The Tenth Inning

I remember about 10 years ago watching the 9th Inning of Baseball and wondering "If they made another one, what would be on it?"

At the time I guessed

1. Start with Joe Carter's homer
2. Strike
3. Ripken
4. Steroids
5. Yankees
6. Bonds
7. Red Sox

I was pretty much right. Joe Carter actually didn't get much love (he fell in a pocket between the 9th and 10th innings) but it's gone as I expected. A little more Griffey than I anticipated but hey, he was a phenomenal player in the 90s.

They went out of their way to talk about Gwynn's .394 average in '94, which surprised me because I don't remember Brett's .400 chase getting any mention in the 9th inning.

I had pretty much forgotten about the Albert Belle corked bat scandal but I think it was a good foreshadowing about how much baseball players cheat to get an edge.

 

DVR'd it, waiting to see it.

Thing to remember is that hindsight is always 20/20 (or you're not too bright.) I have always felt it was disingenuous to apply current standards to past behavior. Just finished a book where a guy is wrestling with an event that took place 40 years previously and his wife says "society gets better, people get better, what was in the past was different." Very true.

 

David Keith:



He was on Hardcastle and McCormick, and played Drew Barrymore's dad in Firestarter.

Keith David:



He was in Platoon, asked "Is it the franks or the beans?" in There's Something About Mary, and does the Navy: Accelerate Your Life commercials.

 

Burns' guest column in USA Today was delusional.

 

I loved 1-9, but I only watched about 20 minutes about the Yankees, then I flipped the channel.

I did not want to hear about steroids, and I guess since I was an adult when all of this happened, it was sort of losing its magic.

I do miss the old narrator.

 

Keith Olbermann, Mike Barnicle and George Will were prominently featured talking heads. Yikes.

 

Costas pretty much ripped apart anyone who didn't notice guys coming back from the off-season looking like muscle-bound blimps. Ahem ... Bob, you had a larger forum than 99.9 percent of the sports media. Where was your weenie ass on the subject? Twerp.

 

Costas finding religion on the subject is not nearly as odious and transparent as Verducci doing so.

 

Watched part of the home half of the tenth, and I think the Red Sox stuff was pretty well done. I am not crazy about anything Boston without Bird, so I drifted through it. Pedro was great, though.

When I saw the Bonds dirigible on the screen I fast forwarded. I really do not want to watch anything on the steroids era - ever.

By far my favorite part, though, was Ichiro. By far.

The not losing the glove story was very good as well.

http://www.pbs.org/baseball-the-tenth-inning/ - watching some of the outtakes on here, I think I need to rewatch this.

 

Four hours of moralizing.

 

Ken Burns makes me feel weepy.

 

Strike? Been there, done that, prefer to forget that time in history. Same with roids. However, I do applaud KB for making the effort to include so much more in the 10th inning. Didn't get a chance to DVR it, but will try to catch it if it is repeated anywhere.