The Tenth Inning

[G-Fafif]

1994 Expos were celebrated/mourned, but their franchise's ultimate fate was treated as a footnote.

[Frayed Knot]

Edgy DC wrote: That's amazing. Montreal, among other things, was the team most damaged by the strike. Sacre bleu!

They did deal with Les Expos' spot in the standings and the talent of their roster at the time of the strike and how it killed their season, but then didn't seem to think that the long-term affects needed saying.
On a related note they probably should have dealt with (I saw about 3/4 of it) MLB's inability to deal with the growth in revenue disparity beyond just a throw-away line about the owners being 'unable to keep their own house in order'.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I wonder about how much deference they felt they had to pay Bud Selig, considering the whole shebang is set during his watch.

[DocTee]

I've not seen a single minute of this, but my colleague, a ChiSox fan, is livid over the attention the Red Sox have gotten while his team gets short-changed. He's writing a letter to PBS, even.

[TransMonk]

Yeah, there was about 90 minutes dedicated to the Red Sox winning in 2004, but about a 10 second clip of the White Sox winning in 2005.

Did Burns understand that White Sox fans had to wait 2 years longer than RSN for their team to win a championship?

[Frayed Knot]

DocTee wrote: I've not seen a single minute of this, but my colleague, a ChiSox fan, is livid over the attention the Red Sox have gotten while his team gets short-changed. He's writing a letter to PBS, even.

But they didn't have a long drought like the Bost ... oh wait, they did!
Well, they didn't have as long a drought AND have hordes of east coast intellectuals pulling for them, SO THERE!!

In all seriousness it might have been a nice idea to mention that there were eight different champions over a nine season span (including first-timers like the Angels and the long-time suffering ChiSoxers) in the midst of the supposed non-parity era, but I guess that didn't fit so neatly into the narrative.

[metirish]

Ok, this wasn't all that good. Two people saved this for me from being a complete shambles, Pedro Martinez and Marcos Breton a journalist from Sacramento Bee I think , gotta say that I don't get the hate for George Will(not on here but elsewhere).

[HahnSolo]

Didn' t see the doc, but on the Red Sox/White Sox thing:

The Red Sox drought was amplified by: heartbreaking 7-game losses in 4 different World Series; a one-game playoff loss at home; Grady Little and Brett Boone; and the whole Bambino thing. Overhyped? Yes. But there's much more of a story there. This is not even considering the down 3-0 in the ALCS part of the story.

The White Sox had feeble postseason performances in 59, 83, and 93, hence no real heartwrenching losses, plus it brought joy to Hawk Harrelson (though the beating Clemens part was nice).

So yeah, if it were me doing the documentary, I'd pay more attention to the Red Sox.

[Gwreck]

HahnSolo wrote: The White Sox had feeble postseason performances in 59, 83, and 93

Also 2000, under then-manager Jerry Manuel. Best record in the league and they went down 0-3 in the division series.

[TransMonk]

Gwreck wrote: Also 2000, under then-manager Jerry Manuel. Best record in the league and they went down 0-3 in the division series.

Severely out-managed by Lou Pinella, IIRC.

[Lefty Specialist]

It was interesting to see 5 seconds of a skinny, pre-assault K-Rod give up a 9th inning bomb in the 2002 World Series.

I'd go out on a limb and say the 2004 Red Sox were the story of the decade, though. They may not have deserved half the show, but the Red Sox/Yankee dynamic has pretty much been the biggest thing around.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I didn't see part II, but shirley the Sawx in 04 were the story of the decade. That and the whole roidy thing, and the whole new revenue thing.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I'll happily say that the comeback from down 3-0 alone was non-Mets baseball at it's finest.

[metirish]

The Red Sox thing didn't bother me, the 2003/04 post seasons were phenomenal to watch and they obviously were a huge part of both.

[Benjamin Grimm]

DocTee wrote: I've not seen a single minute of this, but my colleague, a ChiSox fan, is livid over the attention the Red Sox have gotten while his team gets short-changed. He's writing a letter to PBS, even.

Is this the kind of thing that a sane adult gets "livid" over? Maybe peeved. Or miffed. Or irked. Or even annoyed. But livid??

[TransMonk]

Very few peeps outside of the 13 colonies give a flying fig about the Sawks vs. the Yankees.

For fans in Illinois, the 2005 ChiSox were the story of the decade (along with Bartman). Livid may be a bit much, but I can understand being more than miffed at the understatement.

[MFS62]

Frayed Knot wrote: Edgy DC wrote: That's amazing. Montreal, among other things, was the team most damaged by the strike. Sacre bleu! They did deal with Les Expos' spot in the standings and the talent of their roster at the time of the strike and how it killed their season, but then didn't seem to think that the long-term affects needed saying.

