Baseball (TV Mini Series) Our Game (1994) User Reviews

Squashing The Doubleday Myth

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 12 August 2007]

This opening segment of Ken Burns' "Baseball" series reveals some interesting history of the game, giving us facts I'll be 99 percent of baseball fans haven't heard before, such as how the game was played during the Civil War era, what it was called and in what manner it changed.

Included in that history was the fact that Abner Doubleday did not invent the game of baseball as we were all told, that is slowly evolved from a combination of game called "rounders' along with cricket.

Most of the information was interesting and presented so that one needn't be a baseball historian to enjoy it.

The Down and Dirty Part of Early Professional Sport

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 22 January 2015]

This is a warts and all presentation of how a sport gains popularity, despite being viewed by many as the devil's work. It tells the inside story of the creators of the sport and how many were credited with things they never actually did. Abner Doubleday, for instance, is given way more credit than deserved. Then there are the ins and outs of the money grubbing characters who treated players like dirt. Like so much of the early Twentieth Century usurers, baseball fell under the thumb of evil owners. It was also checkered disloyalty and violence. What surprised me the most was how popular the sport became so fast, even before the turn of the century. Players were already heroes to children and the sport, though having growing pains, captured the soul of a country on the rise. This first episode explains the evolution of the rules and clarifies some of the mythology that has become part and parcel of our traditions. It is a necessary and exciting part of what proved to be a wonderful documentary.

Great Start to the Series

[Michael_Elliott · 5 June 2012]

Baseball: First Inning 'Our Game' (1994)

**** (out of 4)

The first episode in Ken Burns' nine part documentary taking a look at the history of baseball. This first episode takes a look at the sport during the 1800s as we learn where it basically came from, how it developed over time and the various new rules that were constantly being added. We also hear about how at first rules were in place that no players were to be paid and we hear how this began to change over the years and how eventually there were three leagues simply because no one could agree on the business side of things. BASEBALL: FIRST INNING is certainly a great way to start the series. What's so entertaining about this episode is that the majority of the viewers watching are going to know the current rules of baseball so it was great getting to hear about the original ones and how they developed over the decades. Some of the most interesting stuff deals with the early days of you recording an out by hitting the running with the ball. Also interesting are the changes that deal with base stealing, the "crooked" side of a curve ball and various changes dealing with the number of innings. It's funny but one of the most interesting thing comes from a historian talking about the 90-feet baselines and how no one knows why this number selected but then he talks about why it was so perfect for the sport. Throughout the film we get some terrific photos from the various stages of the sport, which was certainly interesting and the stories behind them even more so. Just hearing about baseball being played during the Civil War, how race became an issue and how a fight turned into a stadium being burned down.