Customer Reviews

2003 World Series Video - New York Yankees vs. Florida Marlins

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Marlins ownership purchased some great players to form the nucleus for a championship team in 1997. But inexplicably after buying the World championship they were content to let the players leave and they fell out of the picture of contention in 1998. In 2003 they somehow resurrected themselves with basically a new set of players. Behind the strong arm of a young, confident and cocky Josh Beckett they managed to tame the great Yankees who had pulled some miracles of their own in deffeating the Red Sox in the ALCS.

Unfortunately I think the Yankees suffered a let down after that dramatic and emotionally draining ALCS. Still the Marlins deserve credit for playing well and winning when they had to. I despise Beckett and this hate for him only increased when he was successful at leading the Red Sox to a Championship last year (2007).

Obviously this DVD of the 2003 World Series between the Florida Marlins and the New York Yankees is destined to sit on the shelf next to the VHS of the 1997 World Series when the Florida Marlins won their first championship. In the year when the Curse of the Bambino was the top in the Northeast and the story of the goat was running rampant in the Windy City, the final question on this year's baseball history exam was what team has never lost a post season series in franchise history and is now six and oh?

I am a New York Yankee fan and if you think it is too painful for me to watch the World Series again, think again. I was not the only Yankee fan on the face of the earth who was beseeching the deity not to let us lose to the Boston Red Sox, promising that we would not ask to win the World Series as long as it was not the BoSox and Pedro Martinez who ended our season. So I have no complaints. Yes, it would be nice if the right centerfield fence in Florida was ten feet closer and I think Joe Torre made an actual mistake when he did not bring in Mariano Rivera to pitch instead of letting Jeff Weaver pitch a second inning, but then I think of Aaron Boone inheriting Bucky Dent's middle name in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in a celebrated moment that is preserved on this DVD and I must be content.

The 2003 postseason was arguably the greatest in baseball history, one in which the World Series was actually something of an anti-climax after the two League Championship series, and the only real complaint about this year's World Series DVD is that it focuses too much on the World Series. Granted, this is not exactly a fair criticism given the title is the "2003 World Series Video," but beyond Boone's pennant clinching home run there were so many wonderful moments that deserve to be preserved for posterity. But we only get brief glimpses of Don Zimmer going after Pedro Martinez on the one side and the infamous Bartman incident on the other.

The prologue covers the finales for the two League Championships series and sets up the idea that Roger Clemens and Pudge Rodriguez would be key players in the drama of the 2003 World Series. In terms of World Series memories there was Andy Pettitie's pitching performance in Game 2 as he tied the record for post season wins, the Marlins and their crowd applauding what we all thought was Roger Clemens strikeout of his last batter in his last game and then the Luis Gonzales game winning homer in Game 4, and obviously Josh Beckett's shutout in the finale. The coverage of each game is remarkably thorough, much more than you would expect even on "Baseball Tonight," with the FOX footage of the games taking a back seat to Major League Baseball's own cameras. Throughout each game recap there are interviews with not only the players and managers but coaches and radio announcers as well, while narrator Curt Chaplin throws in interesting statistics and trivia (e.g., Bernie Williams sets a record by hitting his 19th postseason home run).

The video of the 100th Anniversary World Series also has about a half-hour's worth of Bonus Footage: the bottom of the 9th inning of World Series Game 6, Alex Gonzalez's walk-off home run that won Game 4 as well as Roger Clemens striking out his last batter in that same game, Aaron Boone's walk-off home run from Game 7 of the ALCS with his brother Brett sitting in the booth between Tim McCarver and Jack Buck, the bottom of the 9th of Game 7 of the NLCS (just not as exciting), the end of the National League Division Series between the Marlins and the San Francisco Giants as Pudge Rodriguez reminds everybody why he is a future Hall of Famer in the most dramatic play at the plate ever to clinch a baseball series, the Marlins clinching the NL Wild Card, Jack McKeon being introduced as the new manager of the Marlins way back on May 11, and the Rob Dougan music video "Clubbed to Death" (which was used as background music).

Since the Marlins end up winning the title the emphasis is a bit more on their side of the story, but most baseball fans will consider that to be far and balanced coverage. After all, watching Rodriguez prove that catcher is an offensive position while playing defense, Miguel Cabrera became the youngest cleanup hitter since Ty Cobb, and Jack McKeon win his first title as manager at age 72, most of the best stories of the 2003 World Series were on Florida's side and at the end of it all, they were the World Champions. The first time around Florida did it by spending so much money on free agents that they had to have a fire sale almost as soon as the champagne stopped flowing. But this time, with the exception of one major free agent behind the plate, they did it with young homegrown talent who could be around for another Marlin championship down the road.

After watching the video of this World Series, it is hard not to reflect on the improbability of the Marlins and their great run. In an era that has been dominated by big money teams this team and its playoff run were a wonderful aberation and perhaps gives us hope that small market teams really do have a chance.
The Video is a must have for any Marlins fan or Big time baseball fan but there could have been more extras and more coverage of the earlier playoff games to be sure. In addition during the highlights of the games I think the video seemed rushed and should have taken more time to discuss the situation and the strategy that was used. I felt sometimes like I was watching one of those old "Notre Dame Highlights" shows on TV from the 1970's, where the highlights would skip ahead half a quarter and L Nelson would just say ..'later in the third quarter Notre Dame has the ball at the Navy 20' and you had no idea how they got there. An example would be in game six when Derek Lee bunts with men on 1st and 2nd and no outs and Pettite throws to second instead of third to get the lead runner(which later led to the second run) the video shows Pettite stopping and that he could have made the play but does not have a quick interview comment from Pettite as to why he threw to 2nd. Torre could have commented. Other key moments in the series are simply run by with no video or commentary at all.
The video of course is rushed out to meet demand after the world series so to be fair you cannot expect a historical panorama here but I would have liked to see more interviews not only with the players but also with those journalists covering the series. The video does an excellent job of using announcing of the Fox tv team and Jon Miller as part of the narration( Miller was doing the world series radio coverage and surely must be one of the greatest broadcasters in Baseball history).
Overall this is a good product, for the price, if the 2003 World Series is something you enjoyed. In addition for Yankee fans (and all baseball fans for that matter) the video has a nice section on Roger Clemens and his final start(or was it?). The video is really excellent on that whole game with great interviews from Torre, Clemens, and Jack McKeon on Clemens final start.

