Fall Classic at Fenway Park Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Fall Classic at Fenway Park Blu-ray Movie Review

Take heart, Chicago—miracles can occur.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 25, 2011

One of the giddiest moments in the usually less than giddy enterprise that was Lost came early in the series’ third season. (Hopefully only the most churlish will consider what’s to come a spoiler, considering the show has been off the air now for a couple of years). Lost-ies had slowly become more and more embroiled in the nefarious doings of The Others, and Lost’s hero, Jack Shephard, had actually been captured by the evil overlord of The Others, Ben Linus. Housed in a subterranean cell, Jack is visited by Ben, who attempts to win Jack over to the dark side by offering Jack some tantalizing glimpses of the outside world. Ben gives Jack a brief summary of news items that have occurred during the survivors of Oceanic 815’s 69 day stay on the island, including the reelection of George W. Bush, the death of Christopher Reeve, and—wait for it—the triumph of the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 World Series. Jack, who had been listening rather intently to the first two, breaks out in raucous laughter at the thought of the Sox—the Sox—winning the World Series, and lambastes Ben for attempting to pull the wool over his eyes. What Lost did so perfectly in this episode (“The Glass Ballerina,” for those who want to go back and watch it) was not just parody the “non-believers” in the Red Sox universe, but also to graphically (if somewhat hilariously) anchor the series in real life. Up until that moment, viewers weren’t quite sure if what was playing out was real or imagined, or (as many posited up until the last moments of the series) some kind of ethereal Purgatory the various characters had found themselves in. The pure irony of a series so surreal as Lost using the World Series win of the Red Sox as at least one of its admittedly tenuous links to “our” reality could not have been, well, lost on many viewers. And in a way it suggested, albeit subliminally perhaps, that the island wasn’t the only place where miracles and the inexplicable occurred.

Chicago Cubs fans may be the most desolate fans on Earth, as was semi-humorously documented in Chicago Cubs: The Heart & Soul of Chicago, but even Cubs fans may have had a glimmer of hope enter their otherwise dour outlooks during the 2004 season when the Red Sox pulled off what many still view as something akin to a miracle. While the Cubs have had their own supposed baseball “curse” to deal with, there probably isn’t a more iconic “curse” in the entire world of organized professional sports than The Curse of the Bambino. The Red Sox were a more or less unbeatable team in the teens of the twentieth century, racking up several national championships (including winning the first ever World Series) that seemed to come as easily to them as an outfielder catching a pop fly. And then the unthinkable happened: the Sox sold Babe Ruth in the off season of 1919-20. That in and of itself might not have been so terrible (although it obviously wasn’t great), but the Sox compounded their error by selling Ruth to the team that would become the Sox’s mortal enemies, the New York Yankees. Almost overnight, the two teams’ fortunes reversed. The Sox couldn’t buy a pennant (this was after all still in the days of scandals like that, not that the Sox ever sank to that level of desperation), while the New York Yankees became the collective Golden Boys of the American League. And that ostensible Curse of the Bambino remained with the Sox for an incredible 86 year time span, something long enough that some of the old timers interviewed in Fall Classic at Fenway Park wish for nothing more than a national championship to come to the Sox before the interview subject shuffles off this mortal coil. Now that’s true fandom.

Fall Classic at Fenway Park gathers together the two official Major League Baseball films documenting the Sox’s improbable win of the 2004 World Series as well as their follow-up championship in 2007. The 2004 film is actually more skewed toward the completely unbelievable American League Championship Series, as well it should be. the Sox managed the unthinkable that year, battling their nemesis The New York Yankees from a three-zip deficit that seemed to be the figurative handwriting on the wall permanently etching the Bambino’s Curse into Sox fans’ subconscious. But the Sox did what had never before been done in the annals of Major League Baseball, fighting back from that losing proposition to win four straight games and capture the ALCS title before going on to rout the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight games in the World Series.

