Baseball's Golden Age

This is a show about the great players and teams of yesteryear. It's a show that looks back at a time in America when fathers and grandfathers passed down tales of their ball-playing heroes to wide-eyed sons and grandsons. Men whose legends were so large that the mere mention of their names — Ruth, Cobb, Williams, Mays, Aaron — invoked stories of incomparable feats and unparalleled abilities, always beginning with, "I remember when ..."

Now older generations can relive their memories and younger generations can see just how special the players of yesterday were when FSN debuts its brilliant new series, "BASEBALL'S GOLDEN AGE" on Sunday, July 6 at 8 p.m..

Each 30-minute show is an elegant, gritty compilation of remarkable rare shots and never-before-seen footage, culled from hundreds of hours of color film shot by the fans, the players' families and most importantly, the players themselves.

Woven throughout the collection of color videos from the 1920s-1960s are interviews with baseball luminaries, writers, broadcasters and former team employees all reliving baseball's simpler time: an innocent period of all-night train rides, day games, cigars in the stands and nickel hot dogs. A journey to the era when players spent their entire careers with one team, long before chartered jets, free agency and arbitration, a time when "playing for the love of the game" wasn't just a cliché.

"BASEBALL'S GOLDEN AGE" keeps the heroes on the field and the viewers at home young forever, transporting fans to the days when there was no debate about baseball's place as America's national pastime.

The series is produced by Flagstaff Films, headed by Steven Stern, who as a founding partner in Black Canyon Productions, won multiple Peabody and Emmy Awards for such television achievements as the graceful baseball trilogy "When It Was a Game" and the eye-opening look at the dramatic gloved-fist demonstration at the 1968 Olympics, "Fists of Freedom." The footage for the series comes from Flagstaff Films library, arguably the most impressive private collection of baseball film in the U.S.

"Baseball's Golden Age" is a more specific and detailed project than the baseball documentaries we've previously produced," said Stern. "Producing 13 episodes allows us to spend more time examining the rivalries, the players and the places that made baseball an American institution."

In the debut episode of the 13-week series, "BASEBALL'S GOLDEN AGE" looks at the sights and sounds of the game — peanuts and popcorn and the crack of the bat. The show touches on the rivalries of New York's three baseball teams, the oft-victorious Yankees and a Dodgers-Giants feud so passionate that it still resonates today, 3,000 miles from where it all started.

The episode also debates the legacy and legend of Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, the faces of the greatest rivalry in sports. Who was the better player? Which was more important to his team? And what would have happened had a proposed swap of the two stars ever been completed?

Throughout the series, "BASEBALL'S GOLDEN AGE" touches on the famous St. Louis Gashouse Gang, Babe Ruth and dozens of other players who are still discussed today as the best to have ever played the game, Jackie Robinson and his enormous impact, baseball's Latin explosion, big bats and golden arms, the All-Star game and World Series, the war years, barnstorming tours, western expansion, the voices that resonated within the game and the economics that sculpted it, the classic stadiums that become national cathedrals, and the connection that fans felt with the players.

Among the hundreds of people interviewed include: Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Ernie Banks, Al Kaline, Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson and Bob Feller; all-stars Steve Garvey, Luis Tiant, Ralph Branca, Johnny Pesky and Tommy Davis; great managers Tommy Lasorda, Whitey Herzog, Red Shoendienst and Joe Torre; announcers who are identified with their respective teams almost as much as the players are, legends Marty Brennaman from Cincinnati, Detroit's Ernie Harwell, San Diego's Jerry Coleman; plus such respected voices as FOX's Joe Buck, Bob Costas and Tom Brokaw from NBC and CNN's Larry King, noted baseball authors Leigh Montville and Roger Kahn and highly-regarded baseball fans such as former presidential candidate and mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani. (Source: http://foxsports.com/other/story/8261514/FSN-revisits-)