I am not even a MLB fan and I enjoyed this Major League Production; I even had goosebumps. This fulfills all the fantasy, excitement, and hype of sports at its best. In this video you witness new world records, new collections, and inductees to the MLB Hall of Fame. You also discover the sheer improbabilities of a franchise over coming many adversities: a mid-season management shake-up, youth & inexperience to name a few. My only criticism is the lack of effort by the MLB video production technicians and editors:
1. they failed to consider Latinos, hispanics, & the non-English languages of the world, no sub-titles at all; not even closed captioned for the hearing impaired!
2. MLB also failed to utilize the technical extras of DVD/5.1 format for sports to allow the viewer to use the "angle" button to get a 360 degree view of a play. This is a special feature for sports and if MLB productions don't support the feature for sports fans, who will?

Other than the Lazzyness of the MLB video productions, the events and sheer efforts of the professional athletes themselves makes this a must have for the sports fan; I can only wish for ESPN or Sports Illustrated to re-produce this world series epic and put a tenth of the effort and passion into producing it that the pro athletes put forth in their drive to be the best team in the world.

Good DVD. I've had it for two days now and have already watched the entire thing twice. Great review of each game of the World Series and showing you camera angles that you did not see when you watched the games live as they happened. Good background music, super editing job and great narration. The only disappointment is that they don't show you the entire play offs. The Marlins vs Giants was a great series but they only show you the final out where Pudge tags out Snow at the plate. Also they barely touch on Marlins vs Cubs and the Yanks vs Red Sox. Nothing at all about the Cubs vs Atlanta or the Sox vs Oakland. Both of those were great series. They could have built up the showdown by showing a complete playoff recap. All in all I still liked it very much. But then again I was going to buy it no matter how good or how bad it was. Since I live in south Florida and actually went to game five of Marlins vs Cubs and games three and four of the World Series against New York.

With what I have read here I can support it 100%, it just shows the world series as a documentary, which is not bad, but I would of loved to recap what both teams had done to get there. Still, in a way this is no disapointment. If you're a Marlins fan like myself, then yeah get it, if not you prolly wouldn't watch it again, unless you're a MLB fan.

If you are a true Marlins fan, you will like this DVD. Eventhough a true Marlins fan has been through more heartbreaks than the team itself, they will always appreciate what this team has been able to accomplish. This DVD brings you back to 2003 when the Marlins had more magic than the New York Yankees or any other major league team.

As a die-hard Marlins fan, my opinion of this DVD may be somewhat biased but I will endeavor an objective opinion. The DVD covers the world series very well. Each game is recreated with all the tension that a tight MLB postseason game offers. The disc is slanted towards the Marlins, but as a wise man once said, "To the victor go the spoils."

Given the riveting nature of the 2003 postseason, some additional footage (or even a second disk) would have been appreciated. Both the Marlins and the Yankees reached the grand stage with some improbable heroics in the respective league championship series. The Marlins continuing the Chicago Cubs woeful history and the Yanks marching over Pedro Martinez and the arch-rival snake-bit Red Sox (but Boston's payback was coming in 2004!).

The bonus features included are nice. Alex Gonzalez's walk-off homer, Clemens now infamous "last strikeout", and Jack Mckeon's press conference after taking the job as Marlins' skipper. The music video of the back-ground music was interesting. The music really ramps up the tension in the game by game coverage.

Being a baseball fan and lover of postseason mlb action, I really enjoyed the DVD. The fact that my team won only enhances my enjoyment. Now if only the 1997 World Series VHS video would be redone ond DVD....

To all who are reviewing this disc. We already know what happend in the series. How about reviewing the DVD.

Thanks,
From all the people who are looking for DVD reviews.

This will go right next to my 1997 Florida Marlins Championship video. The last few months have been so wondefully tiring as a Marlins fan. I live in the North East, in Beantown, and could not wait to win another World Series title. This one is so sweet, everyone complained (at least up north) that the Marlins didn't really win it since it was against Cleveland (no matter that Cleveland beat the Yanks) and not the Yankees. Well, this time, the underappreciated, underwatched Florida Marlins beat those Yankees. A roster full of heart beat the fat wallets of NY. Can't be happier for the 2003 Florida Marlins - Juan Pierre, Luis Castillo, Pudge Rodriguez, Miguel Cabrera, Derrek Lee, Mike Lowell, Juan Encarnacion, Jeff Conine, Alex Gonzalez, Lenny Harris, Mike Mordecai, Mike Redmond, Brian Banks, Todd Hollandsworth, Josh Beckett, Brad Penny, Carl Pavano, Mark Redman, Dontrelle Willis, Chad Fox, Michael Tejera, Rick Helling, Nate Bump, Braden Looper, & Ugueth Urbina! Sound like a team to win the World Series??? Right it does!
Long live the Fish! Buy this DVD if you want to see what the World Series should be - so exciting!