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Baseball: A Film By Ken Burns

Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.

IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: September 18, 1994

PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Baseball: A Film By Ken Burns, “Our Game” (Season 1, Episode 1) [Watch on Amazon Prime]

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: By 1994, documentarian Ken Burns had already made a name for himself among the PBS set with The Civil War, the rare TV documentary series that crossed over to become popular, must-see, even watercooler entertainment. It’s easy to think that today’s era of niche programming is the only one that could have accommodated that kind of popularity for a documentary series, but Burns’ films transcended that. And indeed, Baseball captivated millions of viewers (or at the very least millions of your dads), ironically just as Major League Baseball was in the midst of a strike that would end up cancelling the World Series.

Ken Burns’ style is easily recognizable, and thus easily parodied or mocked, but it’s easy to see why that blend of conversational and authoritative was able to work so well with weighty, American subjects like war, baseball, or jazz. Also, not for nothing, but look how young Bob Costas looks here:

He’s a child! He’s an actual baby talking about grown-up things. Modern-day Costas has evolved into some kind of holier-than-thou sports lecturer, but back then he was just a twelve-year-old with an overdeveloped vocabulary and a palpable sense of wonder for the game of baseball. God bless.

[You can watch Ken Burns’ Baseball on Amazon Prime]

Joe Reid (@joereid) is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. You can find him leaving flowers for Mrs. Landingham at the corner of 18th and Potomac.

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