Ken Burns' 'Tenth Inning' Worthy Successor to 'Baseball'

by Milton Kent

Filed under: MLB PEDs, Sports Business and Media

There are those who earnestly believe that "The Godfather Part III" is a fine film whose only significant flaws are exposed when it is compared to the two films that preceded it, which are among the finest American movies made.

So it is with Ken Burns' addendums to his landmark "Baseball" documentary series. "The Tenth Inning," which premieres Tuesday and Wednesday on PBS stations around the country, is an exceptional piece of historical film-making that documents the last 20 years in baseball superbly.

Alas, the two-part "Tenth Inning" doesn't quite resonate with viewers the way the original nine-part, 18 1/2-hour masterwork did, for a variety of reasons.

Some of those reasons are beyond the control of Burns, his co-director Lynn Novick and David McMahon, who wrote the screenplay with Burns and Novick.

It's not their fault that the period covered in "The Tenth Inning" -- from the 1992 playoffs through last season -- is a largely joyless, soulless time marked by the increasing intrusions of big-money players and franchises and performance-enhancing drugs.

 

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