Sports - DVD

When It Was a Game - Triple Play Collection

Amazon Price: $24.99 List Price: $38.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Team Marketing - Model: TM3521 Amazon Marketplace: 26 new & used starting at $23.89

Buy at Amazon.com

Features:

• Officially Licensed
• Highest Quality Recording

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This HBO documentary is based on a highly original idea: tell the story of baseball from the Great Depression era through the late 1950s using footage from home-movie cameras shot by fans and players. The result is a marvelous look at baseball in America as seen from the ground--the culture of stadiums, the ritual of afternoon games, the spiritually sustaining rivalries. Among the truly unexpected sights is color footage of the 1938 World Series, not only from inside the stadium walls but from the street as traffic cops, crowds, and vehicles amassed. It also covers World War II's impact on the game, and, of course, the heroes, often caught in relaxed, unselfconscious moments.

Arguably more defined and even more lyrical than its predecessor, When It Was a Game 2 moves from a general celebration of baseball culture in America to a specific focus on various facets of the game's history, including the special relationship between game announcers and fans and the farm-team system during the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. Brooklyn's assimilation of the Dodgers into their community identity is covered quite winningly as is the heartbreak of the team's desertion to California. Last, the film takes us on a tour of some of the game's legends and presents a touching tribute to the extraordinary Babe Ruth. --Tom Keogh

When It Was a Game 3 focuses on the 1960s, a time of change for all of America. Through sharp, incredibly clear color footage of players and fans, the film shows how Major League Baseball slowly but surely evolved from pure sport to moneymaking entertainment. Covering the mighty Yankees, the western expansion of both leagues, the increasing inclusion of black players, and the rise of free agency and increased salaries, the film shows the growth of baseball from adolescence to adulthood. --Rob Lightner

Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $14.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Warner Brothers - Model: HBOD91875D Amazon Marketplace: 87 new & used starting at $1.70

Buy at Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great footage! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

wonderful to see actual footage of a game I missed that lifted the spirits of all of us. The only way this video could have been better would have been to include the entire game with the Soviets as well as the others. Might be nice, too, to have the films of the 1960 team, our first gold medal in hockey.

Much better than the movie with Kurt Russell. Seeing, hearing Herb Brooks, Mike Eruzionne, et al was extraordinary. I continue to watch and never fail to get goose bumps.

What a great story!! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What an inspiration!! After seeing the movie "Miracle" I had to see this, the actual true story. As a hockey fan, this makes me love the sport even more.

Excellent documentary 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I ordred this DVD for my husband who attended the 1980 U.S Hockey game. The DVD came packaged in great shape and we have had no problems with it. It's informative and an excellent documentary.

Editorial Review:

In february of 1980 the u.S. Hockey team created an unforgettable moment of national pride when they miraculously beat the soviets - a win selected by sports illustrated as the 1 sports moment of the century. Relive the excitment of history being made on ice. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/26/2006 Run time: 60 minutes Rating: Nr

61*

Amazon Price: $6.99 List Price: $9.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Team Marketing - Model: TM2502 Amazon Marketplace: 128 new & used starting at $1.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 116 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

61* is an endearing ode to the baseball days of yore when the press was the enemy, salaries were in check, and breaking records with bat and glove took on Ruthian proportions. In 1961 baseball expanded its season from 154 games to 162, allowing weaker pitching into the major leagues and two New York Yankees teammates--the colorless Roger Maris and golden boy Mickey Mantle--to make an assault on the sport's ultimate record: Babe Ruth's 60 home runs. To add to the stew, baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced any record set in the last eight games of the season wouldn't count toward the official record; records had to be achieved in 154 games.

