2004 World Series - Boston Red Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals
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DVD details
Actor: Boston Red Sox, Curt SchillingBrand: Team Marketing
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 80 minutes
Published: 2004-11-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-11-30
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Color: Red Sox vs. Cardinals
Studio: Atlantic / Wea
Product features:
- Officially Licensed
- Highest Quality Recording
DVD Reviews of 2004 World Series - Boston Red Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals
DVD Review: The Official World Series Video, Rewriting History Already
Summary: 3 Stars
As a Red Sox fan, I ate up just about every recapping of the season that was available, and saved this DVD as a special Christmas treat. I've seen virtually all of the "Official" Major League Baseball Productions (tm) videos since the production was taken over by organized baseball, and most of the pre-historical documentaries about the World Series of years past that have been repackaged in VHS and DVD as being the 'official' histories, and I will say that there's been a steady improvement in the production values and storytelling.
However, within the limits of the storyline that a rather mundane four-game sweep can provide -- and I say this as an ardent Red Sox line -- there was a weirdly parallel-universe feel to how the story was retold in this video. While this was an entertaining and well put-together video, it seemed to be lacking a certain attention to the story line, not even to say selectively editing the history to the point where I had to go back to my scorecards to verify that they had indeed left out many important moments.
In the past, the official World Series videos have usually focussed on a parallel structure, showing how each World Series participant reached the big dance through the playoffs. This year, not that Cardinals fans are going to want to be remembering this series much, they just jettisoned much of what went on in the NL to focus almost exclusively on the journey of the winners. There's an obvious commercial reason for this: the Red Sox fans, desperate for their championship, like I, will eat this up, and that's the primary market for the DVD. Yet that also hurts the story line: the Cardinals were the best team in baseball and overcame the Astros in an incredible NLCS, and perhaps it would have made more of the inherent drama of being a Red Sox fan and knowing, just knowing, your team was going to find a way to choke to emphasize the Cardinals' extreme talents. There are many minor details along these lines -- such as, as one reviewer has noted, the failure to even show the controversial A-Rod interference call or the important role that reversed calls made in the LCS, or the injuries to the Cardinals which hurt them so badly in the World Series, or even the emotional role played by Ellis Burks, who wasn't even on the post-season roster yet was the personification for many fans of the perseverant old-school Red Sox. I don't want to be overly extreme, but there's a faintly Stalinist air to the 'Official History' when it skips so many interesting details.
I am not a Dennis Leary fan, but honestly the Leary narration didn't bother me much. The '2004 World Series' shares a lot of footage with the NESN-produced DVD 'Faith Rewarded' (which also has its strengths and flaws), and overall the narrative script of this DVD, while focussing much on the less than dramatic World Series, was of much higher quality than the NESN video.
Oddly, this DVD ends with the inferior version of 'Tessie' by the Dropkick Murphys, in the "play it too loud too long" school of overhyped stadium music blaring, while the NESN video eschews the local boys for ending with the Standells' "Dirty Water". I'll wait for the perfect video of the 2004 Red Sox triumph to come out, because it's not either one of these two films -- maybe they'll use 'Sweet Caroline' to end that as yet unproduced documentary.
The extras on this DVD focus on highlights of the games and formal interviews; the extras on the NESN 'Faith Rewarded' video focus a bit more on things Red Sox fans will probably find more delightful, such as a montage (without narration) of the victory parade-rolling rally and an odd segment of David Ortiz cooking that seems to have been left out of some local TV show. That, in essence, is the way the two videos stand in contrast: this video focusses more on the MLB Property, the World Series, and is a selective history of that series using the season as a minor prologue, while the NESN video is a somewhat more poorly-produced yet down-homey review of the entire season that Red Sox fans may find more to their taste. As odd as it is to say this, both are essential purchases for the Red Sox fan and perhaps take it or leave it for those outside the nation due to their inherent flaws.
Description of 2004 World Series - Boston Red Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals
No, it?s not a dream. In the 100th World Series championship ever played, the Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals to become World Series Champions. For 86 years Red Sox fans cursed everthing from their luck to Babe Ruth as they watched others celebrate victory in the Fall Classic. But this year promised to be different.They swept past the heavy-hitting Anaheim Angels and then faced the New York Yankees in the ALCS. The Red Sox fell behind their archrival three games to none--and relinquished 19 runs in Game Three. Still, they refused to die. Boston won the next two at Fenway Park--and completed the greatest comeback in the history of sports--at Yankee Stadium.Riding a crest of momentum, Boston advanced to the World Series, where they faced a St. Louis squad that had won more games than any other team in 2004. But by now, the Red Sox were unstoppable--and it took just four games to capture the title and extinguish forever the talk of a curse. Rest assured Red Sox Nation. You are living a dream--a dream come true. Complete final at-bats of the series-ending ALCS, NLCS and World Series games; Preseason press converence introducing Terry Francona as manager of the Red Sox; The Storytellers - a collection of exclusive interviews with various writers, players and coaches; Additional footage of Red Sox postseason celebrationsSimilar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
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