Product Details

• Directors: Kevin Bender
• Writers: Kevin Bender, Dana Atchley
• Producers: Kevin Bender, Dana Atchley
• Format: NTSC
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Customflix
• DVD Release Date: May 14, 2007
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B000QRIKUO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,780 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Do you remember baseball's good old days? The great ballparks, the legendary players, and the unforgettable play-by-play announcers who brought it all home to you? Relive the magic of that golden era with an all-star lineup of broadcasting Hall of Famers in Ball Talk: Baseball's Voices of Summer.

You'll see and hear Mel Allen, Red Barber, Jack Brickhouse, Jack Buck, Curt Gowdy and Ernie Harwell reminisce about the greatest moments and players in baseball history, including:

Jackie Robinson breaking the color line
Bobby Thomson breaking the Dodgers' hearts
The incredible 1947 Yankees/Dodgers World Series
Don Larsen's perfect game
Willie Mays' 1954 World Series catch
Roger Maris' record-breaking home run
Ted Williams homering in his last at bat
...and many more.

Rare archival footage and recordings highlight this 1989 documentary hosted by Larry King. Now released for the first time on DVD in the 20th Anniversary Legacy Edition.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Director's Statement, February 12, 2008

By 

Kevin - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ball Talk: Baseball's Voices of Summer (DVD)

In 1988, I had the privilege and pleasure to meet and talk baseball and broadcasting with six Hall of Fame announcers: Mel Allen, Red Barber, Jack Brickhouse, Jack Buck, Curt Gowdy and Ernie Harwell.

I was producing and directing a documentary about them, Ball Talk: Baseball's Voices of Summer, a labor of love which took me from California to Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, New York, and Tallahassee, Florida. And along the way, we stopped in Washington D.C. to film our host, Larry King. What fantastic gentlemen, and what a great time we had!

Making Ball Talk also took me back in time, first to 1934 and Red Barber's first big-league game behind the mic (and first he ever saw!). On the way back to the present, I visited 1947 and heard about Jackie Robinson's breaking the color line and how Red reported it. Then 1951 and the Shot Heard `Round the World as witnessed and broadcast by Red and Ernie (although nobody remembers their calls of it!). Then tales of Yankees victories and Dodgers defeats. The struggles of the Cubs, White Sox, Red Sox, Orioles and Tigers. The stars: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Ernie Banks, Stan Musial and Al Kaline. Amazing baseball and broadcasting stories from the greatest baseball storytellers of all time, all living legends.

And guess who they all picked as the the greatest they had ever seen play?

Ball Talk was released on home video in 1988, got good reviews and was distributed on VHS for a few years. If you haven't seen it, you've got a lot of company. But I felt it was a success because all the announcers involved liked it. And now, sadly all of them except Ernie Harwell have passed away, leaving a great void in the worlds of baseball and broadcasting.

I'm releasing it now for the first time on DVD in a special Legacy Edition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its creation. If you're a baseball and/or broadcasting fan and appreciate the art and artists of baseball announcing, check it out, I think you'll like it. It's a winner!

Kevin Bender
Producer and Director
Carlsbad, California
[e-mail]