This Old Cub

Kokoyakyu: High School Baseball is a documentary about making it to Koshien, the summer high school baseball tournament in Japan. The documentary follows two teams: Chiben Academy from Wakayama Prefecture and Tennoji Public High School from Osaka. The documentary covers what motivates the players and coaches, and also covers the cheer team and team managers who support the team.

Jim Bouton's 1970 book "Ball Four" was groundbreaking, shocking, and controversial. It sold in the millions. 40 years later, Bouton and former teammates spin hilarious stories from behind baseball's cloistered clubhouses, giving a rare glimpse inside Major League baseball in the 1960s. The book's cultural impact is examined by filmmaker and former pro baseball player Ron Shelton ("Bull Durham"), author Jean Hastings Ardell, and David Kipen, former director of literature for the NEA.

Connecting different generations of players, Warren Cromartie, Andre Dawson, Cliff Floyd and Rondell White join together at a local restaurant to reminisce about life as Montreal Expos and the special bond created with its fan base.

There is nothing more majestic in baseball than the home run. Home run hitters have made up baseball's greatest hitters and most charismatic players: Ruth, Mays, Mantle, Aaron, Jackson. Their names summon a moment: Fisk, Gibson, Mazeroski, Dent. This video showcases 50 of the greatest home runs of all time.

The 2005 Chicago White Sox finally put it all together in the same season-incredible pitching, timely hitting, superb management and an unselfish, all-around team effort and finally the second longest championship drought in baseball history (88 years) comes to an end with a bold exclamation point at the end of a dramatic sweep of the Houston Astros to clinch that elusive World Series trophy.

A rampant, street level story of mentorship and everyday heroism in tough circumstances. An inner city coach's son, estranged in his youth from his father, spends five years on ball fields in inner city Oakland and Havana, following the lives of two extraordinary youth baseball coaches, Roscoe in Oakland and Nicolas in Havana. The coaches meet on videotape and two years of red tape later, Coach Roscoe and nine Oakland players travel to Havana to play Coach Nicolas' team. For one week, the players and coaches eat, dance, swim, argue and play baseball together. But when the parent of an Oakland player is murdered back home, it brings back the inescapable reality and challenges of life in an American inner city.

Investigates the MLB's infamous doping scandal involving a nefarious clinician and his most famous client: the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez.

Chronicling Latin baseball players in the minor leagues as they experience the ups and downs of pursuing the dream of playing in the Major Leagues.

No figure in recent sports history is as divisive as Jose Canseco. Millions of baseball fans remember him as the powerhouse slugger who earned one of the sport's rare statistics: 40/40. But millions more remember him as the whistleblower whose admission to steroids juicing exposed a scandal that overshadowed his remarkable career and led to the Congressional hearings that cast a pall over America's greatest pastime, baseball. Now, Jose finally speaks out. What emerges is a nuanced portrait of a man driven by grief and a promise made. Only time will tell whether history remembers Jose Canseco as a legend, a whistleblower or a scapegoat. But this candid documentary will leave audiences convinced of one inescapable fact. The Truth Hurts.

A baseball loving community unites to make its MLB dream come true and hits a home run with the 1993 arrival of Colorado Rockies.

Dock Ellis pitched a no-hitter on LSD, then worked for decades counseling drug abusers. Dock's soulful style defined 1970s baseball as he kept hitters honest and embarrassed the establishment. An ensemble cast of teammates, friends, and family investigate his life on the field, in the media, and out of the spotlight.

Hollywood veteran Bing Russell creates the only independent baseball team in the country—alarming the baseball establishment and sparking the meteoric rise of the 1970s Portland Mavericks.

Celebrate the life of baseball’s most enduring legend; Satchel Paige was the single most important player in the old Negro Baseball Leagues

An experimental documentary exploring a sinister theory surrounding the death of Cleveland baseball player Ray Chapman in 1920 and the subsequent rise of the Yankee dynasty.

As Comiskey Park, Chicago's 80 year old ballpark, prepares for its final season in 1990, expectations for the home team, the Chicago White Sox, are very low. Surprising many, the young team becomes a contender, and a bittersweet season becomes an exciting one.

A one-hour documentary on Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton – which takes an insider's look into Hamilton's journey back into baseball.

Follow the incredible journey of the Chicago White Sox as they battle their way through the 2005 season and go on to become the World Series Champions for the first time in 88 years.

In a time when America was on the brink of modernization, Carson "Skeeter" Bigbee emerged from rural Oregon to become an embodiment of national transformation. Born to working parents in 1895, Bigbee’s life as a multi-sport athlete, a baseball star with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a World War I enlistee, and a World Series hero, intersected with America's Progressive Era, the electrification of society, the First World War, and the onset of the Great Depression. His story, from hitting the decisive run in the 1925 World Series to managing in the American Girls Professional Baseball League, is a poignant reflection of ambition, patriotism, and the resilient spirit of an ever-changing nation in the early 20th Century.

How could this privileged man of overwhelming accomplishment and talent be suicidal? Journey through the 84 years of the 20th century that are Waite's World with his friends, coworkers, and family for a unprecedented inside look at an extraordinary talent. Heartfelt memories of Waite Hoyt who was a Major League pitcher, memeber of the '27 Yankees, teammate and friend to Babe Ruth, a Cincinnati Reds' broadcasting legend and a storytelling racconteur.

NHK has followed baseball sensation Shohei Ohtani closely since his 2018 Major League debut. We look at Ohtani’s ability to both pitch and bat at the highest level. We hear from those who have supported him on and off the field and examine the importance of his father’s training regime. Join us behind the scenes at such pivotal points as Ohtani’s battle to recover from elbow surgery and reclaim his place as a baseball virtuoso like no other.