“One of the greatest comebacks you’ll ever see” You might think this quote is referring to the historic 2004 ALCS comeback by the Boston Red Sox, well in the NESN Faith Rewarded DVD this little quote is from Charlie Steiner the Yankees color man referring to that blackest of games in 2003. That’s right; the NESN DVD starts us off with the Aaron effin Boone homer and how Grady Little went to the mound in the 8th and forgot to bring a certain someone with him back to the dugout. Faith Rewarded does a great job of doing just that, taking us from the lowest of the low and then rewarding us with the highest of the high. The buildup begins with images of a frozen Fenway in the dead of winter and the disheartening negotiations with Alex Rodriguez. If you have been selling burgers in India over the past year and have been working too hard to know how the story ends then you may say `why don’t the Yankees just kick my dog while they’re at it. But as most of the viewers know this one ends up pretty sweet.
Soon we see Schilling holding up his jersey at an off season press conference, and then comes Francona, and Foulke. Flash to spring training where we see the players getting back to the field walking through throngs of encouraging fans cheering on the old town team and staring at the long haired, bearded Damon. Player interviews are splashed throughout the whole DVD and no one gets more airtime than Kevin Millar, but it’s Damon who comes up with one of the best lines with his “I mean its just hair” line. It’s towards the end of the spring training expose that I start laughing at the narrators’ voice. He sounds like a guy who is reading a script on a stool in a sound booth with a pair of boxers on and a robe that is left wide open, while a cigarette is hanging from his mouth and a glass of Johnny Walker in the hand not holding the script.
It’s now time for the season to start and the DVD does a nice job of touching on all the memorable games from the regular season, especially Schillings first start in Camden after Pedro failed to win the opener. The narrator details how it was not Schillings dominance that carried the sox to their first victory but the Sox fans sitting in the upper level behind home plate throwing peanuts at ushers, drinking colossal beers and yelling louder than O’s fans that made the ultimate difference.
As the season chugs along NESN keeps it hopping by having player profiles thrown in at certain times. When its Ortiz’s time for a profile the narrator starts with what makes Ortiz so special `Hugs, Happiness, and Homers’ ahh, sweet poetry from the guy sitting on the bar stool, someone refill his Johnny Walker. The biggest chunk of the season is spent showing what went down when the Sox and Yanks played each other 19 times. And a little extra time was spent on the game where Broyo plunks Arod which is nice because it brought back some scenes I had forgotten about, like when Schilling had to be held back by four Yankees and Gabe Kapler kicked the shit out of Tanyon Sturtze. Millar chimes in by saying this game was like gaining 2 games on the Yankees because “we won the game and the fight”.
Remember Cesar Crespo? Because I don’t
What’s a Sox season without the ups and downs? Well the DVD goes into how the Sox were being called `the biggest group of frauds’ while showcasing a bunch of errors and losses that seemed like the typical let down the Sox have after starting off hot. Then the trade happens and as Schilling puts it; “we found our identity after the trade and we just took off”. Sorry Nomar.
On to the playoffs; not much time is spent on the Angels series except to show the Ortiz blast and the Schilling ankle injury as the Sox easily handle Anaheim. The good news is we finally get to see the Yankees and watch as they make history and blow the 3 game lead, the bad news is we have to listen to Tim McCarver. NESN actually speeds nicely through the first three games of the ALCS, where McCarver is living it up. Damon gives us another great quote during this series when he says; “the Yankees don’t lose 4 in a row”. The greatest part of the DVD comes when the sox are celebrating after game 7 and the Sox radio announcer Jerry Trupiano yells “this is the greatest comeback in the history of the game”. Cheers Charlie Steiner. Also a nice touch is when we see Wakefield on the mound with a few other players long after the game is over and he begins to sob a bit.
The World Series highlights are pretty much the same as on the official World Series DVD. Dewing on the field before game 1 telling Damon to have fun and “win it, win it” pulls at the heart strings. I notice that NESN has gone ahead and chosen some tribal desert music to go along with the World Series highlights and I really can’t complain. Its tough to get too dramatic when its such a lopsided series but the DVD keeps the emotion going with flashes of Teddy Ballgame, Johnny Pesky, Boggs sobbing on the bench after `86 and then it just builds to its climax of the final out where Foulke snags the ball, flips to first and ends 86 years of frustration.
A few DVD extras for you; Dan Shaughnessy makes a cameo and its to talk about the curse, Youkilis and Damon are the worst dancers on the team, John Henry is too weird to show more than once and yet they do, Orlando Cabrera wears a Columbian flag t-shirt during the World Series celebration, and there are a couple of those `priceless’ signs people bring to games which NESN thinks are neat to show when they pan the crowd, and I think those fans should be fined for lack of creativity and sent back to the 90’s.
Watching this DVD is like watching a new episode of the O.C. and just knowing Marissa and Alex are going to get it on towards the end so no matter what happens leading up its all good. The buildup to the final out is well done on NESN’s part and I highly recommend watching this DVD over and over again while enjoying your favorite six-pack, over and over again.