You’d have to be trying in order to be a baseball fan who doesn’t like these Vintage World Series releases. And trying hard.

I just sat down and watched highlights of some of the greatest World Series games ever played by the Oakland Athletics, all built upon footage and announcers from their respective eras, and all packed nicely into neat, clean, 45-minute (or so) packages.

I like neat, clean little packages. And I like vintage baseball footage. And more than both, I like affordable DVD releases that remain packed with cool.

Vintage World Series Films: Oakland Athletics covers the A's often forgotten dynasty of 1972-1974 champions, as well as the legendary for all the wrong reasons 1989 World Series. Each is covered in a little under an hour or so, but rather than a slick, glitzy, modern look back at games gone by, these highlight reels are all about grainy footage, muddy audio, and primitive on-screen graphics.

And I swear to god, that's what so great about it.

You're not getting restored, beautiful footage here. You're getting raw, as-seen-in-the-70s baseball footage, filmed the way it was filmed then, and presented the way it was seen when you (or your father) first saw it. As an ardent baseball fan, that's just fantastic. The multi-disc World Series sets A&E has released already (the 1975 Reds, 1986 Mets, and many others) have been very well done ... but you know what? If I'm not a devoted Reds fan, I don't want to watch over 17 hours of 1975 baseball. A great historical artifact and worthy of preservation, to be sure, but not for the casual fan. These Vintage World Series Films releases, though, I can get into. They're easy to digest, giving you a good chunk of classic baseball with all the moments you want to see, without getting bogged down in every ball and strike and foul. Not for the die-hards of the specific team on display, but perfect if all you're looking for is a glimpse into the past and an overview of a classic World Series team.

Hey, speaking of the Big Red Machine, that's who we get in the 1972 contest, as the big swingers from Cincinnati went up against the hurlers of Oakland, led by a Catfish Hunter in his prime. He was 21-7 that year, with 191Ks and an amazing 2.04 ERA ... some four years after the heyday of the pitcher ended. Along with Ken Holtzman, “Blue Moon” Odom and Vida Blue, the Athletics beat the powerful Reds in seven games, nailing down their first of three straight World Series Wins.

In 1973, it was the New York Mets who would fall to the A's. Powered by sluggers like Gene Tenace (24 HR, 84 RBI), Sal Bando (29 HR, 98 RBI), and Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson (.293, 32 HR, 117 RBI), the Mets, too, would fall in seven.

The dynasty we've since forgotten made it look a lot easier in 1974, when they defeated the up-and-coming Los Angeles Dodgers four games to one, again led by Bando and Jackson's slugging (103 and 99 RBI, respectively, plus another 99 by Joe Rudi), and the arms of Hunter (25-12, 2.49) Vida Blue (174K, 3.25 ERA), and Holtzman (3.07 ERA).

All of this footage looks like it comes from the 1970s, and the audio – from the announcers of the day – sounds like it comes from that time. And that, my friends, is cool as hell.

Flash forward 15 years to 1989. Yeah, one you can remember. One word: Earthquake.

In 1989, what was supposed to be the big Bay Area World Series, meeting of the Giants and the A's, San Fransisco versus Oakland. Instead, it became the World Series during which the ground shook and people died. Oh, sure, they had Jose Canseco (steroids) and Mark McGwire (steroids) and Carney Lansford (ster... okay, yeah, he was all natural), along with one of the greatest players ever to play the game in Rickey Henderson, but in the end, this World Series will always be remembered for the earthquake.

Which is fine and all. People died. But ... Rickey Henderson.

Nevermind.

Anyway, the thing to keep in mind is that this little single-disc release packs in no less than four hours of awesome vintage World Series footage. And that's pretty cool to this baseball fan.

DVD Presentation
If you're looking to show off your HDTV and surround sound, you picked the wrong disc, buddy. For three quarters of this both the audio and video come from the early 1970s. It's full of grain, not always focused very well, and just plain looks bad. Sounds bad, too. Simple, ordinary audio that sounds as if it were recorded with a Walkman.

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 some baseball the way it was seen 30 years ago. Not being an Oakland fan I don't know that I'd want full games of this stuff, but lengthy highlights as seen at the time are awesome.

Disc Extras
Son, you ain't gettin' extra content here. While that wasn't so hot for the New York Giants set Jim reviewed, it's not so bad here. After all, there are four hours of baseball here. You've got nothing to complain about.

The Bottom Line
When A&E started releasing those giant baseball sets, I thought it was pretty cool. Wasn't about to drop the cash on them, especially when confronted with the idea of 15, 18, 20 hours of a team I wasn't a fan of, but I liked the idea that they existed.

This I can get into. I'm no Oakland fan, but I enjoy baseball history. I love watching vintage footage ... in swallowable doses. And here I get exactly that. You don't need to be an Oakland fan to like this. You only need to be a baseball fan.