I’ve been a Cardinals fan all of my life.  My earliest baseball memories are of my family taking a van full of church kids with us on the two-hour trek to Busch Stadium on summer nights.  The stadium’s intriguing light green Astroturf was so foreign to a young boy like me that it almost seemed like you were watching something from a different planet.  For me, the highlight of the night would come early, as The Wizard would triumphantly skip his way out of the dugout, perform his trademark flips and settle in for a night of defensive wonder.  At that point, the game was pointless.  The show had already taken place.

Being able to stay up late to watch the Cardinals in two World Series in the 1980s was more important not because of the on field action, but rather the uniqueness of staying up with my entire family way past my bedtime.  For my family, I was a third generation Cardinals fan.  My grandfather had snuck out of school to watch the team play spring training in Marion, Illinois.  When he was older, he was honored to spend two hours driving Stan Musial (his boyhood idol) to a business function.  My mother still remembers to this day sitting in Busch Stadium in the middle of a record heat wave for St. Louis.  People didn’t have power for miles, so the only thing to do was go to the ballgame.  In our basement, we have photos my father took of Ozzie Smith and company during their 1980s’ campaigns.  He talks about playing a little league game on the Busch Stadium field.

As for me, my Busch Stadium experiences range from the previously mentioned Ozzie Smith moments, to being there during McGwire’s magical 1998 season, to venturing to each of the last two playoffs in 2004 and 2005.  I was there as Red Sox fans rejoiced in our Busch Stadium, capping off a four-game sweep of the Cardinals.  The only salvation of that game was meeting favorite Cardinal of mine, Lee Smith, as we left the stadium.  I returned the following season to Busch Stadium to say goodbye.  While I had spent a good chunk of my life away from Busch Stadium, it was still my baseball home.  Whenever I turned on a Cardinals game, I could imagine myself there. On special nights that coliseum would engulf an opposing team.  The old concrete structure of the place would physically quake as Cardinals fans stomped, clapped, cheered and jumped to their feet.  Everyone was everyone’s best friend there.  Sure, it seems like an idealized version of a childhood memory, but Cardinals fans didn’t earn the tag of ‘Best Fans in Baseball’ by accident.

So as I stood there following the final out of Game 2 in the 2005 NLCS, not certain that I’d ever get the chance to come back, I took it all in.  I had signed the right field foul pole, taken countless photos of unique Busch Stadium spots, and walked down to the field level one last time to look up through the arches at the St. Louis night sky.  This DVD set may not bring back Busch Stadium II, but it does stir up memories for those who have been there.

1968 World Series: Game 1 - Cardinals vs Tigers
This now has to be the oldest full game recording of a Major League Baseball game released to DVD.  And they sure picked a good one to do it with!  1968 was a season for Bob Gibson the likes of which no other pitcher has seen since.  Midway through the 1967 campaign, Gibson took a line shot off of his leg.  The injury would sideline him for most of the season, but he was able to return in time for another World Series dominating performance in which he pitched three games and led the team to a win over the Boston Red Sox.

The following season - the ‘last season of the pitcher’ - Bob Gibson mowed down opposing batters at an alarming rate.  Gibson went 22-9, but in his 9 losses posted a 2.14 ERA (be boasted a stunning 1.12 ERA overall, the lowest ever for a pitcher that threw over 300 innings in a season).  He threw 28 complete games that season, 13 of which were shutouts.  To put this staggering number into perspective, NEVER in the 1968 season did Cardinals Manager Red Schoendienst come to the mound to get the ball from Gibson.  He was that good.

What is even more staggering is his postseason record.  Gibson was undefeated going into the 1968 World Series.  He had pitched in three games in 1964 and three games in 1967, winning all six.

So what happened on October 2, 1968 should have been no surprise to anyone.  Yet, with the visuals now before you, this epic man becomes more human.

Baseball in 1968 was a blend of Major Leagues coming to grips with a melting pot of White, Black and Latin baseball players.  Never had a greater collection of baseball talent filled out the rosters of the two leagues.  Unfortunately for baseball, though, this era was certainly less refined than today’s sport.  Wild swings, unorthodox throwing and pitching motions.  The game looks nothing like it does today.  No compact swings, compact strike zones.  Batters take big, sweeping swats at the ball and pitchers flail themselves toward the batter in what can best be described as a man trying to scare a bear back into the woods.

