; 1st Inning – Our Game: This inning serves as an introduction to the game and the series, and covers baseball's origins and the game as it evolved prior to the 20th century, to where professional leagues make the game grow in popularity, and notoriety, throughout the growing nation. Original airdate: Sunday, September 18, 1994. ; 2nd Inning – Something Like A War: This inning covers approximately 1900 to 1910, and includes the formation of the
American League and its integration with the
National League, culminating in the establishment of the
World Series, as well as the emergence of the game's first great stars,
Christy Mathewson and
Honus Wagner, who help to clean up baseball's previously bad reputation as a rowdy, brawling game.
Ty Cobb is discussed in-depth (the title of this inning comes from one of his many quotes). Many of the quotes used in this inning and of the other early innings are taken from
Lawrence S. Ritter's best selling
The Glory of Their Times. Original airdate: Monday, September 19, 1994. ; 3rd Inning – The Faith of Fifty Million People: This inning covers approximately 1910 to 1920, and follows baseball as it goes through its greatest era of popularity yet. It heavily focuses on the
Black Sox Scandal, taking its title from a line in the novel
The Great Gatsby. The line refers to how easy it was for gamblers to tamper with the faith people put in the game's fairness. Original airdate: Tuesday, September 20, 1994. ; 4th Inning – A National Heirloom: This inning covers approximately 1920 to 1930, and focuses on baseball's recovery from the Black Sox Scandal, giving much of the credit to the increase in power hitting throughout the game, led by its savior
Babe Ruth. The title comes from what sports writers called Ruth. During an interview given to
MLB Network during the series' re-airing in 2009, Burns stated he originally wanted to title the 4th Inning
"That Big Son-of-a-Bitch", a name given to Ruth by many in the game during that era. However, the companion book uses this title. Original airdate: Wednesday, September 21, 1994. ; 5th Inning – Shadow Ball: This inning covers approximately 1930 to 1940. A great deal of this inning covers the
Negro leagues, and the great players and organizers who were excluded from the
Major Leagues. Also, the episode deals with organized Baseball's response to the
Great Depression, as well as the sad decline of its most iconic star, Babe Ruth, and the emergence of new heroes, like
Bob Feller,
Hank Greenberg, and
Joe DiMaggio. Original airdate: Thursday, September 22, 1994. ; 6th Inning – The National Pastime: This inning covers approximately 1940 to 1950. The emphasis here is on baseball finally becoming what it had always purported to be: a national game, as African-Americans are finally permitted to play Major League Baseball, led by
Jackie Robinson. This inning also looks at how the game responded to
World War II and how the game became, more than ever, a symbol of America itself. Original airdate: Sunday, September 25, 1994. ; 7th Inning – The Capital of Baseball: This inning covers approximately 1950 to 1960. Burns emphasizes the greatness of the three teams based in New York (the
New York Yankees, the
New York Giants, and
Brooklyn Dodgers). This inning also covers one of baseball's golden eras and how America's own changes, such as leaving urban areas and heading west to more open suburbs, caused baseball to follow. Original airdate: Monday, September 26, 1994. ; 8th Inning – A Whole New Ballgame: This inning covers approximately 1960 to 1970. As the nation underwent turbulent changes, baseball was not immune, as Babe Ruth's beloved record of 60 home runs in a season is threatened by a sullen and complicated player,
Roger Maris, and for the first time in decades, pitchers, led by stars
Sandy Koufax and
Bob Gibson, dominate the game. The loss of home run power and betrayal to the game's past, combined with the meteoric rise of football, cause many to turn their back on baseball. Expansion and labor are major topics in this inning. Original airdate: Tuesday, September 27, 1994. ; 9th Inning – Home: The final inning covers approximately 1970 to 1992. While baseball survived the 1960s, the changes were not over, and in some ways, its most bitter conflicts were just beginning. Major topics included the formation of the players' union, the owners' collusion,
free agency, and drugs, as well as gambling, scandals. However, the game manages to win back the hearts of many with such moments as the excitement of the
1975 World Series and the return of the New York Yankees to dominance. The documentary ends with an ironic boast baseball (and indirectly the World Series) had survived wars, depressions, pandemics, and numbers of scandals and thus could never be stopped. The
1994 World Series, the series to be played the year the film first aired on PBS, was cancelled due to a
players' strike. This marked the first time since 1904 the World Series was not played. Original airdate: Wednesday, September 28, 1994. ;10th Inning – (Episode 1, Top of the 10th) : This two part, four hour encore presentation covers stories from 1992 to 2010. The first part discusses the labor stoppage of the 1990s, which disgruntles fans as well as
Mark McGwire's and
Sammy Sosa's pursuit of the home run record in 1998. Original airdate: Tuesday, September 28, 2010. ;10th Inning – (Episode 2, Bottom of the 10th) : This two part, four hour encore presentation covers stories from 1992 to 2010. The second part spends a fair amount of time covering the
steroid scandal in the 2000s, as well as the role baseball played in helping the nation heal from
9/11, and how the game, even in the midst of
America's greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression continue to become as popular as it has ever been. Original airdate: Wednesday, September 29, 2010. == Interview subjects ==