Customer Reviews

1972 World Series - Oakland A's vs Cincinnati Reds [VHS]

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If you remember the 1972 World Series or are a younger baseball fan who loves the game's rich history, this video is worth checking out. The film, done right after the Series ended, begins with somewhat grainy kinescope footage (in color) of the Cincinnati-Pittsburgh matchup in the National League Championship Series, and then the ALCS between Oakland and Detroit. Both Championship Series went the full five games for the first time ever in '72, so it's fitting that we get some sense of how hard these teams had to fight to get to the Fall Classic. Then, after an amusing attempt to contrast the clean-shaven, conservative-looking Reds with the mustachioed, colorfully-uniformed A's, the film shifts to the Series itself.

All the obvious highlights are here -- Gene Tenace's HRs, Joe Rudi's great catch, the A's brilliant Game 4 victory achieved through three straight pinch hits in the ninth, etc. But what was most interesting to me was not only that the favored Reds lost the first two games at home, and subsequently fell behind 3 games to 1, but that they were one of the rare teams to win Games Five and Six and yet lose Game Seven. So often, with the momentum of those two wins, a team coming back from 3-1 is able to pull out Game Seven as well. The fact that they fought back so hard, and that the A's were still good enough to hold them down in a Game Seven at Cincinnati, is a testament to the high quality of both teams, and the film does an excellent job of conveying this.

The print that's used here isn't pristine, but looks good enough considering its age. Overall, the production values are similar to, if not quite up to the standard of, a typical NFL Films production of the period.

Great video of the '72 World Series that was such a contrast in styles. The colorful Moustache Gang Swingin' A's vs. the button-down Big Red Machine. Reds manager Sparky Anderson is miked up for some scenes.

The video is narrated by Curt Gowdy (who was everywhere back in the '70s). they throw in some clips of the NLCS and ALCS so we get to see the infamous bat flinging at Tigers pitcher Lerrin LaGrow by the A's shortstop and top base stealer Bert Campaberis after LaGrow intentionally threw at Campy. We also see the injury A's star slugger Reggie Jackson suffers in the ALCS on a slide home that puts him out of the World Series.

The series itself is one of the best ones of the decades featuring a lot of one-run games and plenty of ebb and flow plus the surprise hero of the Series in A's catcher turned slugger Gene Tenace.