Signs of the Time (2008)
*** (out of 4)
Umpire Richard Klem and deaf baseball player William 'Dummy' Hoy are the subject of this documentary, which takes a look at how hand signals came into play in Major League Baseball. I watched this documentary shortly after going through the entire Ken Burns series BASEBALL and one subject that wasn't covered in that masterpiece were hand signals and other forms of things that helped break through that invisible wall from the fans in the seats to the umpires on the field. It appears that no one really knows how "safe" and "out" came to be but we get several examples from newspaper clippings as to where it might have started. Some credit umpire Klem for starting this while others go back a bit further to play Dummy Hoy who was deaf and needed extra communications. This is a pretty interesting documentary that tells us another side of baseball that some might not think of but its impact is still in everyone's mind today. Who doesn't know what safe, strike, ball or an out sign looks like? Richard Dreyfuss does a very good job with the narration and the interviews are also extremely well done.
