On This Date in Sports September 28, 1994: The Only Game in Town
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
The epic nine-part miniseries documentary “Baseball” wraps up on PBS, with the airing of the final part. Each episode called innings was nearly two hours long and gave a detailed history of the game, from its early days on Civil War battlefield to big-money free agents of modern-day baseball. It was produced by Ken Burns, who also made the award-winning Civil War series. The miniseries would be the only taste of baseball that fall with the World Series canceled due to the strike.
The 1994 season was baseball’s biggest disaster. A season that was so promising was played under a dark cloud of labor talks. It was the culmination of a century of labor strife and discord, between owners and players. The first part of the Baseball Documentary went over this in detail, as Players once tried to form their own league. When the league failed, players found themselves trapped under the old reserve clause, which nearly made players indentured servants. After the reserve clause was ended, and free agency began, owners had conspired to keep salaries low with collusion. After conspiracy was broken up, owners sought a salary cap setting the stage for the baseball’s nuclear winter, that saw the last six weeks and postseason canceled.
Fans of the National Pastime were angry with the cancellation of the season; many swore never to watch the game again. PBS had planned to air the Ken Burns documentary for several years, as the producer began work on “Baseball” after completing the Civil War series in 1991. The series was broken up in nine parts, called innings with the first episode airing on September 18th, and featuring the 19th-century history of America’s Pastime. Each episode had commentary from former players, professors, journalists, and entertainers. The series was narrated by former NBC Newsman John Chancellor.
Among the topics heavily discussed was baseball’s issue with racism. The long-held “Gentlemen’s Agreement” prevented players of color from playing in the majors became a thread throughout the early episodes. “Baseball” gave extensive profiles of players from the Negro Leagues, leading up to Jackie Robinson’s debut in 1947. The second inning airing on September 19th, spoke mostly about baseball at the turn of the century, as each episode would cover a specific decade. Inning three airing September 20th covered the “Black Sox Scandal” and how there was nobody that was blameless when the Chicago White Sox threw the 1919 World Series. The fourth inning debuting on September 21st covered Babe Ruth and the rise of the New York Yankees, as well as the beginnings of the Negro Leagues. The fifth inning aired, dealt heavily with the stars of baseball unable to play in the majors as the game went through the depression years of the 1930s.
Each episode aired Sunday through Thursday, with it broken up over two weeks. Each episode had two parts with the second half, called the bottom of the inning, as it was meant to shadow the game itself. The second week, began with baseball through World War II, and Jackie Robinson’s impact on the game in the sixth inning, airing on September 25th. The seventh inning, featuring a seventh-inning stretch aired the following day. It examined baseball in the 1950s as New York was the capital of baseball, with the decade ending with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants leaving for California. The eighth inning airing on September 27th dealt with expansion, the growth of television and the start of the labor wars. The final episode detailed baseball from in the 1970s’ and 1980s when Free Agency helped salaries skyrocket as issues like drugs and labor strife were the significant issues in the modern game.
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There were fears that the anger over the strike would harm the ratings of “Baseball.” However, those fears were quickly put to rest as the series turned into the most-watched program in the history of Public Television, as 45 million tuned in to watch. The series is now often shown during the offseason on MLB Network. In 2010, Ken Burns did a follow up with the tenth inning, that dealt with Baseball in the years after the strike and the miniseries aired, including the Red Sox epic 2004 comeback. That follow up was narrated by Keith David and broken up over two days. Plans are in works for an 11th inning, detailing baseball in the 2010s, with a possible airdate in 2020.