Customer Reviews

The Boston Red Sox 2004 World Series Collector's Edition

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Bad News First: No games from the series against Anaheim (which were on ESPN rather than Fox), in which David Ortiz put on a hitting clinic--a one-disc overview would have been really nice. Really nice. . . . Thanks, ESPN, for helping out with copyright stuff. . . . That knocks it down to 4 1/2 stars right there. But the real drama came with the Yankees series, though, so I'll survive. I don't have a good enough system to notice some of the more technical picture/color/resolution issues that have been mentioned, so I'm fine with that, too, even though some others have voiced valid criticisms. That's pretty good for bad news. . . .

The Good News: Everything (and I mean everything!) is on these discs. This set of DVDs is a spectacular collection of the most important ALCS in Red Sox history, some of the most exciting baseball to be played in October, and then the World Series, which seemed terribly anti-climactic somehow after Games 4 & 5 against the Yankees and a nice partial comeback by the Cardinals in Game 1 of the World Series. Whatever I might be missing from the Anaheim series, I get back twofold from this set--back up to 5 stars. Easy.
The Games: Aside from a disastrous Game 3 (which might be good to watch just to keep the comeback in even better perspective), the games were close, competitive, and dramatic. Some pretty good drama unfolded in Games 1 & 2, despite the Red Sox losses. Game 4 showcased a classic display of determination (by both teams) within a back-and-forth struggle, "the steal" by Dave Roberts, and the ultimate vintage walk-off home run by Ortiz in the bottom of the 12th inning. Game 5 followed in those big footsteps and provided possibly even more drama, with the Red Sox tying the game in the 8th inning and the two teams playing five more scoreless innings--each team with multiple opportunities to win the game, with the dramatic finish in the bottom of the 14th. That game went close to six hours, and we missed a great game between St. Louis and Houston, because by the time this game was over, the other game was well into the 8th inning. . . . Games 6 & 7 seemed less "exciting," simply because it seemed that the Sox had all of the momentum: Schilling pitched great in Game 6, and Lowe pitched a one-hitter through six innings in Game 7. Every time the Yankees made a move, the Red Sox made a bigger one in response. All of those moments are there, however, to relive in whatever fashion you choose--watch the complete games, skip around, whatever. . . .
The Setup: The games are all there in their entirety. However, half-inning chapter breaks make it very easy to negotiate your way through a whole bunch of baseball (Games 4 and 5 went forever. . .) in much less time than the original games took.
The Packaging: Beautiful. Hitting statistics, pitching stats, box scores, and inning-by-inning summaries make it easy to find a particular at-bat or half-inning (some of our memories are failing, so this feature is particularly helpful. . .). Trivia, attendance, weather info, umpires, quotes from players, pictures of memorabilia, and a host of other things are on the cover of each DVD, making it good reading material, as well. It's all there. All of it. If you need a piece of information regarding these games that is not on the cases, then you need very professional help. . .
The Bonus Features: Some of us love them, and this set includes one disc devoted to just "stuff," most importantly the 2005 Ring & Banner Ceremony, which was not included on any of the other World Series DVDs. Interviews, player bios/features, trip to the White House, celebrity interviews, post-game celebrations, etc. are all included. Complete postseason batting and pitching stats are on the inside of the case, also--Nice bonus. . . !
The Price: Can you beat it. . . ? MLB online was offering each game, but it would have ended up costing more than this set (which I bought for less than $80 at my local Bull Moose store) and would not have had any of the nice packaging offered on this set. I could have pictured really bare-bones discs and cases, but MLB and A&E did a tremendous job putting together a quality package for a very reasonable amount of money.

Bottom Line: If you are a fan of baseball and, in particular, a Red Sox fan, then this set is a virtual "must-have" for your collection. It is the first time that MLB has done such a project, and I hope it is successful. Who wouldn't like to have some past great World Series and playoff series to see in their entirety? This is an invaluable resource for future generations of Red Sox fans and for baseball fans in general--hopefully a trend has been started. The NESN DVD (Faith Rewarded) is a great summary, with some nice local insights and perspectives. The official MLB World Series DVD (one disc) is nice, too, if you want just a summary and a few highlights. Neither can compare to this set, though. Some of us want the whole enchilada, and this set provides it, with a nice salsa on the side. . . .

Aside from the Fox/NY logo that shows up on every game -- couldn't they have rendered this set from a network master, and not a copy owned by some Fox affiliate? -- there are definite quality issues...

