The Essential Games Of The Seattle Mariners (2010/MLB/A&E DVD Set)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Main Program: B
You don’t have to be a fan of baseball or The Seattle
Mariners to appreciate A&E’s new The
Essential Games Of The Seattle Mariners new DVD box set, though fans of
rival teams may disagree. However, this
new 4-DVD set is loaded with extras and once again, statistics are on the back
of the slender cases. The games are (1)
the 1995 AL West Division One – Game Playoff vs. California Angels, (2) “The
Double” – ALDS Game 5 vs. The New York Yankees, (3) Home Sweep Home: 2000 AL
Division Series vs. Chicago White Sox and (4) Record-Setting Season, Division
Champions vs. Anaheim Angels.
A good team, the fans certainly have something to
celebrate (like they are not in the rut the Pittsburgh Pirates are in, thanks
in part to bad management) and it shows that the city is not just a great for
its arts and innovations, but one of the great cities of the world. KIRO Radio play-by-play is also included on
all games. Once again, A&E and MLB
have issued another collectible DVD set and it is pretty decent, except for the
picture.
That 1.33 X 1 image on all the games come from what looks
like harsh digital copies of analog tapes of the games, along with other
footage that is harsh and shrill throughout, featuring analog videotape flaws
that include video noise, video banding, tape scratching, cross color, faded
color and tape damage. Major League
Baseball needs to start a massive restoration program of all their video
archives (unlike the NFL, they do not film their games since videotape arrived,
but then this is a league that existed since the dawn of film) to put the
original archive video through restoration processes, including better NTSC
decoding. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is
simple stereo at best including the games, but some other audio portions are
absolutely monophonic. Extras include
the radio audio already noted, 13 featurettes about favorite players &
events and a Mariners Archive commercial.
- Nicholas Sheffo
