And those are just the P words. The Civil War was an important, even pivotal, event in our nation's history. Baseball is just a game. Not even a very interesting game, witness the declining viewership and participation relative to other sports. Yet we have nine episodes -- excuse me, innings -- of everyone from George Will to Mario Cuomo to Billy Crystal bloviating on what a just and democratic game baseball is. Spare me. It's a game. It's no more intellectual than basketball, or football. It isn't more virtuous just because nothing's happening most of the time. I don't care how many guys in tweed jackets Ken Burns tracks down to tell me otherwise, a bug is not a feature.
To be clear, I have nothing at all against baseball per se, or against Ken Burns. But for crissakes this is an interminable series, redundant in the extreme (yeah we get it, the Negro Leagues were great, Ty Cobb was an a--hole), and and others have pointed out, pretty heavy on New York and Boston. This should've been a 2-3 parter at most, along the lines of his Prohibition series.
To be clear, I have nothing at all against baseball per se, or against Ken Burns. But for crissakes this is an interminable series, redundant in the extreme (yeah we get it, the Negro Leagues were great, Ty Cobb was an a--hole), and and others have pointed out, pretty heavy on New York and Boston. This should've been a 2-3 parter at most, along the lines of his Prohibition series.