MLB Vintage World Series Films Los Angeles Dodgers 1959 1963 1965 1981 1988 DVD with Sandy Koufax, Tommy Lasorda, Orel Hershiser (NR) +Movie Reviews

Great stuff for Dodger fans

Michael R. Chernick | Holland PA | 06/16/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This video contains all the World Series that the Dodgers won since moving to Los Angeles. This is great for Dodger fans. As a Yankee fan I was most interested in their two confrontations in 1963 and 1981. Both were very memorable to me. The Yankees also played the Dodgers in the 1977 and 1978 World Series but the Dodgers were on the short end of those series, so they are not included. In 1959 the Dodger won in only their second year in Los Angeles. They beat Al Lopez's White Sox in 6th games. This was the beginning of the Koufax and Drysdale Dodgers but the pitching hero was a reliever named Larry Sherry. Casey Stengel's Yankees only lost the American League pennant twice in the 1950s and both times it was to a team managed by Al Lopez. First the Cleveland Indians with the pitching of Feller, Wynn and Lemon in 1954 and then to the White Sox in 1959. In 1954 the Indians amassed an amazing total of more than 110 wins in a 154 game season and so a Yankee team that won as many games as any in the 1950s lost out. 1959 was the only bad year that the Yankees had under Stengel and they finished a distant third that year.

In 1963 the Yankees still had Mantle and Maris and Skowron, Howard and Berra. They were the defending World Champions but got swept by the Dodgers in the series due to phenomenal pitching. Mantle did hit his 15th World Se3ries home run off Koufax in game 4 to tie a record that Babe Ruth held at the time for most World Series home runs.

Three of the games were pitchers battles with Ford battling Koufax twice and Bouton against Drysdale. But the Dodgers were able to win each game. A young Al Downing picthed the other game.

1981 was another interesting year. It was a strike year with a split season where there was a playoff in each league between the teams that won each half season. I think Cincinnati had a better overall record than any team in the National League but because of the peculiar format they didn't even get into the playoff since their record in each half was not the tops in the league. It was Fernando Valenzuela's rookie season and the popular Mexican was the National League Rookie of the Year and Cy Young award winner. The excitement due in part to the large Mexican-American population in the Los Angeles area led the media to refer to this as Fernando mania. He was able to lead Lasorda's Dodgers to a victory over those Yankees that Tommy's team couldn't achieve in 1977 or 1978.

The 1988 Dodgers were the team led by Orel Hershiser and Kirk Gibson. They beat a strong Oakland As team. Gibson was unable to play in the Series but in the nonth inning of game 1 the Dodgers had the tying run on base with two outs. The As had brought their ace reliever Dennis Eckersley into the game. Lasorda decided to pinch hit with Kirk Gibson. Gibson hobbled up to the plate and if he hit a long "extra base" hit he would be lucky to make it just to first base.

Amazingly, Gibson made contact with a fast ball and somehow got the leverage to hit it into the right field seats at Dodger Stadium.

Jack Buck was calling the game for the national network on radio and was so stunned that he uttered the famous line "I don't believe what I just saw!""

You can sell those tapes now.

TomAzon | United States | 07/28/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Over the years, I bought all those World Series videos for the Dodgers that now go for $50-$100 apiece on auctions, Amazon and elsewhere. Now they are all available in all their glory on this two-disc DVD set.

No special music or extras here (which would be welcome), just the tapes transfered to DVD with narration by Vin Scully throughout except for the 1988 Series narrated by Bob Costas (complete with the puns but without the Gatorade drenching he got after the game where he said the Dodgers had the worst team in Series history on the field).

Since I have the original tapes, I was able to make a direct A-B comparison with the DVD set and the quality is very similar. No disappointments here but remember the old shows done in the late 50's and early 60's aren't up to par technologically with the later shows. Still it's a welcome set to those who have been searching for those VHS tapes of Dodger World Series Championships.

Go Blue!"

