2020 World Series Collector's Edition: Los Angeles Dodgers Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

2020 World Series Collector's Edition: Los Angeles Dodgers Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 5, 2021

This set includes eight full baseball games -- all six form the 2020 Fall Classic, the Los Angeles Dodgers' NLCS clinching game seven victory over the Atlanta Braves, and the Dodgers' game three NLDS clinching win over the San Diego Padres -- as they were originally broadcast on television. Commercials have been removed but no other corners have been cut. The presentation is crude and straightforward but effective. Fans looking for a more dramatically driven narrative (and superior A/V quality) for the 2020 World Series can find it here.

The following games are included in the set:

Disc One
Tampa Bay Rays at Los Angeles Dodgers (From Globe Life Field)
World Series Game 1

Grizzled veteran Dodgers hurler Clayton Kershaw would face off against the dominant and relatively young Tampa Bay twirler Tyler Glasnow in game one. Kershaw, known as one of the best regular season pitchers in Major League history with a spotty-at-best track record in the playoffs, would pitch six strong innings, whiffing eight while surrendering only two hits, one walk, and one earned run. Glasnow would pitch three scoreless but run into trouble in the fourth and not get out of the fifth, surrendering a total of six earned runs in only 4.1 innings pitched. The Dodgers would tack on two more runs in the sixth and win game one convincingly. Final score: Dodgers 8, Rays 3.

Disc Two
Tampa Bay Rays at Los Angeles Dodgers (From Globe Life Field)
World Series Game 2

The Rays, down one game to none, would turn to Ace Blake Snell for game two. Toeing the rubber for the Dodgers: Rookie Tony Gonsolin. The Rays would score a run in the top of the first, two more in the top of the fourth, and another pair of runs in the top of the fifth to take a 5-0 lead. The Dodgers would answer with two in the bottom of the fifth. The teams would score single runs in the sixth and the Dodgers another in the bottom of the eighth. The game saw a combined 12 pitchers take the mound, certainly a sign of the new baseball thinking that is taking small market (Tampa) and large market (Los Angeles) worlds alike by storm. Final score: Rays 6, Dodgers 4.

Disc Three
Los Angeles Dodgers at Tampa Bay Rays (From Globe Life Field)
World Series Game 3

With the series knotted at a game apiece, the action would shift from Globe Life Field to...Globe Life Field for game three. With the Rays now the "home team" Tampa Bay would take the field first. The Dodgers would take advantage of the first turn at-bat and score a run on a Justin Turner home run in the top of the first off Tampa starter Charlie Morton. Morton would pith a scoreless second but allow two earned runs in both the third and the fourth innings before being pulled in the fifth. Dodgers starter Walker Buehler would be much more effective, pitching six innings of three hit, one walk, 10 strikeout, one earned run ball. The Dodger bullpen would shut the door in the final three innings, surrendering no runs and allowing no walks and only one hit. Final score: Dodgers 6, Rays 2.

Disc Four
Los Angeles Dodgers at Tampa Bay Rays (From Globe Life Field)
World Series Game 4

Game four was not a "must win" for either team but a Rays victory would even the World Series at two and a Dodgers win would put that club within a single victory of a World Series title with as many as three chances to claim the prize. Like game two, game four would feature a number of pitching changes; 14 hurlers would toe the rubber for this one. Julio Urias would get the start for the Dodgers and Ryan Yarbrough for the Rays. As with game three, the Dodgers would open the scoring in the top of the first, again off the bat of Justin Turner on a solo home run. The Dodgers would add another in the third, answered by a single Rays tally in the bottom of the fourth. With the score 4-2 Dodgers going into the bottom of the sixth, the Rays would score three to take a 5-4 lead. The Dodgers would score two in the top of the seventh to take a 6-5 lead and Tampa would tie the game at six in the bottom of the frame. Los Angeles would take a 7-6 lead going into the bottom of the ninth where the Rays would score two to win in walk-off fashion and tie the 2020 World Series at 2-2. Final score: Rays 8, Dodgers 7.

Disc Five
Los Angeles Dodgers at Tampa Bay Rays (From Globe Life Field)
World Series Game 5

Game five would see the returns of both Kershaw and Glasnow to the mound. The Rays starter would be shaky again in the early innings, surrendering three earned runs in the first two innings and another in the fifth. Kershaw, meanwhile, would give up two runs in the bottom of the third. And that would be all the scoring. The bullpens shut the game down, giving up only two hits between the two pens and putting the Dodgers one win away from a World Series title. Final score: Dodgers 4, Rays 2.

Disc Six
Tampa Bay Rays at Los Angeles Dodgers (From Globe Life Field)
World Series Game 6

The Dodgers, a win away from the coveted World Series title, started the game with game two starter Tony Gonsolin on the bump opposite Rays ace Blake Snell. The Rays would jump out to a critical 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a Randy Arozarena home run. Snell would pitch effectively through five, shutting down the Dodgers offense and holding Tampa to that thinnest of lead margins. But the Dodgers would score two in the sixth inning to take a 2-1 lead. Mookie Betts would slam a solo home run in the bottom of the eighth to pad the lead by a run. Julio Urías would close the door in the ninth to secure the Dodgers their first World Series title since 1988. Final score: Dodgers 3, Rays 1.

