Full Count
The 10th Inning continues the same style of presentation that was used in the original series. Expect to see lots of quality still images, interviews with broadcasters and sports writers (although only one or two players), vintage footage, and still images of newspaper clippings and so forth. These are all seamed together nicely with an overseeing narrator who takes us from the ’92 season through to 2009.
At first, having not see much of the original Baseball series, I thought the documentary jumped around a bit, but it soon become revealed why this sort of structure was used. The opening of the film focuses on Barry Bonds, and, as you can imagine with all of the hysteria surrounding Bonds in 2008-2009, this documentary would end with him as well. You never quite new what this documentary would elaborate on and what it wouldn’t, though, and I found that problematic. The Yankees and Joe Torre, worthy of the time they are allotted, was a great chapter, but at the same time, other events are barely mentioned. In that way, the documentary feels unbalanced and somewhat random.
There isn’t a great deal of use in my re-iterating each event this documentary covers, but, suffice it to say that no year is completely glazed over. That goes especially for the year of 1994, when the owners and the players could not agree on a payment structure. This particular chapter, entitled Millionaires Vs Billionaires, describes in detail, with lots of vintage footage, the intense, stubborn state of the owners and players associations towards one another. Each side was too stubborn and self-centered to realize that without fans, they have nothing. When the MLB returned, the MLB had a tremendous amount of rebuilding to do. Cal Ripken was a major part of that process, and he gets his spotlight in this documentary.
The fallout of the strike would tarnish baseball for several years, in many cases longer for some betrayed fans. Yet even non-baseball fans can remember the excitement, albeit ignorant excitement, surrounding the home run record chase between McGwire and Sosa in the ’98 season. They were literally batting balls out of parks at a stunning rate, and both would eclipse Roger Maris’ record of 61 with ease. About two-thirds of the way through the record chase, a sports writer, featured in this documentary, broke the story about possible abuse of a substance that the NFL and Olympic committee had already banned. The mentality at the time seemed was more so about ‘nevermind that, focus on the fact that baseball is back in a big way.’ Of course years later, the Mitchell Report would again force baseball fans to take a hard look at the sport and wonder what it means to them. This sobering examination follows Bonds as he breaks the all time home run record amidst tremendous controversy, disinterest, even disgust, and allegations of substance abuse.
But, it seems, baseball has a way of healing itself, and its fans, generation after generation, always come back to the game. That’s where the documentary leaves off, with hopes held high that the dark ages of the sport are behind it, and the best, as always, is yet to come.
Extra Innings on Blu-ray
This two disc set features a crisp image quality with very good sound quality. From the menus to the direction of the film to the quality, The 10th Inning maintains a steady ‘on par’ presentation quality that doesn’t disappoint. There are also lots of extra features, including over two hours of bonus footage. Most of this bonus footage is comprised of additional interviews and anecdotes that just didn’t make the final cut. There is also an interview with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick that is presented in HD and runs for about seventeen minutes. In it, the duo talk about getting together for the documentary and what was involved in making it. The vast majority of the rest of the extra features are additional scenes and outtakes, just extra, good quality footage (although presented in SD) that wasn’t used in the film.
With that, let’s get to the summary…