Finally

SONOFAA | LA,CA,USA | 08/01/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After wearing out my VHS versions, MLB productions have finally put their WS films on DVD. As al ifelong Dodger fan I wish they had also included the 1955 WS. Also why haven't they made all of the other MLB team Series available. Still need the Mets, Tigers, Braves and Indians I think. But the quality is still there on the new DVDs ans having them all in one package is great for a baseball lover like me. Also think MLB productions should put out more box sets of famous series like the 88 or 91 or maybe a playoff package like the 86 playoffs or the the 2003. Anyway if you love baseball like me you should pick these up"

Just what I was looking for

Miller | 08/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For a long time I have been wanting to find some footage of the old Dodger teams playing but MLB have made it hard to see it but this DVD has a lot of what I was looking for."

The Dodger Glory Years

Thomas A. Holland | Los Angeles, CA | 04/08/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having grown up a Dodgers fan, the '81 and '88 championships are part of my youth. However, I had never seen much footage on any of the other championships that they won after moving to LA. With the exception of the '65 series, every game is shown in detail.

1959: Dodgers beat the White Sox in six - Only their second year in Los Angeles, this team has been compared to the Amazing Mets because of the unlikeliness of their season. It shows the bridge between the Brooklyn Dodgers (Duke Snider, Johnny Podres, etc) to the '60's Los Angeles Dodgers (Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax... including Koufax's first postseason start.) The credits show the narrator as "Vince Scully"... the familiar voice of the Dodgers for more than 50 years.

1963: Dodgers beat the Yankees in four - Ahhh... to sweep the Evil Empire (even on video) is sweet! Scully is back (now known simply as Vin) to walk us through the four game pitching demonstration. The first game saw Koufax break a record for most strikeouts in a World Series game (15) and the Series as a whole showed a grand total of four Yankee runs.

1965: Dodgers beat the Twins in seven - This is the one series that seems to be missing footage. Both game 2 and game 4 are rolled up into one single replay from the respective game with a very brief overview from Scully. Probably the most interesting thing about this series is the fact that both the Dodgers and Twins brough their Game 5 pitchers, Sandy Koufax and Jim Kaat, respectively, back for Game 7 on two days rest. For the Dodgers, that meanst skipping Drysdale's start... a HOF'er in his own right. Even more incredibly, Koufax pitches a complete game shutout!

1981: Dodgers beat the Yankees in six (at the time, it was only the second time that a team had lost the first two games and then won the next four) - This series recap shows more than just a scoring / highlight replay of the games. For the first time in the series of videos, the producer attempted to "set the scene" and provide some drama to the storyline. While I think all of these recaps are taken from their original productions, it does show the differences in how the game was marketed in the late 50's / early 60's versus the 80's. The other nice feature is that is does show some very limited highlights from both the Dodgers and Yankees earlier playoff series (including Rick Monday's dramatic homerun against the Expos).

From a series perspective, it showed games that I had seen in the original broadcast, which brought out a flood of, "Oh yeah... I remember that!" feelings. From Ron Cey's diving catch of a foul bunt and doubling the runner off first in Game 3 to Cey getting hit in the head with a pitch in Game 5 to the controversial decision to remove Tommy John after four innings in Game 6 (just prior to the flood gates opening), the moments are there. It also included three straight one-run victories by the Dodgers while playing in front of their home crowd.

1988: Dodgers beat the A's in five - What can be said about this series that hasn't already been said? Obviously, Game 1 is one of the all-time classics in World Series history. Jose Canseco's second inning grand slam became the A's only runs of the game (and, ironically, Canseco's only hit of the series). From that point on , Dodger relievers held Oakland in check and the offense got just enough to set up Kirk Gibson's dramatic homerun in the bottom of the ninth. Games 2 and 5 showed the mastery that was Orel Hershiser that season (he ended up as the winner of the World Series MVP, NLCS MVP, and the Cy Young winner for that season.) This truly was the little team that could."

Search - MLB Vintage World Series Films - Los Angeles Dodgers 1959, 1963, 1965, 1981 & 1988 on DVD

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