Director Billy Crystal guarantees success for his movie in the perfect casting of the leads. Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan's religious sniper) is deft as Maris, and Thomas Jane is a perfect Mantle, a superman in a Yankee uniform. Despite the differences between family man Maris and hard-living Mantle, they form a rewarding friendship amid the media and fan frenzy. The shy Maris took the brunt of the storm, even facing boo-birds in his home stadium. Crystal and first-time writer Hank Steinberg keep the pace moving quickly between the field, the locker room, the press box, and the home front. The film never tries to dazzle with more than the facts (and it softens Mantle up a bit), yet it belongs on the short list of grand baseball movies. --Doug Thomas

Babe Ruth - The Life Behind the Legend

Amazon Price: $5.99 List Price: $9.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Team Marketing - Model: TM2635 Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $3.46

Buy at Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

BEST BABE RUTH DOCUMENTARY I'VE SEEN 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Unique, never before seen clips and stories. Very balanced and skilled in representing Ruth with his strengths and weaknesses. This vhs represents his life from reform school to death.

Indicates how he influenced America during the hard times and changed baseball forever. Despite Ruth's rough life style his talents and popularity are unprecedented and unquestioned. This was the age before good equipment (bats, gloves, etc), and strength enhancing drugs.

Very good narration and dialogue on this vhs. Highly recommend it for baseball and history fans alike. There will never be another Ruth and he's the proof and that's the truth. Look how his totality of records have stood the test of time and are the measure to which others are compared.

This is my favorite baseball documentary for the subject matter, quality, balance, nostalgia, historical setting, etc.

An hour well spent.

Editorial Review:

Considered by many to be the greatest baseball player who ever lived, he was a legend in his own time, and for all time. This is the extraordinary life of the man who changed the face of baseball.

When It Was a Game

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $14.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Team Marketing - Model: TM3043 Amazon Marketplace: 55 new & used starting at $3.75

Buy at Amazon.com

Features:

• Officially Licensed
• Highest Quality Recording

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Wow. Color film footage of Lou Gehrig and much, much more 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

"When It Was a Game" is composed entirely of 8mm and 16mm home movie footage that was taken by players and fans between 1934 and 1957. What this means for every baseball fan who has seen nothing but black & white newsreel footage of the good old days is the opportunity to see great players and the old ballparks where they played in living color. As soon as your see Lou Gehrig in color your heart just about skips a beat. Every spring right before Opening Day I watch the Ken Burns 9-inning documentary on "Baseball," and once it gets up to the Sixties and we start seeing things in color, the whole thing loses some of its charm for me because I am so used to seeing old footage and photographs in black & white. That makes the nostalgic images in "What It Was a Game" so astounding.

The only thing I can come up with to compare this documentary to wuld be the 1953 Bowman baseball cards. That was the year Bowman went to photographs, with 64 black & white 2 1/2" x 3 3/4" cards and 160 in color. These remain some of the most beautiful baseball cards ever made, particularly card #32 of the St. Louis Cardinals' Stan "The Man" Musial. When we see footage of Musial in this documentary, his uniform a beautiful combination of black and red, this is just something transcendent about that image. Even when these are just home movies taken before a game, seeing Ted Williams, Hank Greenberg, Bill Dickey, Carl Hubbell, Robin Roberts, and Jackie Robinson in color is just so captivating. Even shadowy footage of Satchel Paige in the major leagues at last is memorable. Then there are the shots of some of the living Hall of Famers such as Honus Wagner and Cy Young, including film of the greatest outfielders of the first half century: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and Tris Speaker. I have seen black & white photographs of their joint appearance, Ruth ill and not wearing a uniform, but this is in color and the pictures are in motion.

The producers have to come up with something for somebody to say while we watch these fascinating images, and there is a mixture of recollections from former players, poetic observations from sportswriters, and some actual commentary on what we are seeing (I have reason to suspect that some of this is leftover audio from Burns's "Baseball" since they are the same voices). But you will probably have to watch this 57-minute documentary a couple of times to catch everything that is being said because a real baseball fan is just going to lose themselves in these pictures. Players are often identified, which is good because since they are not in black & white some of them are actually hard to recognize. But in terms of the most shocking images that would have to be reserved for the section on the old ballparks where we see Chicago's Wrigley Field when the outfield wall was not covered with ivy and there were no bleachers for the fans. If that does not give you a sense they we have gone back into the distant past when baseball was a game, nothing will.