ALCS Games 4 & 5 have been squeezed onto 1 DVD each. A 4+ hour game on 1 DVD? Terrible. By definition, this means that the team that made these DVD's had to compress the video, thereby lowering the overall quality. That is a disservice to anyone buying this set - especially since these 2 games are among the most likely to be watched by happy Sox fans.

Interestingly, A&E/MLB seems to have acknowledged this in a unique way. Take a look at the first 8.5 innings of Game 4. Fuzzy, murky, dark picture quality with lots of digital artifacts. Then take a look at the bottom on the 9th inning, with Boston's comeback. Suddenly the video is nice. Sharper, clearer and brighter.

What does this mean? It means that A&E/MLB decided to use different quality settings WITHIN a single game. Poor quality for the first 8.5 innings of Game 4 (to squeeze the full game onto the disc), then suddenly nice quality for those innings most likely to be watched, such as the bottom of the ninth.

I find this incredibly annoying. I feel that each game should have the same high quality throughout. If some games were too long to have consistent high quality - put the darn game on 2 discs! It is not that hard to figure out.

Aside from the inconsistent video quality within single discs, nearly all of the games are missing the Fox intro. The lone exception is World Series Game 1, where they have kept the Fox intro showing the return of the World Series to New England.

All of the other games literally start with the first batter (after hearing about the game's commercial sponsors).

I find this extremely disappointing. I think the network introduction adds some context to each game. I feel like there is something missing without seeing the opening video.

Why no games from the Angels series? Maybe there were rights issues. The Angels games were aired by ESPN. All of the ALCS and World Series games were aired by Fox. And, all of the video used for this set came from a New York Fox affiliate. Maybe it was a hassle for A&E/MLB to figure out how to do the Angels games. Who knows.

Since this box set is the only (official) way to obtain these games, we have to live with them. Well worth the price if you have no other source. However, I wish that A&E/MLB could have put a little more effort and forethought into this set. Nice set, but it could have been spectacular with the right quality and editing.

This is a dream come true. I searched "online auctions" for DVDs of these games. And found them but never bought them (too expensive). I have seen the World Series highlights DVDs, and the endless talk about the once-in-a-lifetime baseball comeback. But I want to see it all. Relive it all. Not just the great pitches, or the bad breaks. But everything.

36 hours? Who has that much time to watch these all over again? You already know how it ends. But Hollywood can not script drama and action of this magnitude. Make the time. History will remember this series (ALCS anyway) for many, many years to come.

Even if you're not a Red Sox fan. Even if you're not a baseball fan. This series of games will speak to the heart of any sports fan. It can not get enough attention in my opinion.

And simply put, what better way to commemorate the games than just giving us everything and the kitchen sink. Let the viewer decide on what hilights he/she wants to watch. And no scripted bibble-babble as in the slew of DVDs that followed. If it really is verbatim, then the commentators astoundment is real and as-it-happens.

I can't wait for this set. I never even knew it was coming until I saw it on the Amazon release list.

Grab some popcorn and some beer. Turn up the volume. And relive some of the most dramatic games in all of sports history. It could very well make a baseball fan out of anyobody.

