Baseball Documentary

tbob · #1 09-29-2010, 02:21 PM

Or the League of Super Villians?
Not one word about Selig's attempts to contract the Minnesota Twins. Not a word about his role in mishandling the whole steroids/andro affair (although Faye Vincent was mentioned) or his marvelous handling of the player strike or that great All-Star game debacle. The guy is truly teflon in Burns' eyes, at least so far.
Did anyone else feel that the Latin/Hispanic players segment was very hastily thrown together? If you knew nothing about baseball, you would assume Roberto Clemente was the first Latin player in the history of major league baseball.
Still, it was enjoyable. I have never seen so many cameo shots of anyone without mentioning the guy's name (Don Zimmer). I assume there will be a long feature on 9-11 and the Yankees to open tonight's program.

P.S. Anyone else think that trashing Clinton over Monica Lewinsky in a baseball documentary seemed a bit strange????

Anthony S. · #2 09-29-2010, 02:28 PM

I found the following anecdote on another website, TBob:

I had the chance to hear Ken Burns speak at Messiah College in Pennsylvania a few years ago. He related this anecdote.

Burns said he was sitting in a restaurant, when a man came up to him and asked, "Excuse me. Are you Ken Burns?"

Burns replied that he was.

The man said, "Well, I'm from Minnesota - and I hate you."

Burns replied, "I know - Harmon Killebrew."

For Burns had realized, to his great chagrin, but much too late to make changes, that he had produced a nine-part epic documentary history of baseball, and not once in the whole documentary had the name of the Twins' great slugger been mentioned.

Well, for Twins' fans' sake, I hope he manages to work Harmon's name into the "Tenth Inning" somehow or other.

Jim VB · #3 09-29-2010, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony S.

I found the following anecdote on another website, TBob:

I had the chance to hear Ken Burns speak at Messiah College in Pennsylvania a few years ago. He related this anecdote.

Burns said he was sitting in a restaurant, when a man came up to him and asked, "Excuse me. Are you Ken Burns?"

Burns replied that he was.

The man said, "Well, I'm from Minnesota - and I hate you."

Burns replied, "I know - Harmon Killebrew."

For Burns had realized, to his great chagrin, but much too late to make changes, that he had produced a nine-part epic documentary history of baseball, and not once in the whole documentary had the name of the Twins' great slugger been mentioned.

Well, for Twins' fans' sake, I hope he manages to work Harmon's name into the "Tenth Inning" somehow or other.

Personally, I think he should only mention hitters with a career BA over .260., but that's just my opinion.

Anthony S. · #4 09-29-2010, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim VB

Personally, I think he should only mention hitters with a career BA over .260., but that's just my opinion.

I'm just happy he's only covering real cities.

Jim VB · #5 09-29-2010, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony S.

I'm just happy he's only covering real cities.

Don't get me wrong. I liked Killebrew, as a kid. But, statistically speaking, he falls somewhere in the middle between Dave Kingman and Jim Thome.

barrysloate · #6 09-29-2010, 02:47 PM

The best part of last night's show for me were the clips. I got to see some of the greatest moments of the era, and some of the greatest swings taken by Bonds, Sosa, McGwire, and Griffey, all condensed into a two hour show. That was fun.

Jim VB · #7 09-29-2010, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony S.

I'm just happy he's only covering real cities.

I spend a fair amount of time in the Twin Cities area. I find it to be one of the nicest cities in the country for 9 months out of every 12. I'm not so fond of it when I visit in December, January, or February.

tbob · #8 09-29-2010, 02:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim VB

Personally, I think he should only mention hitters with a career BA over .260., but that's just my opinion.

Yup, 25 minutes on Bobby Bonds and 0 on a guy who hit 559 homers and was the face of the franchise, that's about right

P.S. Dave Kingman and Jim Thome have both been mentioned and shown...

Jim VB · #9 09-29-2010, 03:21 PM

tbob,

I'm only half kidding on Killebrew. To me the "face of the franchise" carries much more weight than the HR's.

Kingman (all stats from memory): .235, 1200 RBI, and 440 HR, played for 7 teams in 16 years. (I know one season he played for 4 teams.)

Thome: .280, 1600+ RBI, and almost 600 HR, played for 5 teams

Killebrew: .256, just under 1600 RBI, and 570 HR, played for 21 years with the same franchise (and then one somewhere else, KC?)

I know that Killebrew helped legitimize baseball in MN. Without him there was little reason to watch that team. He paved the way for that to become one of the best franchises in the AL. I was speaking only statistically.

I grew up in NYC and recognize my obvious Yankees bias. You might have to examine your (slight

) bias towards the Twins. HOF voters obviously recognized Killebrew's importance when they elected him, and I would not dispute that, but you have to admit that, statistically, he was a one dimensional player.

tbob · #10 09-29-2010, 03:24 PM

One dimensional but along with Tony Oliva and Jim Thome, perhaps the nicest gentleman who ever played MLB. (And yes I am an unabashed biased Twins fan

).

tbob · #11 09-29-2010, 03:28 PM

There was a long thread a while back about the Dodgers-Giants playoff game (the "Giants Win the Pennant!" game) and several posters doubted that the Giants actually stole the Dodgers signs and knew every pitch that was coming. Glad to see Burns backed me up on that one and definitively said it was true and that the Giants indeed did know what every pitch was, including Thomson's HR pitch.

#12 09-29-2010, 09:36 PM

MVP awards: Killebrew 1, Kingman 0, Thome 0
In Top Three in MVP voting: Killebrew 4 times, Kingman never, Thome never
All-Star: Killebrew 13 times, Kingman 3, Thome 5

Top 5 in Slugging: Killebrew 10 times, Kingman twice, Thome 5 times
Top 5 in OPS: Killebrew 10 times, Kingman once, Thome 7 times
RBI Crowns: Killebrew 3, Kingman 0, Thome 0

HR Titles: Killebrew 6, Kingman 2, Thome 1
Seasons with 45+ HRs: Killebrew 5, Kingman 1, Thome 3
Batting Avg Relative to League: Killebrew .256 vs .259, -3; Kingman .236 vs .262, -26; Thome .278 vs .272, +6

Most HRs in the Major Leagues for a Decade (with 2nd-highest decade total in history): Killebrew 1960s (or 1961-1970); Kingman 0, Thome 0

triwak · #13 09-29-2010, 11:16 PM

Thought the coverage of the Steroid era was deserved. Ditto the strike, and the home run record chase of 1998. But GAWD, could we have had just a wee bit more material on Boston?! And... not one word mentioned about Pujols. Hmmm..... Best 10-year performance to ever begin a career in the history of the game? And we're currently right in the middle of it? Guess, not in Burn's mind.

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