At today's TCA session for his new documentary series on the national parks, Ken Burns was asked if he was working on a "tenth inning" addition to his iconic Baseball series, which ended in 1992. As he is wont to do, Burns took about five or so minutes to answer that question. What it boils down to is that, yes, a tenth inning is coming, scheduled to air sometime in 2010. As one of our commenters below pointed out, this was announced awhile ago. But it was good to hear Burns talk a little about what they're going to explore in the new episode. So much has gone on in the last seventeen years, from exploding economics, new stadia, steroids, HGH, labor strife, and steroids (yes, I said steroids twice), that a tenth inning was inevitable. Unlike some of Burns' other series, which only go up to a point in history because anything after that would seem redundant -- the national parks doc, for instance, will only cover until 1980 -- Baseball was aching for an update.
Oh, and by the way, Burns' euphemism for the steroids issue was "exploring human frailties." Can't really reconcile Roger Clemens shooting 'roids into his butt with being frail, but whatever.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-01-2009 @ 6:12PM
Galley said...
The 10th inning of "Baseball" was announced several months ago.
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8-01-2009 @ 6:19PM
Joel Keller said...
Thanks for letting me know. I'll fix the post.
8-01-2009 @ 9:58PM
Bob Schuck said...
I'm sure it will be a continuation of the first nine innings, which was basically just the history of the Boston Red Sox. (Denny McLain? Who's he? Oh, yeah, wasn't he the guy who won 31 games way back when? Yeah, we didn't have time for him, but how 'bout that '67 pennant race that the Red Sox came so close to winning?)
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8-02-2009 @ 1:35AM
Jimmy said...
Any word on if it will air on PBS or just MLB Network. And, unlike the 1994 doc, will it be in HD? I think they should remaster the whole thing in HD.
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8-02-2009 @ 4:34PM
Joe Siegler said...
Ken Burns was in Arlington a couple of nights ago, and they interviewed him during the Rangers coverage.
He said it will air "about a year from now", and it will be on PBS. While he didn't specifically mention HD, one has to assume that.
It's in two two hour segments. One will be the "Top of the 10th", and the other will be the "Bottom of the 10th". He also mentions that "Baseball" is the only one of his documentaries he'd ever be interested in doing more of.
He also mentioned something about "God Willing, in another 15 years, I'll do an 11th inning". He seemed to be half joking when he said it, but you got the impression if he's still here in another 15 years, he'd do it.
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