Customer Reviews

MLB Vintage World Series Films - Cleveland Indians 1948

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I am one of those long suffering Cleveland Indians fans who grew up with Bob Feller and Lou Boudreau as his heroes. It's been a long, long time since the Indians won the World Series, so it was nice to be taken back to those better days, when Bob Feller was high kicking on the mound and Lou Boudreau covered short on his sore ankles--amd still won MVP.

What a team that was, well balanced between every day players and an excellent pitching staff. Jim Hegan caught, Robinson was at first, Gordon at second, Keltner at third, Mitchell in left, Doby in center, and Kennedy in right. In addition to Feller--Lemon, Bearden, Gromeck, Zoldak, Christopher, and Satchell Paige rounded out the pitching. I know I'm leaving out some, but these were enough to beat the Boston Braves with their "Spahn and Sain and a day of rain."

The only disappointment in the Series was Feller failing to win a game. He was robbed, of course, when the umpire called the runner safe at second on a pick-off play. The runner went on to score the winning run, and Feller lost 1-0. The Indians went back to the Series iin 1954 and Feller didn't make an appearance as the Indians were smasted 4-0 by the New York Giants.

Unfortunately there are only black and white snippets from the 1948 fall classic here, grainy long shots at that. And Jimmy Dudley and Jack Graney, the team's announcers from that era, are missing, alas.

I probably won't live long enough to see the Indians win again, so this is all I can expect--this DVD.

This collection of officially sanctioned baseball videos all have an extra-large line drawing of the MLB logo continuously superimposed on-screen. It's located at the upper right-hand corner and is very obtrusive!


Narration of these Indians vs. Braves 1948 World Series highlights may also be by the announcer on dozens of boxing films from this same era. If so, his familiar high-pitched rapidfire style fits well here. Less acceptable are the too-many duplicate crowd noise overdubs and ESPECIALLY the exact same ball-meets-bat popping sound that's used for practically every swing we see. After the first 30 or so times, it goes beyond monotonous and enters the realm of the ridiculous!

Pace of this half-hour video is necessarily lightning-fast. First inning action for example, may go like this: A swing (pop!): a hit, man on first. A swing (pop!): an out. A swing (swish): an out. A swing (pop!): an out. Man stranded on first. Quick jump to the 7th inning, etc. Such a breakneck recounting spoils any chance to "feel" the games presented.

I was genuinely hoping here for a TV broadcast kinescope with at least a few major highlight blocks, particularly as this DVD is listed at 95 minutes, but the other hour is a contemporary documentary of Cleveland's 1995 season. If you're not a fan of this team, it's truly boring!

Wahoo? I say: FEH! (two gloves down)

The archival footage is incredibly sharp and the presentation is in newsreel form from this magical season for player-manager Lou Boudreau and a city that not only embraced the club, but whose fans helped set a number of Major League Baseball attendance records in the cavernous Municipal Stadium.

The club - paced by such legends as Satchel Paige, Larry Doby, Bob Lemon, Bob Feller and Ken Keltner - snatched the American League pennant by winning a "sudden-victory" playoff game with the Boston Red Sox and then defeated the Boston Braves in the World Series.

This is a great stride down memory lane when Bill Veeck ruled the city through his innovative gimmicks to keep baseball on the front pages of the daily newspapers and the team delivered an incredible season on the diamond.

This was a Xmas present for my father who is a huge Indians fan. He really enjoyed the dvd. It primarily discussed the history of the Indians back in the 40's & 50's when they won their last world series.