Busch Stadium in this recording is untouched from the massive corporate sponsors we would later see. Full capacity of seating in all decks, the outfield gaps had clear glass allowing cars passing on the street beyond the stadium to be seen.

One other treat of this game is that you are allowed to hear Curt Gowdy, the longtime voice of sports on NBC and then Cardinals broadcaster, Harry Carey, give you the play-by-play.  For most, Harry Carey’s passion is always believed to be behind the Cubs.  However, listen to that 9th inning and tell me that Carey didn’t bleed Cardinal red.

Video is what you should expect for an almost 40-year old television recording.  The quality is nowhere near the level of the World Series films that MLB put out a few years ago.  There are vertical hold problems, dirt on film problems and of course, it is in black and white, even though the game was filmed in color.  However, it is nothing that you can’t handle.  I am slightly disappointed that A&E made no effort to clean up the film.  Some of the vertical hold problems could have been fixed with some small and simple restoration tricks.  Likewise, a big black piece of dirt on the right side of the screen that a restoration program could have removed by taking pixels from the previous frame is present throughout.  Overall though, it is great to finally have this game on DVD.

1982 World Series: Game 7 - Cardinals vs Brewers
Fifteen years since the Cardinals had won a World Series.  During that time, they’d seen Curt Flood refuse to be traded, Bob Gibson take a sudden career downturn, and the best pitcher of the 1970s in Steve Carlton be traded over $5,000.  There had been highlights of career milestones with Lou Brock, Gibson and surprising seasons from players like Joe Torre.  However, for a team that had won eight World Series in a span of 40 years to go along with three pennants, a playoff drought was devastating. In comes Whitey Herzog in 1980, and with him a new roster and a new style of baseball.

Busch Stadium had not been kind to the Cardinals.  With its inception in 1966, the Cardinals would only play in two World Series (1967 and 1968) and only win one of them.  When the Fall Classic returned to Busch, it was a far different ballpark.  Astroturf had replaced the green grass.  It was this advantage that Herzog attempted to use with his ‘Whitey ball’ style.  A team built with solid pitching and speed.  Speed not necessarily on the base paths, but also to patrol the spacious outfield gaps of Busch and quickness in the middle of the infield.

Joaquin Andujar gave the Cardinals something they hadn’t had since Bob Gibson; a dominant, unorthodox starting pitcher in the World Series.  A somewhat injured Andujar just kept pouring fastballs and sliders in to the Brewers hitters.  The outcome was hardly in doubt.

For the Cardinals, former (ugh) Cubbie Bruce Sutter had been remarkable.  Leading the National League in saves, Sutter had a nearly un-hittable splitter. Seriously, when you watch him dominate two of the best hitters of the era in Paul Molitor and Robin Yount with his splitter, you will say ‘My God!’ the first time it drops into the dirt.

The players’ appearances are the real treat.  Milwaukee starting pitcher Pete Vuckovich looks more like a truck driver than a big league pitcher.  He’s the type of player that you can look at and realize he was just born with the talent he has.  Rather than train, he’d prefer to go home and drink beer, eat stale pizza and fall asleep with his hand down his pants, falling off the couch.  The Cardinals players seem to all have perms, spending a great deal of time getting their hair to ‘poof’ out of their hats.   The real star is Matthew McConaughey.  His portrayal of a young Robin Yount on this DVD is awe inspiring.

As far as the video, it’s crisp and colors seem to fit the era.  It, like all other discs, suffers from a certain level of aliasing, but not nearly as bad as some.  The broadcast group is rather boring and the audio features its fair share of defects from what seems to be the announcers getting too close to the microphone.  In an age when the national broadcasters pretend to have done an extensive amount of research on the two teams featured in the game, we are forced to hear on the spot observations and regurgitated statistics.  The broadcasters seem as if they hadn’t been present for the first 6 games of this series.

Furthermore, we are teased with the promise of post-game celebrations and trophy presentations by the broadcasters after a commercial break, only to have the disc return to the main menu at that point.  Why Cardinals fans couldn’t be treated to those moments, only MLB Productions knows.

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