Even when our man Bronx LaMonica asks for a favor, he can't help be a typical Yankee fan jerk. The other day, he tossed a copy of the DVD 'Greatest Sox Memories' on my desk, and asked me to write a quick review.
'Don't worry,' he said, feigning that superiority we came to expect from New Yorkers pre-2004. "It's probably only four minutes long.'
As recently as four years ago, I would have had a hard time delivering a smart answer to that. I might have muttered something lame about Carlton Fisk's home run in ‘75, or maybe filled him in on ’Morgan magic.’
Or I could have gotten truly desperate: "You Yankee fans are so arrogant," I might have whined. "But you're just lucky there weren't moving pictures back in 1912. If you could have seen Harry Hooper in action! You'd shut up quick, then, big mouth!."
These days, of course, Sox fans have plenty of nice memories worthy of the cottage industry that has become the baseball DVD market. We could bask in a 3-hour disc of our favorite Manny and Ortiz moments alone. Maybe enjoy an accompanying disc of Pedro Martinez's greatest interviews. ("Who is Karim Garcia?" edges "Wake up the Bambino!" in my book.)
Or we can just watch all 5 hours of Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS against the Yankees. (Games 4, 6 and 7 were pretty entertaining, too.)
As it were, the producers of ’Red Sox Memories: The Greatest Moments in Boston Red Sox History, which will be released May 6, went with plenty of the standard fare Sox fans know by heart. But there's something different about this one.
There's Fisk's home run, for so long the franchise's signature even though that Sox team lost the World Series within 24 hours.
There's Dave Henderson's home run against the Angels in '86 (which, in reality, was a far more clutch home run than Fisk's). And Henderson's home run two weeks later in the World Series (the 10th inning shot -- off the 'Newsday' sign at Shea --- that gave them a brief lead in Game 6).
But this wasn't like old Sox histories. For one thing, there's as much Pedroia and Papelbon as there is Ted and Yaz. And for a while, it really annoyed me.
But after a while, it occurred to me. That's the point. Suddenly the recorded history of the Red Sox isn't like a Russian novel, as Ken Burns might have said in years past. The tragic undertone is starting to recede. No more Dent, Boone or Buckner's error.
Dude, Papelbon's going to win us 8 more titles! Cue the Dropkicks!!
Sure, the producers (who happen to be Major League Baseball) tell the familiar story of a loveable franchise that endured a few lousy decades, then spent a few more decades coming oh-so-close so many times.
But it's actually light on the boilerplate tragedies that had become the standard in the classic Red Sox story.
For real: There's no mention of Bucky Dent or Aaron Boone. In fact, there's only hints of the '78 playoff game loss to the Yankees or how they blew the 1949 pennant to the Yankees in the final weekend. It doesn't linger on the bloody sale of Babe Ruth. And I may have been bleary from an overdoe of archival footage, but I'm pretty sure Bill Buckner's error is never shown.
In fact, for a change, the whole Yankees-Red Sox thing is almost incidental.
After having this to-be-a-Red Sox-fan-is-to-know-heartbreak garbage shoved down our throats for generations, it seems odd. But it's about time. Seriously, will the next DVD history of the Yankees -- assuming they DO win another World Series -- spend more than a few seconds on the team's '04 collapse. Of course not.
That's not to say it's a great DVD. It's divided into 3 segments - October baseball, characters and rookies (?), and the all-time teams. The effect is jarring and it suggests that the project was thrown together quick, sort of the cannibalization of a few other DVDs. (For instance, the piece on the 1975 Series still has that annoying jumbling of images from home and road games to set up the drama of a specific game situation that was common editing in older baseball histories. Did they really think we wouldn't notice that, in a spit second at the most critical moments, the uniforms had changed?)
The first 20 minutes are spent on the 2007 postseason, which is a little too much because a.) that's too long to spend on any one period to set up what is supposed to be a sweeping history b.) you can't go 20 minutes telling the Red Sox history without getting to Ted Williams and c.) yeah, they won the World Series last year, but weren't there a total of maybe 3 memorable moments in last year's postseason? (Manny's walkoff against the Angels, Beckett's Game 5 win against the Indians, and maybe Pedroia's home run in Game 7... Do you remember ANYTHING from the World Series?) I know they're trying to offer something fresh to sell DVDs, but I imagine this is how a 'History of the Diamondbacks" DVD would start.
And I'm sorry, but even though they didn't win World Series rings, Yaz and Ted deserve much more than what feels like after-thought treatment. Is there really almost as much time devoted to the wackiness of Bernie Carbo and Oil Can Boyd as there is to Yaz's 23-year career?
But, hey, at least the old template is starting to change. It's nice that the signature moment is no longer from a series the team LOST. And I can live with the experiences of 1978 and 2003 being relegated to footnote status.
Would it have hurt, though, to throw us a minute from the Pedro-Zimmer face-off? And can someone please find some footage of Harry Hooper?
-- Dennehy