martin-1369 Review of The Winning Season

The Winning Season (2004 TV Movie)

Very enjoyable, but not a perfect historical document

[7/10 · 4 November 2006]

I love baseball, I love baseball history, and I love time travel stories, so of course I would love this movie. Well done with the appropriate lessons learnt at the end, and of course I loved the recreation of baseball in 1909, and the CGI was very well done. A few niggling points – whenever they wanted to show a moment of victory on the baseball field of 1909, the batter hits a home run or a ball deep into the outfield. That just wasn't the way they played ball in 1909, in the middle of the dead ball era. It was a time of slap hits and advancing the runner along the base path, one at a time. And Honus was definitely better-looking in the film than reality; in truth he was known for his awkwardness and bow-legged stance. He was also one of these people who looked old when they were young. A romantic Honus is a strange concept. On the other hand, I think the portrayal of Cobb was right on. I don't know who said this of him, but "he was possessed by the furies." (Another quote that Ken Burns mentioned was used in the film, "Baseball is something like a war.") That's how Ty played. The 1909 Series was looked upon as the confrontation between baseball's two biggest players. Honus had been playing since 1897, but Ty had broken into the majors in 1905. They could have mentioned that Ty's batting average in the series was something like .230, while Honus' was about .360. It was a real victory for Honus – maybe his greatest moment of his career. Another small gripe is that there is a character in 1909 how turns out to be a character in present time. This is obvious within 10 minutes but is presented as a huge revelation at the end. As I said, these are niggling points, and I would recommend this film to anyone, and intend to watch my DVD a few more times.