Gerald Early

This latest entry covers the period from the early 1990's onward. Labor relations deteriorated badly in the early part of that decade leading to the players strike in August 1994. The Montreal Expos were the best team in baseball at the time but when a Federal judge blocked the owners from unilaterally imposing a contract (which would have let them use replacement players) it quickly came to an end and the players returned to work under the old contract. Attendance dropped after that but the game recovered quickly with the heroics of Cal Ripkin Jr. By the end of 1990's, fans were caught up in the home run derby presented by Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. There was also the first whiff of scandal when McGwire was accused of using steroids. It was also an era when new baseball stadiums were built in many cities, evoking an earlier age when the parks were built specifically for the sport. The curse of the Bambino finally came to an end with the Boston Red Sox winning the World Series in 2004. Bobby Bonds broke McGwire's three year-old season home-run record and later Hank Aaron's HR record. The issue of drug use eventually led to Congressional hearings after the BALCO scandal and the Mitchell Report, which named many stars as having used performance enhancing drugs. Watch Movies Online for Free on 10StarMovies.

An American story. Traces the career of Joe Louis (1914-1981) within the context of American racial consciousness: his difficulty getting big fights early in his career, the pride of African-Americans in his prowess, the shift of White sentiment toward Louis as Hitler came to power, Louis's patriotism during World War II, and the hounding of Louis by the IRS for the following 15 years. In his last years, he's a casino greeter, a drug user, and the occasional object of scorn for young Turks like Muhammad Ali. Appreciative comment comes from boxing scholars, Louis's son Joe Jr., friends, and icons like Maya Angelou, Dick Gregory, and Bill Cosby. Watch Movies Online for Free on 10StarMovies.

The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Episode 1 Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson tells the story of the first African-American boxer to win the most coveted title in all of sports and his struggle, in and out of the ring, to live his life as a free man. Part One follows Jack Johnson's remarkable journey from his humble beginnings in Galveston, Texas, as the son of former slaves, to his entry into the brutal world of professional boxing, where, in turn-of-the-century Jim Crow America, the heavyweight champion was an exclusively "white title." Johnson lived his life out loud, wearing fancy clothes, driving fast cars and openly flaunting the conventions of the time by dating and then marrying white women. Despite the odds, Johnson was able to batter his way up through the professional ranks, and in 1908 he became the first African-American to earn the title Heavyweight Champion of the World. Johnson's victory set in motion a worldwide search for a "white hope" to restore the title to the white race. On July 4, 1910, in Reno, Nevada, ex-champion Jim Jeffries, the new "Great White Hope," came out of retirement to challenge Jack Johnson. Johnson easily won the contest, billed as the Battle of the Century, despite a hostile crowd and a steady stream of racial epithets hurled from Jeffries' corner. Johnson's victory provoked race riots all around the country, but his troubles were only just beginning. The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Episode 2 Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson tells the story of the first African-American boxer to win the most coveted title in all of sports and his struggle, in and out of the ring, to live his life as a free man. By the end of 1910, as Part Two begins, Jack Johnson was on top of the world, the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World; the most famous — and the most notorious — African-American on earth. But forces were gathering in America to try to stop him. When no one could be found to beat the champion in the ring, the U.S. government set out to destroy him in the courts, using his sometimes-troubled relationships with white women as the excuse to prosecute him. Unfairly charged with violating the Mann Act, a progressive era piece of legislation designed to stop commercialized vice — not relationships between consenting adults — Jack Johnson was convicted and sentenced to jail. Skipping bail, Johnson fled to Europe, where he remained a fugitive for many years. In 1915 in Havana, Cuba, he defended his title in a still-controversial fight against Jess Willard, a fight that went on for 26 rounds in 105 degree heat. Determined to live his life regardless of the confines imposed by his color, Jack Johnson emerges as a central figure in America's ongoing struggle to deal with the question of race. Watch Movies Online for Free on 10StarMovies.