One of a Kind uncovers how Maddux was able to achieve one of baseball’s most-decorated and consistently successful careers, serving as the only pitcher in history to amass 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts and fewer than 1,000 walks.
Star-studded group featuring Barry Bonds, Randy Johnson, Chipper Jones, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz to bring viewers inside Maddux’s legendary career;
"City of Baseball" is a documentary that explores both the past and the present of the Italian baseball league in the seaside resort of Nettuno near Rome. Through league pioneers, current players, fans, and local historians, "City of Baseball" captures the story of how the 1944 Allied invasion of Nettuno brought the American pastime to a town which embraced the sport with a passion that continues today.
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.
Celebrate the life of baseball’s most enduring legend; Satchel Paige was the single most important player in the old Negro Baseball Leagues
Born in 1918 in San Diego, Williams was a latchkey child from a broken home, raised by a mother more dedicated to the Salvation Army than to her two sons, and by a father who spent more time away from home than in it. Williams found salvation by doing the one thing he loved most: hitting baseballs. In his rookie season with the Red Sox, where he would spend his entire career as a player, Williams batted .327, socked 31 homers and led the league with 145 RBI. Over the next 21 years, despite losing five seasons of his prime to active service as a U.S. Marine Corps pilot, Williams hit 521 home runs, twice captured the Triple Crown, and became the oldest man ever to win a batting title. He finished his career with a .344 lifetime batting average, was the last man to hit over .400 in a full season, batting .406 in 1941, and was a first-ballot inductee into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Houston Strong. The first championship for any franchise always delivers a satisfying celebration. But when it happens during the recovery from a natural disaster, it generously serves as a welcome and exhilarating distraction for its fans and city. Fresh on the heels of devastating flooding from Hurricane Harvey, the Houston Astros thrilled fans by winning the 2017 World Series championship.
Told with humor in the face of heartache, this acclaimed documentary, about the curse of Babe Ruth on the Boston Red Sox, combines archival footage with contemporary interviews and focuses not on the Red Sox players that have come and gone, but on the diehard fans who live their entire lives lamenting what some have come to call The Curse of the Bambino.
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.
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.
The history of the Negro Leagues is often a forgotten part of baseball history. Despite its popularity and wealth of talent, the era was not well documented. Pride and Perseverance sheds light on this period and shows how it laid the groundwork for today's African-American players in Major League Baseball. With rarely seen footage from the 1920s through 1950s, these extraordinary stories illustrate the birth of the Negro Leagues and depict both the struggles endured and milestones achieved by its players. The film also highlights Negro League innovations that helped shape modern day baseball, such as the Leagues' usage of portable light towers to enable games to be played after dusk for the first time ever
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.
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?
In 1982, Cody Webster and a small group of friends from Kirkland, Washington, sat anxiously in a dugout waiting to take the field for the championship game of the Little League World Series. Their focus was just about what you’d expect from any 12-year-old: hit the ball, throw strikes, cross your fingers and then maybe – maybe – you’ll win. Adults in the stands and watching from home saw a much broader field of play. The memories of American hostages and a crippling oil crisis were still fresh; the economic malaise of the late 1970s still lingered; and the new President was recovering from an assassination attempt even while confronting new threats from the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, back on that tiny baseball field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, no American team had won a true international Little League World Series Championship in more than a decade. When the Kirkland players rushed from their dugout that day, they stepped onto a much bigger field than the one they saw.
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.
The 2019 World Series was loaded with surprises, comebacks, superstars, and a few new records. Home field advantage belonged to the 105-win Houston Astros, who were looking to take back a title they had won in 2017. The white-hot Washington Nationals were fighting for the first championship in franchise history. The Washington Nationals beat the Houston Astros in a most unpredictable Fall Classic, winning Game 7 with one last rally in a season full of rallies. For the first time in MLB history, the road team won all seven games in the World Series.
In late 2021, Cleveland’s baseball team was reborn as the Guardians. This documentary, directed by Lance Edmands, chronicles the saga of that name change, which has its roots in a forgotten legend named Louis Sockalexis, and the tragedy that enveloped his story more than a century ago.
"Michael Jordan Above and Beyond" provides a much-needed look at Michael Jordan's fantastic return from retirement in 1995. The first 20 minutes or so recap his retirement, attempt at minor league baseball, and his dealing with his father's murder. It picks up when it starts looking at the huge frenzy that was his return to the NBA in the Spring of 1995. It covers his mediocre first game back against the Pacers, his Friday night Chicago return against the Magic, and his subsequent return to form with a game-winning shot against Atlanta, and a career night dropping 55 on the Knicks.
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.