Customer Reviews

New York Yankees Perfect Games and No-Hitters

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A great way to start off the new baseball season. Would be worth it just to own Larsen's Perfect game and the DVD includs the TV and Radio broadcasts of the game. Please take note. The first inning of this game is still "lost" so the TV game broadcast starts with the second batter in the top of the second inning.

Hi Folks,

As a lifetime fan of the Dodgers (as a kid watched my parents glee at the '63 drubbing of the hated Yankees) I can still enjoy a wonderfully put together set of DVDs. the YES network just put on the best shows so YANKEEOLOGY are a great addition to my baseball collection for the terrific footage and lets face it the Yankees are the most honored franchise in history with a history full of great players. I bought this set even though there are no Ruths or Mantles ..because of the HISTORY and DRAMA. Its so fun to watch these games evolve...being in on the joke so to speak and watching and listening to the announcers and crowd finally get the punch line and start rooting. Knowing the outcome doesn't ruin it for me..and the fact that several of these pitchers were in the twilight of their careers is only the better and on Yogi Berra day with Don Larsen in the house?....WOW! and don't get me started on Jim Abbott who started off here with the ANGELS..what an incredible life affirming story his is and this moment is remarkable!

Would I rather it was a Dodger/Koufax set? Of course....a 7 dvd set of all Nolan Ryan no-nos? YES again...but I'm not reviewing what we don't have but what we do have and its some amazingly historical games featuring some heroic performances and you don't have to be a YANKEE fan to be a fan of that!

OH..and the bonus interviews and featurettes are pretty cool as well...
a very nice package to be sure!

my ONE complaint? MLB like the other sports that issue these sets seems to give slightly inconsistent and often de-saturated versions ...even the later games are not great "prints" of the games I'm watching the David Wells game as I write and there just aren't any BLACKS in the image...almost like bootlegs or dupes but the shots of him on the other DVDs being carried off have nicely saturated pictures..poor quality control for an expensive and historical set.

THe previous reviewer should be ashamed of himself. This release is going to bring to DVD one of the lost treasures of baseball history the original TELECAST of Don Larsen's Perfect Game. And yet, he'd rather be petty with his stupid anti-Yankee bias to bitch about why some run of the mill game hasn't been released instead. For shame (maybe to match his standard we should condemn MLB for releasing the 1988 World Series??)

The six-disc set will warm up any chilled baseball fan at the start of the Hot Stove League season and is a gem for any fledgling diamond historian due to the inclusion of a perfect game tossed nearly 55 years ago. The blurry tape of the TV broadcast of Don Larsen's October 8, 1956, perfect game in the World Series versus the Brooklyn Dodgers is in terrible shape, but the athletic accomplishment remains one of the greatest ever in Major League Baseball.

The 12 hours and 33 minutes is a tour of masterpieces from aces of the New York Yankees and includes the perfect game from David Wells (1998) and the "comeback" to prominence of Dwight Gooden (1996). The set is outstanding because it allows the games to tell the story in feats that define pitching excellence...no matter the era or venue.

It's great to be able to see these games in their entirety. The one exception is that the footage from Don Larsen's perfect game is missing the first inning and part of the second although you can still listen to the audio portion and see footage of Yankee stadium. The product arrived on time and in great condition as described by the vendor. This collection is a must for any true Yankee fan.

I have to admit that I almost passed on this set when I read other reviews about the video quality of Don Larson's perfect game. I'm glad I didn't. The game is great considering it is over 50 years old. What you will find is that the fine detail of facial features is missing relative to a modern day broadcast, but most of the game is shown through the behind-home-plate camera so it isn't that big of a deal. You can clearly see the game, the players, the uniform numbers, the flight of the ball, etc. What you don't see is Sal Maglie's 5 o'clock shadow, how youthful Mickey Mantle was, or how "mature" Enos Slaughter was. After all these years, I was able to pause and frame-advance the last pitch to satisfy myself that Dale Mitchell did, indeed, swing at it (it looked like it was in the strike zone, anyway).

