Baseball

Version: Abridged
Author: Geoffrey C. Ward , Ken Burns
Narrator: Ken Burns
Genres: Sports, Baseball
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: September 2010
Length: 6 hours, 53 minutes
Ratings:
Formats :
  • CD
  • MP3
  • M4B
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Overview

The companion to Ken Burns’s magnificent PBS television series—updated and expanded to coincide with the broadcast of a new, two-part Tenth Inning directed with Lynn Novick.



The authors of the acclaimed and bestselling The Civil War, Jazz, and The War turn to another uniquely American phenomenon: baseball. Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns’s moving and fascinating history of the game goes beyond stolen bases, double plays, and home runs to demonstrate how baseball has been influenced by, and has in turn influenced, American life. The audiobook covers every milestone of the game: from the rules drawn up in 1845 by Alexander Cartwright to the American League’s introduction of the designated hitter in 1973; from the 1924 Negro World Series to Jack Roosevelt Robinson’s major-league debut, from the first curve ball in 1867 to Nolan Ryan’s seventh and last no-hitter in 1991. This new edition brings the authors’ monumental work into the twenty-first century: steroids, home-run records, the rise of Latino players, the long-awaited Red Sox World Series victory, and so much more. Baseball is an audiobook that speaks to all Americans.

Author Details

Author Details

Ward, Geoffrey C.

Geoffrey C. Ward<b> </b>won the National Book Critics Circle Award<b> </b>in 1989. With Ken Burns, he is coauthor of <i>The Civil</i> <i>War</i> and <i>Jazz</i>. He lives in New York City.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>

Burns, Ken

"After earning his BA at Hampshire College, Brooklyn-born Ken Burns pursued a career as a documentary filmmaker. At age 22, he formed Florentine Films in his home base of Walpole, New Hampshire. Dissatisfied with dry, scholarly historical documentaries, Burns wanted his films to ""live,"" and to that end adopted the technique of cutting rapidly from one still picture to another in a fluid, linear fashion. He then pepped up the visuals with ""first hand"" narration gleaned from contemporary writings and recited by top stage and screen actors. Burns' first successful venture was the award-winning documentary The Brooklyn Bridge, which ran on public television in 1981. While he was Oscar-nominated for his 1985 theatrical release The Statue of Liberty, Burns' work has enjoyed its widest exposure on television: such films as Huey Long (1985), Thomas Hart Benton (1986) and Empire of the Air (1991) (a bouquet to the pioneers of commercial radio) have become staples of local PBS stations' seasonal fund drives. In 1990, Burns completed what many consider his ""chef d'oeuvre"": the eleven-hour The Civil War, which earned an Emmy (among several other honors) and became the highest-rated miniseries in the history of public television. Civil War was the apotheosis of Burns' master mixture of still photos, freshly shot film footage, period music, evocative ""celebrity"" narration and authentic sound effects. In 1994, Ken Burns released his long-awaited Baseball, an 18-hour saga which, like The Civil War, was telecast at the same time as the publication of a companion coffee-table book. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide"