Babe Ruth set a record in 1927 by hitting 60 home runs in one season. 34 years later, Roger Maris broke that record. Another 37 years passed before that record was broken by Mark McGwire. Five days after McGwire's feat, Sammy Sosa broke the brand new record. And the race was on! Fans watched breathlessly as the record passed between the two men and time left in the season dwindled. Relive it all, from Ruth, to Maris, to the final days of the 1998 Sosa/McGwire slug-fest.
Acclaimed Florida novelist Randy Wayne White travels to Cuba with former pitchers Bill "Spaceman" Lee (Boston Red Sox) and Jon Warden (Detroit Tigers), and a band of baseball enthusiasts to find and revive the children's baseball league founded by American writer Ernest Hemingway in the days before Fidel Castro came to power.
One of sport’s first and most influential megastars, beloved baseball icon and 5-time World Series champion Reggie Jackson contemplates his legacy as a trailblazing Black athlete fighting for dignity, respect, and a seat at the table in this intimate and revealing documentary exploring his life and barrier-busting career.
This film is an intimate and moving cinematic record of Shohei Ohtani's journey to MLB stardom. A faithful portrait of his talent development and battle with injuries, and his unique mindset to become a superstar ballplayer breaking all the barriers of race, language, discipline, and culture.
A documentary about the 2001 World Series.
On Oct. 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PT, soon after Al Michaels and Tim McCarver started the ABC telecast for Game 3 of the World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics, the ground began to shake beneath Candlestick Park. Even before that moment, this had promised to be a memorable matchup: the first in 33 years between teams from the same metropolitan area, a battle featuring larger-than-life characters and equally colorful fan bases. But after the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake rolled through, bringing death and destruction, the Bay Area pulled together, and baseball took a backseat.
In honor of Homer's journey to the Hall of Fame, MLB all-stars and Springfield locals look back at the greatest corporate softball game ever played.
Few cities love their baseball team as much as Chicago loves the Cubs, and this documentary attempts to explain the close bond between the Windy City and their National League squad by interviewing some of the team's most-beloved players as well as celebrities who have been die heard fans of the Cubbies their entire lives. In addition to offering archival footage of many of the team's biggest stars, this program contains interviews with Bob Costas, Dennis Franz, Scott Turow, and Bud Selig.
After the Chicago Cubs blow an opportunity to reach the World Series in 2003, Cubs fans blame the team's misfortune on fellow fan Steve Bartman, who interfered with a foul ball and prevented Moises Alou from making a catch.
Red Sox Nation rejoiced as its beloved team reached the World Series in dramatic fashion, having just overcome a three-games-to-one deficit in the ALCS by outscoring the Cleveland Indians 30-5 in the final three contests. There they met the sizzling Colorado Rockies -victors in 21 of their last 22 games and just the second team ever to win their first seven in the postseason. But while both teams came into the World Series on fire, only one continued that torrid pace. The Red Sox briskly swept the Rockies aside to capture their second title of the decade and their second straight Fall Classic sweep.
Jeff Santo explores the life and career of his father, Chicago Cub great Ron Santo.
When the night of October 16, 2004 came to a merciful end, the Curse of the Bambino was alive and well. The vaunted Yankee lineup, led by A-Rod, Jeter, and Sheffield, had just extended their ALCS lead to three games to none, pounding out 19 runs against their hated rivals. The next night, in Game 4, the Yankees took a 4-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning, then turned the game over to Mariano Rivera, the best relief pitcher in postseason history, to secure yet another trip to the World Series. But after a walk and a hard-fought stolen base, the cold October winds of change began to blow. Over four consecutive days and nights, this unlikely group of Red Sox miraculously won four straight games to overcome the inevitability of their destiny. Major League Baseball Productions will produce a film in "real-time" that takes an in-depth look at the 96 hours that brought salvation to Red Sox Nation and made baseball history in the process.
In the fall of 1993, in his prime and at the summit of the sports world, Michael Jordan walked away from pro basketball. After leading the Dream Team to an Olympic gold medal in 1992 and taking the Bulls to their third consecutive NBA championship the following year, Jordan was jolted by the murder of his father. Was it the brutal loss of such an anchor in his life that caused the world’s most famous athlete to rekindle a childhood ambition by playing baseball? Or some feeling that he had nothing left to prove or conquer in basketball? Or something deeper and perhaps not yet understood?
Love them or hate them, the Yankees dominated baseball for more than four decades, then sagged under ownership by CBS until a 42-year-old shipbuilder named George Steinbrenner led a purchase of the team in 1973. He turned that $10m investment into a billion-dollar business, and the 'House that Ruth Built' inspired generations of fans. Deteriorating facilities and changing revenue streams inspired Steinbrenner to build an impressive new stadium marking the end of one grand era and the beginning - perhaps - of another.
Since 1912, baseball has been a game obsessed with statistics and speed. Thrown at upwards of 100 miles per hour, a fastball moves too quickly for human cognition and accelerates into the realm of intuition. Fastball is a look at how the game at its highest levels of achievement transcends logic and even skill, becoming the primal struggle for man to control the uncontrollable.
An examination of the 1998 MLB season and the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. The two sluggers' race to hit the most home runs, later overshadowed by the steroid scandal, left a permanent mark on baseball history.
This documents Spokane's love affair with baseball over the past 100 years, tracing the team's historic legacy back to its origins in 1890 and continuing through the decades to the Indians' present day management by Brett Sports.
This historic official film from Major League Baseball presents the exciting story of the Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series championship run through comprehensive highlights, exclusive access and interviews, and breathtaking footage.
Actor Dustin Hoffman narrates this decade-spanning documentary that highlights the contributions of Jewish Americans to the most American sport of them all: baseball. Highlights include a rare interview with legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax.
The first and only Taiwanese player for the New York Yankees, Chien-Ming Wang held many titles: American League Wins Leader, World Series Champion, Olympian, Time 100 Most Influential, and The Pride of Taiwan. He had it all - until a 2008 injury forever altered the course of his career. Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story - named after the late sinking action on his signature pitch - follows the rise and fall of the international icon as he fights his way back into the Major Leagues through endless rehab programs and lengthy stints away from home, carrying the weight of the world on his battered shoulder. A poignant and intimate account of Wang’s steadfast quest, Late Life tells the story of a man who is unwilling to give up and unable to let go.