Customer Reviews

Baseball's Greatest Legends

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

 

 

A 3 DVD set organized into 9 "innings" and bonus material. Each inning is focused on one legendary player: Ruth, DiMaggio, Robinson, Mays, Gehrig, Reese and Mantle, with a closer look at the '61 Home Run race and some extra footage also provided. Narration on regular chapters sounds like an old elementary school film. Narration on bonus footage sounds like an old newsreel. Provides a very high level overview of the times and a very light look at the players -- it goes a mile wide and a foot deep -- but provides good old footage and pictures. It is mostly NY-centric, featuring Yankee, Dodger and Giants footage with little else.

Mixed bag in terms of highlights -- for example, while video footage of Babe Ruth's farewell at Yankee Stadium is shown, the audio is not included -- they just go on narrating while you see Babe speaking, which is disappointing. Also, one of the bonus chapters features highlights of the '56 World Series. However, the focus is more on rare color footage rather than true highlights, so while Larsen is mentioned and the final pitch is shown, Berra's memorable leap into Larsen's arms following the final pitch is noticeably missing, which is also disappointing. It seems to be this way with most of the memorable moments -- they are lightly touched on, but the documentary falls short of showing the key highlight.

Overall a fair collection and a reasonable introduction to some of the legends of the game. The treatment is light and it lacks the excitement and color of the game, but those looking for a touch of nostalgia and some vintage footage may find it interesting.

While I agree that the narrator and soundtrack are not very good, I think this is a decent set. The sound bites with current and retired MLB players are sometimes insightful (and other times boring, I'll admit), and the archival footage and photos make the series visually pleasing. The text of the narration is not bad at all, but much of the info is basic--a hard-core baseball fan will enjoy the set OK, but will probably not learn anything new. This would be a great set for a young fan. I don't think it is fair to compare this production with the Burns series--they are different animals. The Burns series is a tour de force...one of the best documentaries of all time. This is just a fun little celebration of the game.

A BEAUTIFULLY PACKAGED COLLECTION OF ALL THE GREATS IN BASEBALL..BABE, JOE,JACKIE, MICKEY, WILLIE,DUKE,LOU AND MORE......
YOU GET 3 DVD'S FILLED WITH GREAT FOOTAGE AND STORIES.
GREAT FOR BASEBALL LOVERS OF ANY GENERATION.

I bought this set because I was jonesing to watch some baseball history before the season started, and boy am I sorry I bought this. The narrator is bad, the soundtrack is cheesy and repetitive, and most of the biographical information is presented in a way that keeps it from being interesting.

Even at six times the price I recommend buying Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary, by far the best thing I've ever seen about baseball. But if an 18 hour documentary is too much for you to watch, then I would recommend the "When it was a Game" series. Anything but "Baseball's greatest Legends - Diamond Memories". This set is so bad that I was only able to get about 2/3 of the way through the first disc and I haven't even bothered looking at the other two discs that came with it.

Please, save yourselves the money and most importantly the time. Do not buy this!

This is a Christmas present so I cannot comment on the video but the service in getting it was great!!!!