BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE
STUDIO: Shout! Factory
MSRP: $19.98
RATED: NR
RUNNING TIME: 60 Minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- AL(tm) East Clincher
- ALDS(tm) Final Out
- J.D. Drew’s Game 6 ALCS(tm) Grand Slam
- Red Sox Win ALCS
- Dustin Pedroia’s Game 1 Leadoff HR
- Josh Beckett K’s The Side In World Series Game 1
- Final 3 Outs Of World Series And Celebration
- World Series Trophy Presentation
- World Series MVP Trophy Presentation
- Dropkick Murphys Music Video
Our Previous Baseball Reviews:
The 2006 St. Louis Cardinals, The 1977 New York Yankees, The Chicago Cubs Legends, The Chicago White Sox.
The Pitch
The Red Sox win, making them the first team to repeat in the 2000’s. The Colorado Rockies made it to the series, which is really all you can ask for. By the way… boring.
The Humans
Managers: Terry Francona. Clint Hurdle.
Ballplayers: Dustin Pedroia. Matt Holliday. Manny Ramirez. Todd Helton. Jonathan Papelbon. Jeff Francis. Curt Schilling. Garrett Atkins. Kevin Youkilis. Troy Tulowittzki. David Ortiz. Brad Hawpe. Jason Varitek. Yorvit Torrealba. J.D. Drew. Kazuo Matsui. Josh Beckett. Brian Fuentes. Disuke Matsuzaka.
Random Fans in the Crowd: Abraham Slaught. Doomsday McReynolds. Sarah Whatshername. Theodore Thunderbottom. Clea DuVall. Dr. Mattherhorn Grabbings. Alice Shunt. Gary O’Gargoyles. Joey the Lion. Jim Jimson. Michael A. Ghunt. Henry Cravings. Lionel Backpops. Jackson Smalls. Come Flunker. Dougie Doughbot. Spearbaby O’Malley. Helen Fried. Davey Waterchampion. Robert Wheeler-Nicholson. Ulysses S. Native-American. Jasper Horn. Elliot Cyborg-Baptisms. Duel Daniels. Oliver Costlies. Teardrops Prischman. Fag Wheeler. Ninny Camel-Hunt. Fifty Bishops. John X. Exion. Sandy Deuce.
"Thank you Lord for the precious ass-kicking by the other team praying…"
The Nutshell
Against all odds, the team chosen before the season to win the World Series won the World Series.
The Lowdown
Note: This review is an appetizer to the much larger box set review for the Boston Red Sox 2007 set coming in to this site in January.
The Boston Red Sox are really hard to hate. I’m a Yankees fan, by the way..
Connie was faced with two choices: Ballgame or Dentist. Guess which she chose?
They built their team both through their farm system, high priced free agents, and some trades both good and bad. As it’s supposed to be done. Baseball of the 2000’s can’t be accomplished by buying a team or expecting the homegrown talent to be enough and the Red Sox are deserved champions in 2007 thanks to their spot between ‘Evil Empire’ and ‘Underdog’. Additionally, the Colorado Rockies rode an amazing late season surge to surpass a very packed National League West, defeating the San Diego Padres in a one game playoff and securing a playoff berth they rode right on into the Big Dance.
I was in the Rockies’ corner not because of my role as an anti-Sox guy but because they seemed to be a magical team and as a huge fan of their goateed first baseman Todd Helton, I figured this was his only real chance at a ring.
The sequel to LA Story sucked dick.
Then the World Series happened and it was a total rout by the Red Sox.
It just makes it really hard to find compelling storylines when two teams meet in the biggest series there is and the clash doesn’t provide ample struggles to justify a release like this one. Matt Damon, a lifelong Red Sox fan, narrates the hour-long documentary with a very nice and nonpartisan warmth. He’s obviously a fan of the sport and he treats these players as a scholar might treat icons of mythology, a certain larger-than-life texture that defies some of the overt narration we’ve had to endure in previous releases. Sometimes a sportscaster feels the need to bring it up a few notches as they do in broadcasts and Damon is a nice counterbalance to the sometimes amplified voices behind sports.
Then again, there’s not much to say. The really special parts of the documentary center on the things which led to the series itself; Boston’s battles with the Yankees after a season where they couldn’t even land a playoff berth after winning the Series in 2004; Colorado’s amazing rookies and the late season surge, and the like. Once the series starts there’s nothing Damon or the magic of editing can do to add much verve to the proceedings.
The patch for Gigantic Soldier’s denim jacket was ready but he was nowhere to be found…
The end result is a mild diversion, not unlike the series itself. If you’re a fan of these teams it’s an impulse buy I suppose, but otherwise it’s just too insubstantial to recommend.
David Ortiz has forgotten more about weird shaving than you or I will ever know.
The Package
There are a few interesting little tidbits here, but they’re quick and out of context in a set like this. On the larger sets, these collections of minutia add to the larger mix, especially after the total immersion vibe of the collections. Here we get a rather light documentary peppered with more lite features and it just feels like perhaps these World Series DVDs are better served by releasing the larger sets on DVD and making these documentaries available simply as MLB.com downloads.
It’s just not enough.
5.5 out of 10