Baseball: Third Inning 'The Faith of Fifty Million People' (1994)
**** (out of 4)
The third of nine episodes in Ken Burns' documentary takes a look at the years between 1910 and 1920. As the documentary correctly states, the decade started off with the sport reaching heights that no one could see but it would come crashing down in 1919 with the Chicago White Sox scandal. Other subjects in this episode include the Snodgrass error in the World Series, the building of Fenway Park, WWI's impact on the sport, the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Star Spangle Banner being played, the 1914 Federal League and we get looks at players like Grover Cleveland Alexander and manager Connie Mack. This episode also looks at Ty Cobb's racism and the damage he was doing to his sport including an August 15, 1912 incident where he went into the stands and beat a handicapped man. Needless to say, this here is yet another winning episode and the best thing that can be said is that it's both entertaining and it also makes you smarter. There's really nothing negative that can be said about this episode and especially the final segments where we take a look at the White Sox scandal and the aftermath of the team throwing the World Series. Another benefit of this is that there's some video footage of the World Series as well as the court cases that would follow and we get some great images of Shoeless Joe Jackson. Fans of baseball are really going to love all of the stories here and those unfamiliar with the sport but want to learn it's history will have a great lesson.