Alex Belth, a relative newcomer to the blog scene, has been doing a good job covering the Yankees this winter in his Bronx Banter blog. This week, Belth came up with a nice little scoop, interviewing filmmaker Ken Burns, he of the 18 1/2-hour “Baseball — a Film by Ken Burns”documentary. Belth served as a post-production assistant on Baseball for its final six months in 1994, and still keeps in touch with the filmmaker.

In Part One of the interview, Burns explains to Belth the film’s conception, and its link to his other major works:

We had this nice, pleasant, short thing that would be after the “Civil War” on baseball. A celebration of the history of baseball. And it wasn’t until we got into it that we suddenly realized, we aren’t doing a short history of baseball, we’re doing the sequel to the “Civil War”… I began to see, how particularly when you realize that Jackie Robinson was the first real progress in Civil Rights since the Civil War, that “Baseball” was the sequel to that series. During the production of “Baseball,” we interviewed Gerald Early who said that when they study our American civilization 2000 years from now the only thing that we’ll be known for is The Constitution, Baseball and Jazz. Those are the three most beautiful things that Americans have ever produced. We then realized half way through “Baseball” that we were actually involved in a trilogy that would require us to spend the six and a half years after “Baseball” to complete it by making the history of Jazz.

Elsewhere, Burns discusses the Red Sox (of whom he’s a fan), the Yankees, and how improved training methods have raised the quality of the game. Burns also mentions that he may update “Baseball” with a 10th Inning, with a possible focus on the various Yankee dynasties as well as outtakes from the previous nine innings. An interesting prospect, to be sure.

Here’s looking forward to the next part of Alex’s interview…