of Latino players and Asian players, like Ichiro Suzuki. We have the cool accomplishments of the Red Sox, the great Series between Arizona and the Yankees. There is a wonderful tribute to Joe Torre who managed to win despite having George Steinbrenner constantly screwing everything up. There is the decision by Bud Selig to continue playing baseball, despite what the country was going through. It turned out, in this case, that it really was a great decision because it allowed a calm representation of something that was important in the hearts of Americans to give a sense of comfort. Great series. A little too much East Coast, but that's understandable.

Over the last two decades, the game of baseball has undergone some watershed moments, from the expansion era of the late 90s, to the steroid era, to the '04 Red Sox and beyond. Once again, filmographer Ken Burns is here to recap the key moments.

What I like about this add-on to the original "Baseball" film series is the memories it stirs up. Sure, it is biased towards the East Coast, but let's face it: so many of the seminal moments we all remember involve the Yankees, Red Sox, or other high-profile teams. As a Minnesota Twins fan myself, I can freely admit this is the case, and still enjoyed this entire documentary immensely. I relived the early days of the Yankee dynasty, that emotionally charged '01 World Series, the tragedies of the Steroid Era, and the pure spectacle of the '04 postseason (as well as much more).

About the only thing that keeps this extension from drawing a five-star review is the change in tone of Burns from the original. Instead of sounding like the impartial observer, Burns amps up the "preachiness" a little bit, really skewering steroid usage, and Barry Bonds in general. I'm not saying he's wrong...I believe the exact same sort of things that he does. But, I feel he lost a bit of impartiality and got just a little preachy at times.

All in all, though, this is a worthy continuation of perhaps the greatest documentary series ever made. Buy it separately, or buy it packaged as a whole...you won't be disappointed!

Baseball: The Tenth Inning 'Bottom of the Tenth' (2010)

**** (out of 4)

The second episode in Ken Burns revisit to his Baseball series from 1994 features a big needle as the majority of its 2-hour running time is devoted to the steroid issue in baseball. The topics in this episode include: Pedro Martinez, Mariano Rivera, Roger Clemens and steroids, Ichiro, September 11, the World Series between the Yankees and Arizona, Moneyball in Oakland, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, the Red Sox comeback and World Series win, Steve Bartman and the Cubs and of course baseball going in front of Congress as Bonds was breaking Hank Aaron's home run record. As with the previous ten episodes, Burns does a pretty remarkable job at taking an entire period and so perfectly putting it together and really capturing a moment in time. As I said for the previous episode, I think there's some magic missing from THE TENTH INNING because the situations are so fresh, current and still on people's minds from the 24/7 of today's world. There's no question that the original series from 1994 managed to show us things that were quite rare and tell us stories that not many would know about and put it together in a very educational way. With that said, this is still an exceptionally well-made documentary that I'm sure will educate and entertain people generations from now. Burns does a very good job at going over the highlights from the 2000-2009 period in the sport and I think it's obvious that you had to spend so much time with steroids since it was a very big part of the decade. The film also throws in some of the more memorable moments including the Yankees run for a World Series after 9/11 and the Red Sox finally getting over the hump.

Love this series, and was really looking forward to the stuff on the strike and the home run chase/steroid era. One glaring omission, though, was during the long segment on 9/11 why didn't they show the President throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium at the World Series? It would've fit perfectly with that segment. Just makes Ken Burns look petty, and it was a huge thing at the time, even for people who didn't vote for him. (There's another baseball documentary where they interview players and journalists who talk about the importance of that moment). It was also impressive that he threw a strike from the mound while wearing a bulletproof vest.

Would also like to add that Keith David is an excellent narrator. I could listen to him talk all day.