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Major League Baseball - All Century Team
Average Customer Review : 4.5/5 based on 14 reviews
List Price : $12.95
Price :
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Editorial Reviews
In 1999, 2 million people around the world voted to name the best baseball players of the 20th century. Preceding the All-Star Game in Fenway Park in July 1999, the All-Century Team took center stage in a rousing ceremony. Among the legends stood Bob Gibson, Mike Schmidt, Willie Mays, Brooks Robinson, and Mark McGwire. Never before or after has so much talent gathered in one place, turning Fenway into a "veritable field of dreams." Narrated by Bob Costas, The All-Century Team video is a touching tribute to the many talented individuals who made baseball the sport it is today. Costas takes us through each position, giving us the background and achievements of the selected elite. Historical accounts paint a picture of the competitors of yesteryear, including Honus Wagner, who batted over .300 for 16 straight seasons--when the league average was .248. Or Sandy Koufax, who started in eight World Series games, finishing with an ERA below one. Other honorable mentions go to Walter Johnson, whose slingshot sidearm motion redefined power pitching, causing one peer to state, "You can't hit what you can't see." Interviews with former players and colleagues flesh out the stories behind these heroic icons, as does vintage game footage that reminds us how talented these men were. By exploring the lives of the greatest players, this video teaches us that baseball is not about one man, but about many legendary players whose remarkable achievements tell the story of the game. It will be interesting to see who makes the All-Century Team for the 21st century. --Jeremy Storey
Spotlight Reviews
great tribute to baseball (2008-04-15)
Customer Review : 5
All the Hall of Famers on this team certainly deserved to be there and it is great to see highlights from their illustrious careers. Also it was fitting that Pete Rose was included. I remember seeing the players get recognied before that All Star game. My only objection was the inclusion of active players. Some were only midway through their careers. It becomes an apples and oranges type of comparison and now in retrospect we my want to rethink how highly we should value the performances of all those players that used performance enhancing drugs.
Why not show the whole ceremony? (2006-12-17)
Customer Review : 3
The DVD was not bad. The bios and stories were well done. The only reason that I bought the DVD was to watch the ceremony. I think that it was misleading that it did not state that the whole ceremony was not included. Again, not a bad DVD, but don't expect the ceremony.
A crock! (2004-10-04)
Customer Review : 1
This DVD resembles a frivolous VH1 countdown rather than an important historical documentary and celebration of baseball's best. About 1/3rd of the players on the list are highlighted, essentially ignoring the rest.
Possibly the greatest injustice is the exclusion of Barry Bonds from this list. Now the list was compiled prior to Mr. Bonds current aura of baseball invincibility but prior to the 1999 season he had won 3 MVP trophies (tied most in NL history at the time) and 8 gold gloves and was the only member of the 400/400 club. Clearly, he deserved to be included.
Bottom line: Inexcusable. Do not waste your time on this DVD.
This coulda' been a contender (2003-06-18)
Customer Review : 3
An opportunity lost. So much more could have been done with this, but was not. The entire DVD should have contained more details and more video of the beeter players. I was not impressed with parts of the documentary and do not recommend the expenditure for this rather short history of the games greats.
A wonderful panoramic baseball document (2002-03-24)
Customer Review : 5
This is a DVD for everyone - for modern fans, for those nostaligic for a former age, for modern players, and for coaches. The sheer quality of the historical film footage is what particularly fascinated me, far more than who failed to be included but who ought to have made it etc etc which I am sure will bug some people. I have a feeling that the average standard of professional baseball in the post-war years became much higher than that of the pre-war wars, hence the absence of .400 hitters - especially pitchers who hit .400! Although some of the pre-war players were doubltess great talents the exagerated claim made on video such that Walter Johnson pitched faster than 100mph is just laughable. Just as the fisherman's fish get bigger with time it sounds like the speed of pitchers becomes faster as the years go by. Footage of Johnson pitching is nonetheless fascinating because his mechanics are just as how people remembered him: effortlessly smooth and fluent. But then it is also obvious that his mechanics lack the dynamism of a similar side armer, namely Randy Johnson, who follows through with more thorough weight transfers to the front foot and thus with a flatter back at follow through. That, combined with the fact that Randy is much taller and whippier than Walter can only mean that Walter Johnson cannot possibly be pitching faster than 100mph. However, it is obvious that Walter does have remarkably late shoulder rotation - something that makes a pitcher appear much faster than he actually is. Nonetheless a student of the art of pitching could still learn a thing or two from studying the beautifully fluent text-book pitching mechanics of a Walter Johnson, or a Lefty Grove. If that were not enough the superb color pictures of Sandy Koufax pitching are a wonder to behold. I couldn't help but put on the slow motion replay to study him over and over. His mechanics have always struck me as being perfection itself and the footage quoted here only reinforces this. On the other hand Warren Spahn's pitching mechanics are by modern standards thoroughly Baroque. Gross leaning backwards used to be common fault amongst an older gneration of pitchers such as Bob Feller and Johnny Vander Meer, but Spahn outdoes them all with a degree of leaning backwards that would make a modern pitching coach go pale. It's a small wonder he doesn't fall over backwards and even more of wonder that he was able to maintain control of his pitches with mechanics like that. Although being a pitcher myself it is harder to comment on hitting mechanics it is obvious that Ty Cobb's hitting mechanics are equally bizzare starting with the hands apart on the bat followed by a ridiculously large 'hitch' in which he almosts touches the home plate with the tip of his bat before lifting it up to start his swing. On the other hand seeing Ted Williams (in beautiful color) swing the bat is a joy to behold as a model of perfection. You can see how hitters in opposing teams used to come out just to watch and learn from him when he was at bat.
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