Disc Seven
Los Angeles Dodgers at San Diego Padres (From Globe Life Field)
NLDS Game 3

An old rivalry grew much more fierce in the 2020 NLDS when the upstart Padres battled the Los Angeles Dodgers for the right to move on in the National League field. The best-of-five format saw the Dodgers take games one and two by scores of 5-1 and 6-5. The young Padres, with their backs against the wall and needing a win to stay alive in the series, took a 2-1 lead into the top of the third inning when the Dodgers broke the game open, scoring five runs to take a 6-2 lead. Los Angeles would tack on single runs in the fourth and fifth and close the game out with a four-spot in the ninth. Starter Dustin May pitched a single scoreless inning while a parade of Dodgers relief pitchers would hold the potent Padre offense in check, at least enough to allow the Dodgers substantial lead to stand. Final score: Dodgers 12, Padres 3.

Disc Eight
Atlanta Braves at Los Angeles Dodgers (From Globe Life Field)
National League Championship Series Game 4

The 2020 NLCS was a high scoring affair through it first five games. Atlanta took three of those -- three of the first four, to be exact -- but the Dodgers fought back to stave off elimination in game five with a 7-3 win and again in game six with a 3-1 victory. Game seven was one of the nontraditional, newfangled "bullpen" type games where no pitcher on either team pitched more than three innings. Dustin May, L.A.'s "opener," pitched a single inning, surrendering a single run on a hit and two walks. Four Dodgers pitchers would follow, including three perfect innings from Julio Urías who would earn the win on the game's backend. The Braves would scratch away for two more runs off the L.A. bullpen but the Dodgers would win the game 4-3. Cody Bellinger's seventh inning home run would be the difference maker to send the Dodgers to the Fall Classic. Final score: Dodgers 4, Braves 3.

2020 World Series Collector's Edition: Los Angeles Dodgers Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The games are presented at a resolution of 720p and framed in the broadcast standard 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The picture is fine insofar as it reflects the original broadcast presentation. It's perhaps a bit more stable, not quite so unwieldy in the obvious compression issues though to be sure such remain, just not in such drastic density. Ringing, aliasing, and other issues appear frequently as well, though never so egregiously as to completely ruin the picture. General clarity is solid as viewers will be privy to fine uniform textures, dried sweat on caps, and details on and around the field of play, like dirt and turf. Ballplayer close-ups reveal effective definition to facial pores, facial hair, and the like. Colors are fine, offering good punch to the darker Dodger blue and the lighter Rays blue. The green turf is hardly vibrant but looks fine as it is. The crisp white home jerseys each team wears are plenty bright. If audiences are fine with, essentially, the broadcast presentation with a little less compression, they should be satisfied. Anyone expecting a Hollywood production won't.

2020 World Series Collector's Edition: Los Angeles Dodgers Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The primary audio track is the FOX TV broadcast play-by-play and color commentary presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless audio. The track is comprised of two main elements: the game call and the stadium ambience. The track is fairly good in balance overall. The game call images nicely to the center area and the verbal detail satisfies for clarity as well as prioritization. Some of the surrounding stadium sounds can often get rather loud but the track maintains dominance for the call, even when cheers or other sounds are amplified both on a nearly pitch-by-pitch basis and particularly during scoring action or after a big strikeout. The astute listener will easily note the lack of a full crowd; even at the two-channel configuration it's clear that the crowd is sparse and scattered (thanks to COVID-19, of course, not a sudden fall-off in the sport's popularity, which someone waking from a coma might assume while watching this to play catch-up on the baseball season). The background elements -- the blend of crowd and on-field action, such as a ball popping leather or cracking off a bat or a runner sliding into base -- can sometimes jumble and rise and fall in volume with little rhyme or reason. Overall it's mostly authentic to the TV broadcast as it was heard live when the games were played.

The discs also feature two alternate audio tracks: the Dodgers radio call and a Spanish language call, both in the Dolby Digital 2.0 configuration. The Dodgers call sounds tinny and atmosphere is drastically limited; beyond some faint background audio (and some static) there's not much going on here. The call at least images decently, though hardly perfectly, to the center. The Spanish track is a little fuller with more properly pronounced ballpark atmosphere and firmer, more well defined detail to the call.

2020 World Series Collector's Edition: Los Angeles Dodgers Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Each game ends with a few minutes' worth of postgame coverage from the team at MLB Network. The set does come with a booklet that details each game included with box scores and factoids. The main menu screen for each disc offers only selections to skip ahead by inning (top and bottom alike) and choose from any of the audio broadcasts.

2020 World Series Collector's Edition: Los Angeles Dodgers Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The 2020 World Series as it was wasn't a standout for the play or any memorable theatrics. It was a good, balanced affair that probably rates somewhere in the middle to bottom-third or so if one were to rank the World Series by excitement level. For historical interest it rates highly; played on a neutral site in front of a relatively sparse crowd, it was certainly the most noteworthy World Series at least since 2001 and perhaps dating back to 1989. This set is rather typical for supplemental content (essentially none minus the postgame content) and underwhelming but broadcast-familiar audio and video presentations. Recommended to baseball fans.