Customer Reviews

The Official World Series Film Collection

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Recently ordered and received "The Official World Series Film Collection," from Amazon.com for $90 and I must say WOW!

I am a baseball lifer and enjoy traveling down to watch the Pirates play and when I saw this product advertised on MLB Network I thought there was no way this was affordable. Then I pop up here and its $90. So I figured the set got to be great pick up so I picked it up.

Let me continue to say WOW!

The presentation of this box set is a coffee table format. It is really well made and its something that my friends and family over the past few days have marveled over. The foreward has been written by Bob Costas who anyone knows loves the game. Followed in the Coffee Table box is a pictorial essay of the biggest moments in Series history dating from the first WS between Pittsburgh and Boston in 1903 to the Phillies in 2008. Woven in this "scrap book" is the DVDs. One improvement is they put the discs in pockets on top of the pages and its SO much easier to access the discs, in the past box sets released in this format have put discs in the middle of the page in tight spots where you can easily scratch the discs. Not so here.

Overall I give MLB and A&E mad props for this excellent presentation of this box set.

The contents of this box set is self explanatory you have the World Series FILM of every WS from 1943-2008. I emphasize FILM because you will get someone who will buy this THINKING they will get FULL games. These are not full games. These are 30-45 minute films highlighting each World Series from 1943-2008. I find it a treat to watch players such as Mickey Mantle, Bob Gibson, Sandy Koufax, Carlton Fisk, George Brett, Jack Morris, etc in this set.

Now the quality of the DVDs are excellent and there are no bonus features and really who cares about bonus features when you have nearly 50 hours of baseball on DVD. This set gives the baseball diehard an opportunity to relive the greatest moments on baseball's grandest stage. I rate these on par with the NFL Films Super Bowl Collection as the finest in Sports DVDs because of the great quality.

I watched the 1979 World Series Film between my Buccos and the Baltimore Orioles and watching the build-up of the Series and watching the big plays and big moments are excellent. I am really looking forward to dive into other Series films.

Bottomline: if you miss the opportunity to get this set for $90...you are missing a golden opportunity. I find this set to be priceless for the baseball fan. If you are looking for a holiday gift or a birthday gift for the baseball fan I would almost guarantee you will hit one out of the park with this

I just got this set and began watching some of the oldest films, which I enjoyed. Since I had the Yankee set of 13 films I skipped those, but just to make sure it was OK I popped in the 1949-1953 disk. While watching the 1953 film I decided to watch Mantle's grand slam. To my surprise, they showed the bases being loaded, showed Russ Meyer come to the mound and then suddenly went to the next inning. I fast forwarded to the end and lo and behold they didn't show Billy Martin's game 6 game and series winning hit, just jumped to the end of the film wrapup.

So I got out my Yankee set and began comparing timings series by series. Well, folks, in order to cram as many as 6 films on a disk A&E, the producer of both sets, heavily edited many of the films. Remember, these are only the ones I can verify, the Yankee victories.

1943 is missing 21 seconds.
1947 has no difference.
1949 is missing 11 seconds.
1950 is missing over 9 minutes.
1951 has no difference.
1952 is missing 21 seconds.
1953 is missing 1 1/2 minutes.
1956 has no difference.
1958 is missing 1/2 minute.
1961 is missing 14 minutes.
1962 is missing almost 16 minutes.

From 1977 on there seems to be nothing missing. But it's obvious that somebody at A&E made some very arbitrary decisions about what was "interesting" and what wasn't. I can only assume that other films from the 40's through the 60's were similarly chopped. I'm not very happy about this product being advertised as the definitive collection when so much footage is gone. The book is nice, and it's still valuable to have all of the available Series is one place to the extent they're there. But I'm not as pleased as I should be.

Over the past few years, A&E has released numerous collections of World Series films that have left a few of them out. Most notably, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1971, 1979 and 1995 were never rereleased on DVD. They are finally out in this Book/DVD combo. The book itself, while very short, is a great coffee table book. The 20 discs sit comfortably inside the book. Another huge improvement, especially for those that had the previous World Series film DVDs is that all of the films themselves have chapters so it is easy to navigate between the different games. These are all of the films that were originally released immediately after each World Series, so the 1946 film is in black and white with very little graphics and no interviews while the 2008 film is much longer with interviews, extensive highlights, etc. I would highly recommend this set, even though it is rather pricey.

I just received my copy of The Official Major League Baseball World Series Film Collection in the mail. I obviously haven't watched them all yet but all I can say is "Wow!". This is the set of all of the MLB produced World Series highlight videos from 1943 through 2008. These videos are something to be treasured, especially the older films. And if the 20 DVD set was not enough it comes beautifully packaged in a hardcover book featuring photographs of iconic World Series moments. This set is a must own for any baseball fan. I don't know how long Amazon will keep the price at $90 but for my money it is one of the best bargains I have ever encountered.

Several of the World Series included on this set are edited from their original versions. The 1950 WS is missing 9 minutes and the 1961 Series is missing 14 minutes of content. This was by comparing them to the earier released Yankees World Series DVD set. Can not atest to the non-Yankees world series but these discs are edited.

A Great Collection of Baseball World Series Games, especially before 1980! When Baseball was Baseball! When Players played for the Love of the Game and Not Money or TV Ratings!

This is really a nice set, if you can get it on sale or a gold box special for under $100, like I did.

I just received this recently, so I decided to review it based on watching 3 various years.

The year I was born.
A year I was familiar with as a teen, 1980 Phillies
And lastly, one of the modern era Yankees championships.

The quality of the films is excellent.

The older ones include a few intro advertisements from the production company which are kind of cool.

The really old ones, look like those "movie reels" from the old time B&W movie days.

As you move through the years, the production obviously gets more slick and polished.

Since each season is it's own separate story, it makes it easy to simply watch just one episode from any particular year, and really enjoy it.

Overall the video and audio are very good.

I'm knocking off one star for two reason.

#1: The book format.
I don't like these "thick page" albums where the DVD slides into the page.
To me, that's a waste of space, and I'd rather have more pages, filled with more photos, than something that is going to take up this much shelf space.
Also (this is a small thing..but) the font selection on the printing was too small in the index. They used an almost cursive font that makes it difficult to identify what year you are looking at, relating to that years disc.

#2: Lack of extras on the DVD's.
I'd like to see SOMETHING extra, geesh.

All in all, this would make a wonderful gift, or just to enjoy yourself, if you hit it at the right price point.

I purchased the Official World Series collection for my 90 year old father who has been a St. Louis Candinal fan for most of his life. It has a nice presentation with photos on the DVD protectors. He enjoys looking at many of the older black and white movies and remembering players of the past. I would highly recommend this as a gift for any serious baseball fan.

This set only describes by one word SPECTACULAR, is the best film that i ever seen, and probably the best ever that i will see in my life.
The book is beautiful, with photos and a little descrpition. But the movies are a home run. From the First innings with videos like "short cinema" across the middle innings with videos like a one-week-later-series-resume, and the final innings videos with interviews, and big post-productions.
The memories are guaranted, and for last the price...90 dlls...FOR LAST I ONLY SMILE
Only one question WHAT IF MR. COSTAS DOESNT WRITE A POOR INTROTUCTION AND NARRATED ONE DVD WITH MATERIAL OF THE PREVIOUS SERIES IN OTHER WORDS, MAKE A VIDEO WITH PHOTOS OF THE 1903-1942 WS AND THIS WILL BE REALLY THE GREATEST COLLECTION

This was a great buy for me. I am very interested in baseball history, so seeing highlights of things I have already read about was great. If you are a fan of baseball history, this is a great product to purchase.