 11/19/2004 12:00 PM ET
Sox triumph highlights new DVD
Official World Series DVD goes on sale Tuesday
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| Boston's remarkable postseason run is captured in the new World Series DVD. (Al Behrman/AP)
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As we move into the latter part of November, one thing baseball fans always look forward to is the release of the official World Series DVD, which this year tells the
amazing story of the 2004 Boston Red Sox.
So it goes without saying that this DVD will definitely be a hot seller in the Red Sox Nation.
"It will play well all across the country, not just the Northeast," said DVD executive producer David Gavant. "Red Sox Nation is all over the country. Obviously, we think this is going to set sales records as our best-selling World Series DVD. Some form of Major League Baseball Productions (MLBP) has been making the official World Series film since 1943. This is the 61st version of that, and we think this will be the best-selling one, based on the storyline alone."
The storyline reads like a Hollywood script. MLBP pretty much started from Spring Training to tell the story of, as Red Sox first baseman/outfielder Kevin Millar described,the "happy band of idiots" that defied convention with their long, shaggy hair and defied the odds with the most remarkable postseason in baseball history.
Down 3-0 in the American League Championship Series to the
archrival Yankees, they won the remaining four games to win the pennant. The Red Sox then took on a powerful St. Louis Cardinals team that had won 105 games in
the regular season and swept them in four games to win their first World Series championship since 1918.
Gavant and his crew wanted to make sure the DVD captured the entire season and the historical background leading up to the series.
"We didn't want to show a highlight reel of the postseason." said Gavant. "We wanted to show a film, a movie, and I hope we delivered in terms of a great story arc that we followed. We wanted to differentiate this production by really
making it a documentary that could have been a theatrical release, more so than a highlight video.
"We could have even gone longer on this program," said Gavant. "It's 90 minutes long with an additional 20 minutes of bonus footage. There were really so many more stories to do. What we aimed to do is give fans an inside look at
what was going on behind the scenes while they were watching the World Series."
Gavant, his producer Mitch Scherr and their staff captured all the action both on and off the field with five different high-definition cameras that they first used during the 2003 World Series. Because they didn't know the series was
going to be a sweep over the Cardinals, the crew had to cover every possible storyline.
"Mitch was basically the quarterback while we were shooting the film," said Gavant. "He was on-site, calling audibles to all five of our HD cameras, trying to follow the storylines for both teams. Obviously, the Red Sox win, and the film becomes Red Sox-oriented. But all the material we shot for the Cardinals is still in the library, but is not part of this story."
Another coup for the production was landing actor/comedian Denis Leary, who is also a Boston native and lifelong Red Sox fan, to narrate the film.
"When we approached Denis about doing the voice-over, he came back to us and told us that it meant a lot to him to do it, but he didn't want to do his 'Denis Leary thing,'" recalls Gavant. "This is a very important project, it's very serious and I want to read it as a serious read. What we tried to do is have a couple of sections inside the script where Denis could be Denis, and I think that comes out, but it's not prevalent."
Some of the DVD highlights include:
A look at the Red Sox Nation: A breakdown of the Red Sox season and highlights from their Division Series championship over the Angels.
An in-depth look at the history of the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry and highlights of the Red Sox's miraculous ALCS with New York.
In-depth highlights and behind-the-scenes footage from all four games with the Cardinals.
Highlights from Boston's championship parade following the series.
Interviews with most of the Series' stars, including Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Johnny Damon, Curt Schilling, Derek Lowe and manager Terry Francona.
Bonus footage includes: Ortiz's walk-off ALCS home runs, the ALCS celebration, postseason pregame radio and TV commentary and a section called "The Storytellers," containing historical interviews with Smokey Joe Wood, Joe Garagiola, Tim McCarver, Fred Lynn, Carlton Fisk and Dwight Evans.
The DVD will have its world premiere on Monday, Nov. 22, at the Wang Theatre in Boston. For ticket information call (800) 447-7400.
The official 2004 World Series DVD goes on sale nationwide on Nov. 23. Ben Platt is a national correspondent for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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