Ahhhh, baseball and the senseless rivalries it creates.

Growing up, my best friend was an ardent Baltimore Orioles fan, a devotee to the throne of Cal Ripken, and a Yankees hater of the highest order. I was not. I was, in fact, a Yankees fan. Naturally enough, that meant it was my sworn duty to hate the Orioles with a passion as fierce as I could muster. It’s how these things work, you see. If you and your friend don’t like the same team, your only option is to hate the other guy’s team like poison. That’s exactly what I did; they were quickly added to my list of baseball hates. I hated the Mets because, as a Yankee fan throughout the 1980s, watching the Mets take over as the premier New York team was like getting my belly cut open and having my intestines pulled out by a pack of savage dogs. I hated the Red Sox because I’m supposed to hate the Red Sox. And I hated the Orioles because my good buddy loved them. (He still does. He has one of those Orioles license plate frames. I think I bought him a Cal Ripken thing for Christmas once. Jerk.)

So lo and behold, what do I get in the mail but Vintage World Series Films - Baltimore Orioles 1966, 1970 & 1983? Yay! I get to make fun of the goddamn Orioles!

The truth is, of course, in my heart I don’t actually hate the Orioles. They’ve been a damn fine team at times, they have a superb ballpark these days, and in the early 1970s they had some of the best players baseball has to offer. And those guys – Brooks and Frank Robinson, Boog Powell, Jim Palmer, and many others – are on display in this release.

Vintage World Series Films - Baltimore Orioles 1966, 1970 & 1983 collects three of Major League Baseball’s archival World Series highlight films, covering the classic Baltimore trophy winners of 1966, 1970, and 1983 (fuck you, Cal Ripken, Jr.). If you’re an Orioles fan, skip the rest of this review and just put this in your “to buy” queue. You’ll want it.

But wait, what’s that? You say you’re a baseball fan and want to know what to expect from this set? Stroll on over to my review of the Oakland Athletics set, read it, and mentally replace all references to the A’s with references to the Orioles. ‘Cause that’s what this is, folks. More of the same. If you’ve seen one of these releases, you’ve seen them all. I know, I know, that sounds like an insult, but it isn’t. It’s simply the truth. Whether or not you want to invest in one of these discs – personally I think they provide good baseball bang for your buck and are a must-get for fans of baseball history – will mostly depend on whether or not you like the team in question. If you’re a Baltimore Orioles fan, you have no excuse to not own this. You get extensive highlights of the aforementioned Robinsons, Powell, Cal Ripken, Jr., Eddie Murray and many, many others, along with the big announcers of the day doing commentary to these 45-minute to one-hour official documentaries. And if you’re just a general baseball fan, well, you probably won’t be disappointed. The footage is solid, watching players from yesteryear a treat, and the series on display here are true classics.

DVD Presentation
If you’ll indulge me, allow me to repeat myself: If you're looking to show off your HDTV and surround sound, you picked the wrong disc, buddy. For two thirds of this disc, both the audio and video come from the late 1960s or early 1970s. It's full of grain, not always in focus, and just plain looks bad. Sounds bad, too. Simple, ordinary audio that sounds as if it were recorded with a Walkman. Even the best film on the disc, the 1983 World Series film, looks like it’s from 1983.

But if you don't understand that that's the freakin' joy of this release, then you're no baseball fan. It's incredibly cool to get see baseball the way it was seen 40 years ago.

Disc Extras
Nothin’, kids. Deal.

The Bottom Line
I’m no Baltimore fan, and therefore wouldn’t be inclined to sit through a set featuring an entire series of full-length games. But to get a chance to see highlights of Brooks Robinson in action? The best bits from a few great World Series from the years gone by? A collection of official World Series films? And all on one disc? Sign me up.