Some 1988 WS Game 5 observations

Night Owl recently ran a post about the 25th anniversary of the 1988 World Series Game 5.  Actually it was a post about an awesome night card.

I commented that I needed to go home and watch that game.  I did.

1989 Score
1988 World Series (card #582)

I dusted off my DVD set of the 1988 World Series and popped in Game 5.  My daughter was already in bed, my wife was at a meeting and I didn't feel like watching the Giants/Vikings game of losers on Monday Night Football.

I first went to the Bonus Features and watched various awards ceremonies.  Hershiser being given the Cy Young Award.  The team getting their WS rings.  Things like that.

Then I fired up the game.  My wife came home in about the 3rd inning (actually, she arrived just as I was starting it).  She's a good sport and watched it with me.  I had to stop at the end of the 7th inning.  Sleep was coming over me.  But after waking up and getting my daughter on the school bus I fired up the DVD player and finished it off.  Dodgers win!

Here are somethings I noticed about the broadcast in no particular order:

The pitching mound seemed higher.  Maybe because it looked more like a Babylonian ziggurat than a mound to me.

Compared to today's stadiums, there were no ground level seats behind home plate.  Because of that it was a seven foot wall of green.  I wonder if that gave the pitchers any advantage.  No obnoxious fans twirling their rally towels.

The home plate umpire kept the game ball in the game a lot longer.  Today, if the ball even touches the dirt, it is retired.

The Dodger dugout at the Oakland Coliseum was on the first base side.  I always thought that the home team had the first base side.

There weren't fences in front of the dugouts.  Nowhere for Lasorda to tie up his pony.

The bullpens were just in foul territory, not tucked behind the outfield walls.

The TV graphics were simple.  Almost nonexistent.  No pitch tracking, no stop motion rotate the camera, no gopher cam.  Some split screen wizardry and an occasional instant replay.  I'm sure that some old timer in 1988 said, "What deviltry is this that the talking box can go back in time and show me what I just saw?  Ethel, get the matches.  We're going to burn this thing down.  Now, Ethel.  Put your tea down and get them now!"

The lack of advertising everywhere.  Al Gore hadn't yet invented the internet, so there were no dotcom logos on everything.  Kind of refreshing.

My wife noted that since the announcers didn't have all the replays and graphics at their disposal they actually talked about the players and the game.

I do wish that the DVD producers would have kept in the commercials, but without them the game flew by.

No, I didn't comment on the players or the actual game.  I'll leave that for more learned bloggers.