Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 25, 1994 TAG: 9410250056
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID SIMPKINS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She claimed that ``Baseball'' failed to place enough emphasis on the roles of blacks, women, Latinos and other minorities. She must have seen a different version of the documentary from the one I saw. Nor could Poska have seen any of the ubiquitous Burns appearances on television in which he discussed, eloquently and passionately, how professional baseball itself (to its discredit) failed (and is still failing) to give equal time to those very same minorities. ``Baseball,'' with powerful clarity, showed examples of how attitudes in major-league baseball have run parallel to those in American society.
Burns never lost sight of the fact that baseball is an American game, and is subject to all the racism, bigotry, greed, sexism and other evils our society can bring to bear. In contrast, he also focused on our almost mystical love for the game - a love that has, so far, transcended all the aforementioned evils. Amazement at the fact that baseball, despite (and in many instances, because of) its historical domination by white males, has been loved many years by millions of Americans of every race, creed, sex and color was precisely the focus of his documentary.
Burns used the ongoing popularity of major-league baseball to make the point that it's the game itself, not its here-today-gone-tomorrow big-league heroes or the game's various profit-oriented manifestations, that captures our imagination. He described in detail how, no matter whether big leagues are in decline or on the rise, baseball continues to grow in popularity with grass-roots Americans, minorities and majorities alike. A plethora of photos of sandlot, semi-pro, industry-organized, and church-sponsored teams from all over the country illustrated this point nicely.
In limiting his documentary to 18-plus hours, Burns was forced to paint much of baseball's detailed history with a broad brush. Poska was upset that he failed to mention that hundreds of Latinos lost their homes when Dodger Stadium was built. She also griped, ``We saw almost nothing about ... losing teams with no exceptional players.'' To include those details, along with the other alleged oversights she listed, new installments of ``Baseball'' would have to be shown from now until the end of time.
Burns used baseball's most heroic and notorious figures in much the same way other documentarians use our presidents to mark historical eras. When he featured Hall-of-Famers Cap Anson and Ty Cobb, he added that their bigotry was typical of the attitudes of their day. When Jackie Robinson broke the major league's color barrier in 1947, his accomplishments mirrored the difficult but heroic inroads being made by blacks in all walks of life. If this isn't cultural history, what is?
Poska even found fault with Burns' portraying baseball as ``an urban, East Coast phenomenon.'' Would she have him change history? Baseball, before it became a nationwide passion, was an urban, East Coast phenomenon.
Poska accuses Burns of using baseball as a metaphor for American power, not for American culture. I contend that he never intended to portray baseball as a metaphor for anything besides baseball. However, he did correctly observe that major-league baseball has reflected the attitudes of American society over the past 125 years. The inclusion, or exclusion, of minorities along the way is only a part of the overall story. As a treatise on American culture, power, racism or the ongoing tensions in the Middle East, maybe his documentary came up short. But as an examination of, and a documentary about, baseball's history and America's rocky love affair with it, ``Baseball,'' as an overview, was right on the mark.
David Simpkins of Blacksburg is graphic designer for the Virginia Tech College of Engineering, and was co-captain of the Radford High School baseball team in 1972.
by CNB