An Early Start To The Shopping Season

October 21, 2009

Perhaps it’s a little early for this, but I have a Christmas gift suggestion – albeit an expensive one – for the baseball fanatic on your list.

 

(If my wife Peg is checking out the blog these days, that absolutely includes me).

 

It’s the mega-collection of World Series highlight films that has just been put out on DVD by MLB Productions (you can check it out here).

 

I grew up in Lakewood, NY (south of Buffalo) and rooted for the New York Mets as a kid because we got their telecasts on cable TV.  I’m pretty sure that the first three songs I committed to memory were Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Old McDonald Had a Farm, and Meet the Mets.

 

One of my most vivid memories of watching Mets games as a kid in the 1970’s and early 1980’s (aside from Lindsay Nelson’s hideous jackets and Ralph Kiner’s malaprops), was how excited I would be whenever there was a rain delay because that usually meant seeing the official highlight films of the Mets’ World Series appearances in ’69, and ’73.

 

That’s how I learned about Ron Swoboda’s amazing catch, the “shoe polish” incident involving Cleon Jones, Charlie Finley’s brazen attempt to get rid of Mike Andrews in the middle of the World Series for making two errors, and – sadly – an aging Willie Mays falling down in the outfield.

 

Those World Series films were so compelling that I hated it if the Mets game resumed before the movie ended.

 

Well, there’s no longer a need to pray for rain. 

 

MLB Productions has put out a blockbuster – all 65 World Series films (on 20 DVDs) beginning with the 1943 matchup between the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals.  The DVDs are accompanied by a glossy commemorative book that includes a foreward by Bob Costas.  Like I said – it’s expensive – the cheapest I can find it online is for roughly $180.

 

If I don’t receive it as a gift from my wonderful, fabulous, gorgeous, incredible wife (how’s that for a hint), I’m sure I’ll plop down the dough and buy it myself because it would be perfect for PawSox bus rides next year.

 

That way, when Manager Ron Johnson wants to watch one of his favorite movies on the bus like Open Range or Ghost Rider for the 50^th time, I can pop a DVD into my laptop and relive great moments in World Series history.

 

I’ll make sure Hyder isn’t watching in the seat across the aisle when Mookie Wilson steps to the plate in the 10^th inning of Game 6 in ’86.  I wouldn’t want his screams to startle the bus driver and force us off the road.

 

The prospect of watching World Series DVDs doesn’t necessarily make me eager to resume those long bus rides, but I am looking forward to Christmas morning.

 

Pretty subtle huh?

Written by Dan Hoard Posted in Dailies