Editorial Review:

These are the greats of baseball history, legends in their lifetime legends today. It's baseball as you've never seen it before the way you always imagined the way it was. When It Was a Game is composed entirely of 8 and 16 mm home movie footage taken by fans and the players themselves between 1934 and 1957. For the first time, star players and their stadiums step out of the black and white newsreel footage, and appear in living, breathing color. Players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb and Joe DiMaggio. Ballparks like Ebbets Field, Briggs Stadium, Crosley Field and Griffith Stadium. As time passed, baseball changed, some of the clubs, the parks, the players are no longer with us. But their memory is and the magic of those memories is brought vividly to life, in When It Was a Game.

When it Was a Game 2

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $14.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Team Marketing - Model: TM3044 Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $1.97

Buy at Amazon.com

Features:

• Officially Licensed
• Highest Quality Recording

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The best baseball movie of all time. 5 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This is no Hollywood baseball movie. This is the real deal. Exquisite colors and poetic comments from those who played baseball the way it should be played- as a game.

Editorial Review:

Composed entirely of never-before-seen 8 and 16mm footage filmed by the players, their families and their fans between 1925 and 1961, When It Was A Game 2 brings many of these precious lost moments, and the men who lived them, to life the way you remember them - in living color. See Joe DiMaggio and Ty Cobb, Roy Campanella and Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Satchel Paige, Willie Mays and unique footage of the great Babe Ruth, along with rare scenes of the young Chuck Conners and Tommy Lasorda in the Minor Leagues. These are the players - theirs is the game - that won the hearts of America. Now you can see them as never before in original film footage that will transport you to a time gone by. Narrated by Peter Kessler with Ellen Burstyn, Billy Crystal, Joe Mantegna, Jack Palance, Jason Robards and Roy Scheider, you will never forget the experience, but you can always treasure the magic of days gone by with When It Was A Game 2 59 Minutes.

Don King - Only in America

Amazon Price: $13.49 List Price: $14.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Warner Brothers - Model: HBOD91469D Amazon Marketplace: 45 new & used starting at $5.02

Buy at Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Ving Rhames was wonderful as Don King 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The only things I knew about Don King was that he's a fight promoter and that wild hair he has. I like fight movies even if I don't like the reality of it. Weird huh? Ving Rhames was wonderful as Don King. I can understand why he won a Golden Globe award (which he gave to Jack Lemmon). Don King wouldn't have been so gracious. He was arrogant, mean (he killed a guy, beat him to death), racist (but a reason comes up in the film) and generally unlikeable. But Ving made him three dimensional in such a way that I admired King. He's smart and savvy (even if he does butcher the English language). He has a lot of spunk and drive. If he could have been honest with himself and others, no telling what he could have accomplished.

This movie has great moments. My favorite was when he was selling the idea of helping him get Mohammad Ali to participate in a fundraiser for a Black hospital. He was caught by a preacher and his wife using the MF bomb. So he turned that around in such a way that was hilarious.

Editorial Review:

From running numbers to the rumble in the jungle from ali to tyson don king wouldnt always fight clean he wouldnt always fight fair but he would always fight to win. Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 06/01/2004 Starring: Ving Rhames Jeremy Piven Run time: 112 minutes Rating: R Director: John Herzfeld

When It Was a Game 3

Amazon Price: $9.99 List Price: $14.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Team Marketing - Model: TM3045 Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $6.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Features:

• Officially Licensed
• Highest Quality Recording

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When It Was A Game, the homerun series for baseball fans, returns for another glorious inning with an exciting and colorful new program narrated by Liev Schreiber: When It Was A Game 3. This retrospective look at the changing face of baseball in America takes on the 1960's, a time many believe was the last decade of baseball's innocence. Though Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris and the powerful New York Yankees led off the decade with four straight World Series appearances, by 1964 they were headed for the showers. With the integration of baseball, spearheaded by Jackie Robinson in 1947,, Black superstars fueled the sports growth and a fresh Latin presence brought a new spirit to the game. New names of the 60's that neighborhood kids had to have to have would include the likes of Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, and Sandy Koufax. When It Was A Game 3 features never before seen home movies and vintage photographs with memorable storytelling that bring this incredible period to life. Interviews from the field include Tim McCarver, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Bob Gibson and Juan Marachal and from the stands, fans and sport writers include Billy Crystal, Geraldo Rivera and Bob Costas.

Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?

Amazon Price: $12.99 List Price: $14.98 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Team Marketing - Model: TM3545 Amazon Marketplace: 31 new & used starting at $2.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Features:

• Officially Licensed
• Highest Quality Recording

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Good, unvarnished account 4 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This video gives a realistic rendering of Joe DiMaggio's personality. It is not as whitewashed as the A&E Biography video, but this is probably to the video's credit. The most poignant part of the movie is the end where DiMaggio becomes "the keeper of his own flame." It is a depressing, lonely part of DiMaggio's life, but you walk away from it feeling you know the real DiMaggio, an American hero who was nonetheless prone to isolationism and paranoia. I recommend this video as well as A&E's video on DiMaggio.

The Joe DiMaggio Story: The Pride of a Yankee 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Following Joe DiMaggio's death and the publication of Richard Ben Cramer's expose "Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life" a lot more came out about the Yankee Clipper than was ever known during his lifetime. "Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?" is an HBO production that ends up taking the middle ground between the legend of DiMaggio and the grim reality of what we know take to be the truth. We hear about DiMaggio's fierce demand for privacy, his tendency to cut off friends who crossed him, the money he made selling his signature, and the care with which he maintained his reputation as "the greatest living baseball player." However, this comes in the latter part of this 63-minute documentary. The first part deals with how this son of immigrant San Francisco fisherman became a legendary figure.

The portrait is certainly balanced. Witnesses tell of how DiMaggio snubbed the young Mickey Mantle, who was clearly being groomed to replace him in center field at Yankee Stadium, but then Reggie Jackson talks about how nice DiMaggio was to him when the Hall of Famer was a coach for the Oakland A's. The talking heads are a nice mixture of biographers, reporters and baseball players. This latter includes both former teammates like Tommy Henrich, Phil Rizzuto and Yogi Berra and opponents such as Bob Feller (who allows that DiMaggio was the best right-handed batter he ever faced). In the end, two things stand out: when DiMaggio took himself out of a crucial game against the Red Sox because he was hurting the team and the way he stepped in when his ex-wife Marilyn Monroe died. At the root of everything he did was a sense of pride on truly epic proportions.

Certainly it took long enough for someone to appropriate this title from Paul Simon's "Mrs. Robinson." Maury Allen, of course, was first with his biography. At one point in this documentary we learned that DiMaggio was puzzled by the Simon & Garfunkel song and considered suing over the apparent "insult." Of course, the exact opposite was the case. Even if we now know more than we ever wanted to know about the real Joe DiMaggio, "Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?" more than adequately covers the legend he worked so hard to create and to maintain. Final Note: Be sure to watch the credits on this one, which roll over an appearance of DiMaggio on "I've Got a Secret." The irony is palatable.

Editorial Review:

Celebrates one of the most beloved players in the history of baseball, with commentary from Bob Feller, Reggie Jackson, Pete Rose and Mario Cuomo, among others. Explore Joe DiMaggio's life, including his early days in San Francisco, his experiences as a Yankee, his legendary 56-game hitting streak and his much-publicized marriage to Marilyn Monroe.