THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 18, 1994 TAG: 9409170045
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, TELEVISION COLUMNIST
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
``Baseball'' begins at 8 tonight on PBS. The next four ``innings'' will be seen on the following four nights at 8 p.m. Then, there's a two-day break - travel time, some baseball fans would call it - and the series resumes at 8 nightly Sept. 25 to 28.
The lineup for ``Baseball'':
First Inning - ``Our Game,'' from the 1840s to 1900 - Baseball as we know it was started not by Abner Doubleday but by Alexander Cartwright and his New York Knickerbockers, who popularized the game in 1846 by using many rules still in force today. The Cincinnati Red Stockings came along as baseball's first professional team in 1869. Even back then, women played baseball, and an African American (Moses Fleetwood Walker) did compete with whites, but was driven out of the game by bigots. That bigotry endured for decades.
Second inning - ``Something Like a War,'' from 1900 to 1910 - Using balls that were heavy and shaped like potatoes, pitchers including Christy Mathewson, ``Rube'' Waddell and ``Three-Finger'' Brown dominated baseball, which branched out into two major leagues when the American League organized under Ban Johnson in 1900. It was the era, said John McGraw of the New York Giants, when baseball took kids out of the coal mines and wheat fields and taught them to play ball with ``the look of eagles.'' The decade produced two hitters that could handle any pitcher of that time: Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner.
Third inning - ``The Faith of Fifty Million People,'' from 1910 to 1920 - There was bitter labor strife as long ago as this decade in which poorly paid players bolted to form the Federal League. Eight of the players who wanted more money obtained it from gamblers in 1919. They were the eight members of the Chicago White Sox who played to lose in the World Series. Most intriguing in this segment is how obvious the Chicago players were in messing up on purpose. Why didn't somebody stop the World Series?
Fourth inning - ``A National Heirloom,'' from 1920 to 1930 - Radio broadcasts, the farm system and the slugging of Babe Ruth arrived in this decade. And it was not a minute too soon that Ruth showed up with his sweet swing. Switching from pitching to playing the outfield, Ruth gave fans something to make them forget about players throwing World Series games: The towering, game-breaking home run. He hit 60 home runs in 1927. More than a million people paid to see him do it.
Fifth Inning - ``Shadow Ball,'' from 1930 to 1940 - It was the time of the great Philadelphia Athletics' teams managed by the stately Connie Mack. He managed in suit, tie and high starched collar. The Great Depression nearly put baseball out of business. Not only did white baseball survive the 1920s, but so did Negro League Baseball, which featured such stars as Leroy ``Satchel'' Paige and Josh Gibson. Lou Gehrig retired with a deadly illness. At the end of the decade, Bob Feller, Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio began ascending the baseball Olympus. Hank Greenberg, a Jew, said he aimed every home run he hit at the head of Adolph Hitler. Shadow ball was a style of pantomime made famous in the Negro leagues - playing baseball without the ball.
Sixth Inning - ``The National Pastime,'' from 1940 to 1950 - Perhaps baseball's greatest decade with the arrival of Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn, epic World Series games played in 1941, 1946 and 1947. The era when Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio established standards for hitting that still endure. When war came to America, women and one-armed outfielders played baseball. Pressed into service in the major leagues was a one-eyed umpire.
Seventh Inning - ``The Capital of Baseball,'' from 1950 to 1960 - In this decade, the teams from New York City dominated World Series' play. The Brooklyn Dodgers finally won a world's championship. They also lost a playoff game on Bobby Thompson's shot heard around the world. It was the era of Casey Stengel's superb if unconventional managing and Don Larsen's perfect game in the World Series. Two years after winning the World Series, the Dodgers abandoned Flatbush for Los Angeles. Great upheavals in the game began.
Eighth Inning - ``A Whole New Ball Game,'' from 1960 to 1970 - Baseball expands to more cites, the players' union challenges the owners' hold on the game, Curt Flood goes to court to fight the reserve clause and loses. Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson dominated the era from the mound. Roger Maris hit 61 home runs. Professional football challenges baseball's claim as the national game. Changes in the look of stadiums and uniforms arrive. Carl Yastrzemski becomes a folk hero in Boston. The New York Mets are born, ridiculed and eventually hailed as champions.
Ninth Inning - ``Home,'' from 1970 until the present - Players and owners swim in great sums of money generated by TV contracts in the 1980s, only to lock horns in 1994 because there is no longer enough TV money to go around. Henry Aaron eclipses Ruth's record of 714 career home runs. Carlton Fisk's home run in the 1975 World Series seems to renew America's interest in the game. The purist learns to live with fake grass and the designated hitter. It was the era of Buckner's Bungle in the 1986 World Series against the Mets, and the era when black men finally managed in the Major Leagues, and the owners conspired to hold down players' salaries. It was an old story in a new time: Players and owners fighting over money. by CNB