Baseball: The Tenth Inning - Region 1 DVD

Disc 1 examines the labor stoppage of the '90s, the rise of Latino players from countries like the Dominican Republic, the resurgence of the New York Yankees, and Mark McGwire's and Sammy Sosa's pursuit of the single-season home-run record in 1998. The coverage of the home-run chase is particularly effective in showing how baseball simultaneously serves as an escape from and a reflection of the era in which it is played. A country weary of the scandal of President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky eagerly turned its attention to the two men hitting towering home runs. And yet there was scandal, too, at the heart of their exploits, the truth of which would be avoided by owners, players, the press, and fans for many more years.

Disc 2 spends a significant amount of time on the way the steroid scandal fully came to light in the 2000s. The sour reception to Barry Bonds's pursuit of Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record was not just a reaction to how fans felt about Bonds but also how they perceived what they saw on the field with greater knowledge--or perhaps less willful ignorance--of how it was achieved. Another compelling chapter on a serious topic focuses on the resumption of baseball after 9/11--one of the few times in history that more than New Yorkers were rooting for the Yankees in the World Series. Burns still gives plenty of time in the second disc to lighter subjects, including the rise of the Boston Red Sox to World Series champions twice in three years after so many seasons of futility or how globalization of the game brought us outstanding talent from beyond the Western Hemisphere in the form of Japan's Ichiro Suzuki.

For all its depth, if there is a weakness to this documentary, it's how much goes unexamined. Because of its focus on players embroiled in the steroids controversy, the feats of the dominant position players of the era who weren't implicated as performance-enhancing drug users--like Ken Griffey Jr., or Albert Pujols--receive little or no attention. Griffey, once considered the best player in the game, gets nothing beyond a brief highlight reel and a reference as an also-ran in the McGwire-Sosa home-run chase. World Series games not involving the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, or Atlanta Braves get about 30 seconds of footage. But to give the game its due might have required a second documentary as long as the original Baseball series.

Regardless of what else could have been covered, fans will be delighted by this Keith David-narrated production with its snappy production values and thoughtful contributors--none, however, with the presence or significance of the late Buck O'Neil, the heart and soul of the original series. Sometimes Baseball: The Tenth Inning works its best magic by letting the game do the talking, allowing viewers the opportunity to reminisce as they watch footage (unfortunately grainy on today's huge high-def screens) of great contests gone by. And with the San Francisco Giants defying the odds by winning the 2010 World Series title, Burns is off to a good start this decade with material for future extra innings in this amazing series. --Aaron Knopf