This Week in Baseball: Season One (1977)

An indispensible collection for baseball fans
Despite the abundance of information about baseball available on the internet and on home video, there are surprisingly few ways to learn about what the cultural experience of major league baseball was actually like in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Sure, statistics are interesting, but they generally don't shed much light on the quirky characters that populate the game, exciting pennant races, broadcast technology, uniforms or ballparks of the past.

Even the world series box sets, Ken Burns documentaries and blooper collections only give a hint at what it was like to follow the game in a specific year. Not everyone followed the Yankees or the Big Red Machine. What about fan favorites like George Scott or Richie Zisk? How about the expansion Blue Jays or Mariners? The summer when the Cubs and White Sox were briefly in first place at the same time? And who really had the most unusual windup, Luis Tiant or Gene Garber?

The best way to recapture the essence...

Excellent Quality
For those who thought it wouldn't work on DVD recorders, it did on mine, and good quality. I saw the first two episodes of TWIB yesterday, and it was exciting to see Eckersley's no-hitter (and almost setting a new record for consecutive hitless innings), the first Red Sox-Yankees meeting in '77, Lynn's famous catch in Minnesota, a strange triple play (to end the game, no less), and a tribute to Philip Wrigley, just to name a few. One can only imagine what the remaining 15 episodes will include. Too bad the show didn't begin airing at the start of the year. Anyway, I can't wait for the release of the remaining seasons (Season 2 and beyond).

WOW! WHAT A RUSH!!
Saw the first episode on the DVD, and it was as if my old baseball cards had come back to life! What memories of that season, and the players during that time! The footage is not crystal clear (sometimes looks a bit blurry), but the content is awesome and just like I remember watching these with Mel Allen doing the narration week in and week out. Brings back a TON of memories, and if you were someone who was in their "teens" or twenties during the 70's and loved baseball like I did, this is memory lane revisted!

P.S. Check out the fourth week episode in particular. To this day, I STILL do not get tired of watching the big blowup between Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson in the dugout where Jackson half-heartedly turns a Red Sox single into a double and Martin has a coronary. LOVE THOSE OLD YANKEE BLOWUPS!!

Click to Editorial Reviews