If the 2004 World Series seems a bit anti-climactic after the incredible ALCS battle, the same might also be said for the 2007 World Series as a whole. The Curse of the Bambino had obviously been exorcised in 2004, and the fans were revitalized, realizing their long (as in loooong) national (or in this case American) nightmare had finally come to an end. The 2007 series may have been exciting, but the Colorado Rockies, new to the Series, seemed not just physically but perhaps more importantly psychologically ill equipped to deal with a team that had suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, but which had proven that with grit and determination they could eventually come out winners.

Fall Classic at Fenway Park does a great job of capturing both the overall arc of each individual Series, as well as giving fans up close and personal (albeit often quite brief) profiles of some of the iconic players in each championship. Health issues, injuries, trades and all of the backstage drama that played into the Sox’s victories (especially their epochal 2004 win) are covered in generalist terms and help to give some context to the still unbelievable chain of events that led to the end of one of the longest championship droughts in the history of professional sports.

Fall Classic at Fenway Park Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fall Classic at Fenway Park bunts onto Blu-ray with a pretty shoddy looking AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.66:1. This is perhaps the first completely window-boxed mainstream release I remember having reviewed, and unfortunately that's not the only thing wrong with this transfer. The image is deplorably soft a lot of the time and is full of rampant artifacts, including very easy to spot edge enhancement. The bright reds of the Sox's outfits, notably their warm up jackets, descend into blooming territory with fair regularity, and aside from the more "managed" in studio interview segments, nothing about this Blu-ray pops the way a real high definition offering should. Major League Films almost appears that it's filming with minor league 8mm cameras by the looks of this really pretty bad looking release.

Fall Classic at Fenway Park Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fall Classic at Fenway Park is presented with a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix that does quite well as far it goes, but which will probably leave audiophiles wishing for more, especially with regard to the on field action, which lacks the surround activity of raucous crowds that might have made this release more enjoyable immersive. That said, there's excellent fidelity here and a surprising amount of low end, including a fulsome rumbling that accompanies the Major League Baseball logo. Talking heads and narration (by Denis Leary) are front and center and easy to hear, and overall the soundtrack, while not as awesome as it might have been, does quite well for the limited confines of these documentaries.

Fall Classic at Fenway Park Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

A number of good supplements tied to each of the Division and League Championships and World Series the Sox won, as well as some tangential footage, are included on the Blu-ray:

2004 Bonus

• Terry Fancona Hiring Press Conference (1080i; 1:35)
• David Ortiz ALCS Walk-Offs (1080i; 1:48)
• ALCS Final Out (1080i; 1:14)
• ALCS Celebration (1080i; 3:24)
• NLCS Final Out (1080i; 1:14)
• World Series Final Out (1080i; 1:01)
• World Series Celebration (1080i; 3:40)
• Postseason Pre-Game Sound (1080i; 3:52)
• "The Storytellers" (1080i; 6:32) is a set of reminiscences by former Sox players.

2007 Bonus

• AL East Clincher (1080i; 5:09)
• ALDS Final Out (1080i; 2:26)
• J.D. Drew's ALCS Game 8 Grand Slam (1080i; 4:31)
• Red Sox Win ALCS (1080i; 2:30)
• Dustin Pedroia's World series Game 1 Leadoff HR (1080i; 1:03)
• Josh Beckett K's The Side in World Series Game 1 (1080i; 6:45)
• Final 3 Outs of World Series And Celebration (1080i; 7:59)
• World Series Trophy Presentation (1080i; 4:17)
• World Series MVP Trophy Presentation (1080i; 2:40)

Fall Classic at Fenway Park Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fall Classic at Fenway Park should certainly appeal to Red Sox Nation, despite the failings of this Blu-ray in the video quality department. Both of the major documentaries are very well done, mixing the dramatics of the various games with more personal stories of the players, and the Blu-ray offers copious supplements, some of which are as interesting as the main features themselves. Just go easy on any Cubs fans you may know and try not to gloat as you watch this with them. Recommended.