Baseball

"The faith of fifty million people" comes from F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" to describe Arnold Rothstein, the gambler behind the Black Sox scandal of the 1919 World Series. This third volume of Ken Burns classic "Baseball" documentary, a true rite of spring, traces the history of the sport in the Roaring Twenties, knowing full well that the decade would end with the game's lowest moment. The success of Connie Mack's Athletics is countered by stingy Charles Comisky's miserly treatment of the Chicago White Sox who would throw the series against the Reds. The creation of the Federal League keeps the labor issue alive and Burns keeps tabs as well on Branch Rickey, always with an eye out for baseball's greatest moment when Jackie Robinson would walk onto Ebbett's field (which was built in 1912). But at the end of the decade, it is the figure of Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the game's first Commissioner who most dominates the game by banning the Black Sox for life. However, that was off the field. What was needed on the field was a player who could once again make fans love and trust the game of baseball. While Shoeless Joe Jackson was playing outlaw ball on several Southern teams under assumed names, Commissioner Landis approved the sale of George H. Ruth from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees for the sum of $125,000. Burns makes it very clear in this episode, it is often darkest before the dawn.

Baseball - Inning 3, The Faith of Fifty Million People (1910-1920) is two hours long and was released on September 23, 1994. Inning 3 is broken down into ten sections.

1. The Black Mark
2. Damn
3. The Wolf Pack
4. Tears
5. Pigtown
6. Free Agents
7. Hard to Know
8. The Carmine-Hosed Warriors
9. An Awful Thing to Do
10. The Law

Baseball - Inning 3, The Faith of Fifty Million People covers the building of Ebbet's Field, The formation of the Federal League and how is allowed free agency, Grover Cleveland Alexander, The infamous Black Sox scandal (throwing the 1919 World Series and baseball's first commissioner: Kenesaw Mountain Landis and how baseball went off to war. In some ways this video seems to be considered the saddest of the nine innings. The players can not escape the hated reserve clause, Negros are not allowed to play in the majors and we find out why Grover Cleveland Alexander drank plus a few other things as well. I myself did not shed a tear, but I was still moved from what I learned in this video. I am giving Baseball - Inning 3, The Faith of Fifty Million People (1910-1920) an AAA+++.