Major League Baseball 2009

MLB Productions has done their usual great job of producing this perspective of the 2009 World Series and especially, why this championship is so special to the Yankee franchise. It is themed with the concept of "27" which represents how many titles the Yankees have won to date. It also, plays out how this championship is the first for "new" Yankee Stadium and it is the fifth championship for four of the Yankee mainstays from the 1996 teams. It is obviously a "must-have" for any Yankee fan's video library.

The main downside to this DVD is much less time is devoted to the losing team (in this case the Phillies) then was the case in most of the WS DVDs of the last 10 years. Usually, % coverage is about 60-40 for the winning side but in this case it seemed like it was more 80-20.

There is the usual coverage of the ups and downs of the two teams during the seasons. There seemed to be a lot less coverage of the divisional and league series than in prior seasons and the extras on the DVD appear to only be Yankee highlights from the playoffs and WS. The extras do include a look at each player (as was shown on FOX) on the field individually as the last out was made.

Absent from the DVD was any mention of Harry Kalas, the long-time Phillie announcer who passed away and whose suit was kept in the Philly dugout. This seemed to be a major omission. There are some priceless interviews with Pedro Martinez and some nice video of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins. Jason Werth, a key cog for the Phillies seems to have been away when the interviews were taped.

From the Yankee perspective most of the key players are interviewed but very few of the role players (I don't remember Phil Hughes, Brett Gardner, Damaso Marte and a few of the others appearing).

A-Rod's health issues at the beginning of the season are highlighted but absent is any mention of the steroid scandal.

If you are not a Yankee or Phillies fan, then you may not want to buy this one unless you are a diehard baseball fan. Being a Yankee fan myself, I couldn't help but give it five stars.

I watched the entire bluray last night and I have to say that if you are a true diehard Yankee fan, this bluray is a must-have. This is basically a 1-hour 25-minute film documenting the New York Yankees' 2009 World Series win over the Philadelphia Phillies. Here's how the film breaks down...

The first 20 minutes or so documents the Yankees' regular season as they attempt to capture their 27th World Championship. They also have a brief section showing the Philadelphia Phillies and their attempt to defend their World Series crown. But this bluray is really all about the World Series battle between these two great teams.

The rest of the film documents every World Series game along with the key moments from each game. Cliff Lee's game 1 gem and Chase Utley's domination over CC Sabathia... Pedro Martinez's return to Yankee Stadium and AJ Burnett's dominance in game 2... The Yankees fighting back from a 3-0 deficit to win game 3... Johnny Damon's at-bat and subsequent double-steal as well as Brad Lidge's meltdown in game 4... Chase Utley once again doing his best Reggie Jackson impersonation in game 5... And finally, Andy Pettitte (who else?) clinching the game 6 winner... If you are a true Yankee fan and you don't like this film, then something is wrong.

There is also 30 minutes worth of bonus features that show key moments for the Yankees during their playoff run. A-Rod's game-tying homerun off Joe Nathan during the 9th inning in game 2 of the ALDS... Mark Teixeira's walk-off homerun during the same game... A-Rod's game-tying homerun off Brian Fuentes in the ALCS... A-Rod's homerun off Cole Hamels in game 3 of the World Series... Matsui's 2-run single/double/homerun in the game 6 World Series clincher... It even has the entire final 3 outs of the 9th inning as it was shown on national television.

One thing to note about the bonus clips... with the exception of the final 3 outs of the World Series as well as Johnny Damon's at-bat against Brad Lidge (there may be one more that I'm forgetting about), there is NO television commentary in any of the clips. For example, with A-Rod's homerun off Joe Nathan in the ALDS, they show the homerun from multiple camera angles (as they do with most of the other clips), but that's it. There is no television commentary at all. The only thing you hear is the sweet sound of the bat as it makes contact with the baseball and the crowd going nuts. Some people will like this, others will not. I personally didn't have a problem with it although sometimes I do like to hear it when the announcers go crazy.

Conclusion... As I mentioned before, if you are a true diehard Yankee fan, go out and buy this now.

I preface this by saying that I am a Yankee fan, and so I was predisposed to want to love the video. And the storytelling aspect of it is excellent. Despite that, I find this video almost unwatchable. My critique is of the filmmaking. MLB productions seems to think that there's a law against showing an entire baseball hit in a single shot, from ball hitting the bat to its landing. So a typical home run will look like this: 1) ball hits bat; 2) quick cut to pitcher; 3) quick cut to dugout reaction; 4) quick cut to crowd screaming; 5) quick cut to hitter watching it; 6) quick cut to ball just as it hits the seats. It seems like every single play in the entire video is cut this way -- even on strikeouts the path of the ball from pitchers hand to home plate on a is typically cut to into several smaller shots, so it's impossible to follow the path of the ball to the plate. By game 2 of the series, I found myself mentally screaming at the director to hold the shot, so I could actually see where the ball traveled as it came out of the pitcher's hand or off the bat. If you want to see highlights of the games themselves, I don't know where you turn, because you certainly don't get it here.

MLB productions has been using this style of filmmaking for a long time -- certainly going back to the late 1990s videos, and judging from the reviews here, I guess that's a popular way of doing it. But since I hadn't watched a World Series video in many years (yes, since the Yankees last won), I was hoping the style might have changed. I was very disappointed to find that, if anything, it was even worse than before.

Overall I give this three stars, because the pictures are beautiful, and the storytelling, narration, use of interviews, etc are indeed very good. I might try consuming it while listening to the sound only. But I just can't watch it without getting infuriated, because in a highlight video I want to see the BASEBALL, not the constant cuts of a director with no attention span.