There had been hockey strikes 1992-1994 of various durations. The fans returned. I guess hockey was more intrenched than baseball. And the strike toppled baseball interest over the edge.
Later

[metirish]

I was going to say that one reason why the 2005 W Sox were not so celebrated in the documentary is that they played in a terrible WS , then I remembered that the 2004 WS was just as bad.

[Guest Edgy DC]

The fan abandoment was overstated. And McGwire and Sosa "saving" baseball was grossly overstated, if not wholly manufactured.

The NHL Players Association is notoriously strike averse. The strike of 1992 lasted only 10 days. The 1994-1995 season was intterupted by an owners' lockout, and it was a lockout again that cancelled the 2004-2005 season.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Edgy DC wrote: The fan abandoment was overstated. And McGwire and Sosa "saving" baseball was grossly overstated, if not wholly manufactured.

Tell it, brother. Amen.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

metirish wrote: Ok, this wasn't all that good. Two people saved this for me from being a complete shambles, Pedro Martinez and Marcos Breton a journalist from Sacramento Bee...

Breton's a hell of a beat and features writer, too.

Pedro needs to be in a booth. Badly. Like, if Keith and/or Ron ever seriously hint at going another direction, SNY should be on him like a hungry baby on a teat.

[Willets Point]

I haven't seen The Tenth Inning, but if I were making a baseball history documentary about 1994-2009, this is what I would include:

*1994 strike and aftermath
*Cal Ripken's continuous game streak
*Brave's success over 15 season period (yuck...but it has to be there)
* Baseball's growing international appeal, especially arrival of Asian stars like Hideo Nomo, Chan Ho Park, and Ichiro (WPS should be mentioned too, especially with Japan winning)
* McGwire/Sosa homerun race and the excitement that it brought, but also a critical eye to the questionable nature of their success
* Yankee success of the late 90's & early oughts (yeah I know, yuck again, but they can also show the role PED's played)
*Sept. 11th & baseball's response (the Mets/Braves game being prominent here as well as Mets wearing NYPD/FDNY hats in games)
* Revelations of widespread steroids/PED's used by prominent players and teams
* Expansion teams come of age with first World Series championships (Marlins, Diamondbacks, Angels) and first pennants (Astros, Rockies)
* Red Sox and White Sox end long championship droughts
* Expos managed by MLB and moved to Washington
* Focus on top players of era: Ken Griffey, Cal Ripken, Chipper Jones, Ichiro, Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Pedro Martinez, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson, Johan Santana
* Outside of MLB, the growing popularity of Little League World Series as source of inspiration and scandal

That would be the basic requirements as far as I'm concerned. Did I leave anything out? Like I said before I'd love more Met content, but I can see the Mets being left out except for Sept. 11th.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Willets Point wrote: That would be the basic requirements as far as I'm concerned. Did I leave anything out?

Sabermetrics penetrates the mainstream.
The stadium revolution.
Wild Cards/Expanded playoffs/Interleague play

[Willets Point]

Oh yeah, I forgot I was going to list Bud Selig's innovations too.

I like you're other two suggestions as well.

[Guest Edgy DC]

You know, a big thing in the nineties that's pretty taken for granted now is the return of the independent minor leagues.

[Willets Point]

Edgy DC wrote: You know, a big thing in the nineties that's pretty taken for granted now is the return of the independent minor leagues.

Good point. The St. Paul Saints were outdrawing the Twins for a while after the strike.

[batmagadanleadoff]

More missing Mets from the 10th Inning:

During the Joe Torre segment, the producers used video from every major league team Torre was ever asscociated with (Braves -- as player and manager; Cards -- as player and manager; Yankees (obviously) as manager) except the Mets.

[metirish]

Most if not all the things Willets would cover were covered to some degree.

[TransMonk]

Frank Thomas
Albert Pujols
Jeff Bagwell
Mike Piazza
Edgar Martinez

Great sluggers of the era with little to no coverage in this documentary. Did they get swept under the carpet because of the steroid suspicion of the era?

Also, who is this Barnacle guy and what does he have to do with baseball...other than being an idiot Red Sox fan?

[Frayed Knot]

I think part of what makes ChiSox fans (or at least some of them) easily steamed is that they see themselves as suffering a kind of double bias:
a) they're not part of the east coast and therefore ignored by 'Big Media'
even in their own part of the world they're overshadowed in the minds of 'Big Media' by the Cubs

And while their WS win over Houston might have been 4-0 they were all, IIRC, 1-run games and it wasn't a bad series at all.



Mike Barnicle is a longtime Boston Globe writer - politics mostly - and is certainly a member of the east coast media's inner circle.