There is no footage of the game's first 7 hitters, but the radio call is provided along with shots from around the stadium (inside and outside). Those shots are a virtual time capsule, as anyone who has ever been to The Stadium will no doubt recognize how some things changed and others remained the same. If you're on the fence about this set, let me just say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching this game. It's black & white, it mostly uses a single still camera, there are no replays or fancy graphics, and I obviously knew the outcome. Still, Mel Allen, Vin Scully, and the game itself are what make this a joy to watch.

New York Yankees fans, rejoice! There's a great new release for you. "New York Yankees: Perfect Games and No-Hitters" is a six-disc box set featuring six iconic Bronx Bombers' ballgames, from Don Larsen's perfect Game 5 of the 1956 World Series to David Cone's July 18, 1999 performance in the third perfect game at the original Yankee Stadium with Don Larsen sitting in the stands as a spectator. Other games include the perfect game by David Wells (May 17, 1998) and no-hitters by Dave Righetti against the Red Sox (July 4, 1983), Jim Abbott (September 4, 1993), and Dwight Gooden (May 14, 1996). Video quality is poorest on the World Series game, shot in black and white at a time when not as many cameras were used to cover games. But this is compensated for by the game's historic significance and the play-by-play by Mel Allen and Vin Scully. Bonus features include interviews with most of the pitchers, radio calls on Larsen's perfect game, and a featurette on Abbott and Righetti.

I'll give the product 5 stars, but want to point out an error Amazon made in their description of the product that was important to me.
First, I think the set itself deserves 5 stars. I have watched two of the games (Larsen & Righetti) completely, and scanned through each of the others enough so I feel qualified to review the set as a whole. There are some video imperfections in each, but never enough to spoil the game for me. The 1956 video was actually better than I expected given other reviews. I have no serious complaints about any of the games, & agree with others who felt the Larsen game alone is worth the purchase.
Amazon indicated that the Righetti game was announced by Mel Allen, which is incorrect. He appears nowhere on this disc, whose audio is from the radio broadcast that day. It was nice to hear Rizzuto, White & Messer again, but I was very disappointed Allen's call from pay tv that day was not included. He does, of course, announce half of Larsen's game. That omission is probably of little importance to most, but I was looking forward to hearing him one more time.
So... Five stars for the set, but none for Amazon for misleading me.

This is an amazing product. For all the ones like me that had the chance to be present to anyone of these games it is a priceless treasured memory to have it since it is the same television broadcast. I waited 10 years to get the full video memory of the David Cone's Perfect Game on July 18th., 1999. I definitively appreciate the effort made on having this product on the market and the chance of getting it from Amazon. I truly encourage MLB films to continue producing and launching into the market this kind of material.

Although I am not going to give this DVD set just one star as he did, I must echo SONOFAA's review from 2008. With Sandy Koufax's 1965 perfect game against the Cubs, Catfish Hunter's perfect game three years later (in which Hunter batted in three of the A's four runs), and none of Nolan Ryan's seven no-hitters available from MLB, it is difficult to understand the thinking behind this selection.

Worse than that, however, is the quality of the video. WARNING: The video of Don Larsen's perfect game does not start until the second batter of the top of the second inning. (Jackie Robinson's near hit, which caromed off Andy Carey at third to Gil McDougald at short, who just threw Robinson out, is not shown. And that was one of only two "near" hits the Dodgers managed off Larsen.) And the video of Dave Righetti's no-hitter is nearly unwatchable. It is out of focus; the Yankees' pinstripes shimmer and blend as if the heat off the field were causing a mirage; and "shadow" images of yellow and orange surround the players with some regularity. The only audio choice is the Yankees' radio broadcast.

With the surprising paucity of historical videos available from MLB, this set will nevertheless appeal to baseball fans. It's a shame, though, that the main reason the DVD's are appealing is that so little historical footage of complete games can be obtained by the non-professional student of baseball.