The best playoff series has the worst production ever. VHS Quality at best. No Widescreen, No HD, No Digital Sound, Horrible video quality. Since the Fox NY logo appears on one of the sceens one has to wonder if the production was done by NY fans. Very Poor. 2 stars for the fact that the series was the best.

~~~
Irrespective of the lack of HD, Surround Sound, etc., my instantaneous immpression was that the picture resolution was perfectly acceptable, particularly given the fact that a Complete Package was actually available for this type of event for the fanatics out there. (Shades of the tremendous NASA collections of the Apollo missions...)

On further inspection -- within about a half a minute -- I noticed that although most all of the colors look good, (the green grass -- the Yankee Navy -- the colors of the walls in the parks, etc.), the Red Sox colors on the uniforms are not True. They're not even Red. They look pink -- washed out.
It's odd, in that most everything else is fairly vibrant looking.

Now I am torn over whether I will even keep this package. If I knew for certain that this will be the only release of this set, I would indeed keep it. But if it turns out that this problem is rectified in the near future, and re-released, I'll go nuts. (I hate this type of torment with a product that could be perfect, but just doesn't quite make it...)

I honestly don't expect that this will be re-issued due to spectacular sales -- or for admitted production flaws -- so I suspect that I won't pass on this package.

But I just don't understand how this happened.

Can anyone with some technical expertise explain this?
Or can anyone else at least verify that they see the same flaw?

I love this set. I hate this set.

Ok. A few whiskeys and time to accept our 2005 defeat brought me to a Friday night viewing of this DVD collection. Dave Roberts' steal and the Red Sox come-from-behind miracle cause us to lose sight of the first game -- remarkable on several levels, and a prophetic view of the entire series. Some observations on the first game with the Yankees:

1. The first hit off of Mike Messina (perfect through 6 innings) was by Mark Bellhorn, and the first RBIs for the Bosox were from Kevin Millar (oh, how the times they have been a changing'!)

2. Fox sucks! Except for quoting Bruce Springsteen correctly, Al Leiter was pathetic, and he and Tim McCarver had many, many simply wrong comments. For instance, they actually said that David Ortiz's offensive numbers (as well as Carl Yastrzemski's!!!!!) were the result of the "green monster" in Fenway, and Leiter claimed that Schilling had been complaining about his ankle all year!!!! (Yaz turned to an "inside-out" swing in his later years; for most of his career, he gained his number hitting into a shift.)

3. The Sox came back from a 8-run deficit, and David Ortiz's triple came within a foot of tying the game in the 8th inning. (Never say never!)

4. Bernie Williams' doubled off of Mike Timlin in the ninth over Manny Ramirez' outstretched reach by a matter of inches. If Ramirez catches that ball, it's a one-run game in the ninth.

In other words, we remember the 3-0 defecit, and the Red Sox comeback, but if it were not for this DVD collection, I would have completely forgotten how the Sox almost came back from eight runs to win it in the 8th inning, and how, just as Roberts stole second by a matter of inches in game 4, this first game was decided by a few hairs.

This first game was truly a hint of what was to come in the remaining games, and this DVD collection made this reminiscence and post-year analysis possible.

Well I guess I won't be deleting game 4 of the World Series from my HD TiVo anytime soon. The content is great on these discs but the quality is poor. I just don't see why they didn't use the Fox HD broadcasts to master these. No widescreen or digital sound? Seems like a poor use of available technology to me. Maybe they'll do a higher quality directors cut and soak me for another hundred bucks later!? Or maybe they'll improve the quality of the next set after the Sox repeat this year!

Well, I am glad I have them, but they were not worth the price for the quality. The specs show they are not in widescreen, but it gets worse. It's not even in surround sound. They don't even put the Dolby Surround encoded track on there, just plain stereo. And even worse, on my 60-inch TV at 13 feet or so, I can clearly see digital compression artifacts all over the place.

And on at least of the DVDs, there's a "Fox 5 NY" logo in the bottom right of the picture.

The quality is basically about as good as if someone gave you a videotape with the commercials cut out. The audio (with no surround sound) and video (with significant compression artifacts) quality both are worse than what I recorded off DirecTV onto my DirecTiVo at the time.

This should be Dolby Digital 5.1, anamorphic widescreen, with a very crisp picture. Is that asking too much for something that I want to last a long time, watch over and over, and that costs this much?

Oh, and the bonus DVD is just the World Series film I already bought, plus some extra stuff like press conferences and celebrations (different from the extras on the one I already bought).

Being a card-carrying member (literally) of Red Sox Nation, I'm embarrassed to admit that it's taken me this long to pick up this box set.

As much as I wanted to get it, I was a little hesitant because I've been reading so many reviews from people who have said the video and audio quality was lousy, the picture isn't in HD, it's full-screen, etc., but I went ahead and plopped down $100 for the set.

Very glad I did ... this set is worth every penny. It isn't HD ... so what?!? It looks as good as it did during the original broadcast. In fact, I got so caught up in watching Game 4 (the first disc I watched) that I forgot I was watching a DVD until I realized I hadn't seen a commercial. Big Papi goes deep ... and it's on to Game 5!

Any hard-core Red Sox fan will want this for their 2004 World Series collection. The extras on the 12th disc are great, too.

It'll be fun to sit down with my 2-year-old son a few years from now and tell him about how his mom had just given birth when the Sox finally won it all!

I knew it was going to be special so I considered installing cable TV but it wasn't available in my area. So I read about it on the internet. Thanks to some great sports writers I got a hint of the excitement. Now, with these great DVDs I am enjoying the series enormously. I can't understand the complaints about the lack of widescreen. I am amazed to see an entire game (and minus the annoying adverts too) on one disk. thanks Boston!

Dennis Dorwick, a long time resident of Australia