We have been watching our tapes of the the Ken Burns PBS Series. I've seen it several times. It is still as powerful as the first time I watched.We watched 30 minutes tonight and I was in tears three times: when Lou Gehrig made his "Today I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth" speech, when hearing about the antisemitism that Hank Greenburg faced, and again with a story about Satchel Paige and the Negro Leagues. I cry at every story about the Negro Leagues. The injustice and hatefulness are something I cannot hear about without an emotional reaction. This reaction is not new to me but the intensity has changed. Nevy puts a new spin on the old story.
One thing that Burns makes clear is that baseball tells the story of America. The big historical issues America has faced time and again....labor, race, class...are issues with which baseball has also grappled. Watching Burns' documentary has almost made me decide to forgive MLB for the strike of 1994 and the McGwire/Sosa homerun farce in 1998. Maybe it's time to pay attention again.
