The Tenth Inning

[Piotr Rasputin]

Anyone else watch this tonight? Hit-or-miss from Ken Burns. Some predictable sap, a couple of great moments.

- Wow, that whole "Angry fans!!!!" things sure lasted a long time after the 1994-95 strike. Lot of integrity shown by those angry fans then. Whhoooo, went on for years! Until some dude played in a bunch of games, and the sheep started to return.
- I believed then, and I believe now that it's a shame the owners couldn't have imposed the salary cap in 1995 and dared the players to stay away.
- They harped on Joe Torre's tears of joy when the Yankees made the 1996 Series . . . but wasn't he also troubled by his brother's ongoing health problems as well?
- I loved that they got Steve Wilstein to talk, and Howard Bryant said that the 1998 Andro story should have had legs, but the rest of the media killed it.
- Also enjoyed Costas' and Verducci's mealy-mouthed attempts to act like they were suspicious during the 1998 homer chase. Laughable. They were as caught up as the rest of the media.
- Liked the segment on the Dominican players.

 

[Boom_70]

syrup season arrives early

 

[slappy4428]

Haven't seen it yet, am waiting till I get home.
But disappointed in Keith David as the narrator. Would have gone with David McCullough.
Nothing against David, but McCullough passibly sounds like John Chancellor.

 

[Joe Williams]

- Also enjoyed Costas' and Verducci's mealy-mouthed attempts to act like they were suspicious during the 1998 homer chase. Laughable. They were as caught up as the rest of the media.

Lots of reporters realized they were suspicious of that break-in at the Watergate, too, looking back 12 years later. 8)

 

[Den1983]

Very interested to hear Wilstein's version. Shame he was treated the way he was though, just for doing his job.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Trying to remember 1998 (the National League might as well be the Premier League when you're covering the Red Sox in Boston), there was SOME commentary when Wilstein's story came out that it was troubling McGwire was using that stuff, but not too much. I have always felt Bonds was often pilloried by writers for the sins of McGwire and Sosa those same writers had overlooked in their rush to get into the poesy of the game. Not that he didn't deserve every bit of it, mind you.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I heard Burns promoting it on Carolla's podcast a couple days back and it was enough to get me to set my DVR. Who the hell knows when I'll have time to watch it.

 

[Boom_70]

- Also enjoyed Costas' and Verducci's mealy-mouthed attempts to act like they were suspicious during the 1998 homer chase. Laughable. They were as caught up as the rest of the media.

Lots of reporters realized they were suspicious of that break-in at the Watergate, too, looking back 12 years later. 8)

Verducci knew though that Roger Clemens success was due to his training. We know that to be true because he wrote about not once but twice in S.I.

 

[cranberry]

I was disappointed, overall, although they provided better context to the whole steroid thing than I had expected.

 

[cortez]

I think I'm looking forward more to the just-found 1960 Pirates-Yanks broadcast than Tenth inning. And I enjoy all of KB's work

 

[Drip]

It was OK. David Keith did a good job of narrating, as usual. Should have touched more on the drug use of the 1970's and 80's.

 

[Small Town Guy]

It was OK. David Keith did a good job of narrating, as usual. Should have touched more on the drug use of the 1970's and 80's.

He did. In the Ninth Inning, which aired 16 years ago.

 

[Shaggy]

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.

 

[qtlaw]

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.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

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.

 

[NoOneLikesUs]

Burns' guest column in USA Today was delusional.

 

[93Devil]

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.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

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

 

[hondo]

- Also enjoyed Costas' and Verducci's mealy-mouthed attempts to act like they were suspicious during the 1998 homer chase. Laughable. They were as caught up as the rest of the media.

Lots of reporters realized they were suspicious of that break-in at the Watergate, too, looking back 12 years later. 8)

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.

 

[BYH]

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