Review of Baseball Ken Burns Episodes

Baseball Ken Burns: The Baseball Years, a movie based on the life of baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, chronicles the game’s long history, beginning with its humble origins in the late 1840s and culminating with a comprehensive overview of the last decades covering nearly all of baseball’s major events. It spans nine episodes, or frames, and clocks more than eighteen hours, beautifully brought to life through the artful use of photography, illustrations, newsreels and audio recordings, as well as the voice of famous personalities reciting the first-hand accounts of some of baseball’s major characters. Burns accomplished this monumental feat by collecting much of what might have been. The result is a movie which tells the full story of not only baseball, but America as well, in a way few films have been able to accomplish.

Burns seems to take great pains to give proper credit to those whose work he has had the privilege of featuring in his film, including such notables as Frank White, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Joe Montana, Ted Williams, Tom Seaver, Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, and so many others, while at the same time remaining fairly open to interpretations of his film which differ from those held by others. Many of the names in Baseball Ken Burns favorites list include those who, like Burns, are generally overlooked, even by those who appreciate their impact as much as Burns does. Others, such as Ted Williams, have long since been recognized as having played an indispensable role in baseball history. And there are those who will likely be unfamiliar faces, even to those who follow baseball as closely as Burns does.

While Baseball Ken Burns does his best to tell the full story of baseball history, he does tend to make some errors that could be pointed out. His style is somewhat disorganized, with the notes and discussions often appearing a bit haphazard. While the overall story of the film is great, certain plot elements seem a little rushed. For example, one major mistake occurs near the end of the film, when Burns puts up a picture of Joe DiMaggio wearing his No. 1 baseball glove. However, no one else is wearing a glove that belongs to Joe DiMaggio!