When It Was a Game

Arguably more defined and even more lyrical than its predecessor, the second installment of When It Was a Game moves from a general celebration of baseball culture in America to a specific focus on various facets of the game's history. Once again using footage compiled from the 8mm and 16mm collections that players and fans shot over decades, this sequel follows, among other things, the special relationship between game announcers and fans and takes a fascinating trip through the story of the farm-team system during the 1930s, '40s, and '50s (particularly the near-alternate world of the Coast League). The working-class commonality of players and fans is examined, too. Imagine taking the subway home from Ebbets Field and finding yourself looking back on the day's game with a Dodger outfielder. (It could, and often did, happen.) Brooklyn's assimilation of the Dodgers into their community identity, a story often told, is covered quite winningly here, as is the heartbreak of the team's desertion to sunny California. Closing in on its final minutes, the film takes us on a tour of some of the game's legends and presents a touching tribute to the extraordinary Babe Ruth. --Tom Keogh

The only thing I can come up with to compare this documentary to wuld be the 1953 Bowman baseball cards. That was the year Bowman went to photographs, with 64 black & white 2 1/2" x 3 3/4" cards and 160 in color. These remain some of the most beautiful baseball cards ever made, particularly card #32 of the St. Louis Cardinals' Stan "The Man" Musial. When we see footage of Musial in this documentary, his uniform a beautiful combination of black and red, this is just something transcendent about that image. Even when these are just home movies taken before a game, seeing Ted Williams, Hank Greenberg, Bill Dickey, Carl Hubbell, Robin Roberts, and Jackie Robinson in color is just so captivating. Even shadowy footage of Satchel Paige in the major leagues at last is memorable. Then there are the shots of some of the living Hall of Famers such as Honus Wagner and Cy Young, including film of the greatest outfielders of the first half century: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Tris Speaker. I have seen black & white photographs of their joint appearance, Ruth ill and not wearing a uniform, but this is in color and the pictures are in motion.

The producers have to come up with something for somebody to say while we watch these fascinating images, and there is a mixture of recollections from former players, poetic observations from sportswriters, and some actual commentary on what we are seeing (I have reason to suspect that some of this is leftover audio from Burns's "Baseball" since they are the same voices). But you will probably have to watch this 57-minute documentary a couple of times to catch everything that is being said because a real baseball fan is just going to lose themselves in these pictures. Players are often identified, which is good because since they are not in black & white some of them are actually hard to recognize. But in terms of the most shocking images that would have to be reserved for the section on the old ballparks where we see Chicago's Wrigley Field when the outfield wall was not covered with ivy and there were no bleachers for the fans. If that does not give you a sense they we have gone back into the distant past when baseball was a game, nothing will.