Harvey's Wallbangers DVD Review

John Brew — Thu, 24 May 2007 20:29:18 -0000

I was fortunate enough to be one of the winners of Jeff's Harvey's Wallbangers DVD contest. I've had a chance to watch it and thought I'd share some thoughts. Sorry in advance for the length of this.

Documentary

The documentary is split into three sections: how the 1982 team was built, the 1982 regular season, and the 1982 postseason. There are a lot of interviews and clips, and mini-features on the stars mixed in.

Random notes:

GM Harry Dalton did a great job putting the pieces together, including a candidate for best trade ever, acquiring Rollie Fingers, Ted Simmons, and Pete Vuckovich from the Cardinals for Sixto Lezcano, David Green, Larry Sorensen, and Dave LaPoint at the winter meetings in Dec 1981.

I didn't realize that due to the strike in 1981, the 'first part of the season' champion Yankees played the 'second part of the season' champion Brewers in a 5 game playoff to determine the AL East champ for 1981. Damn Yankees.

Don Sutton was acquired from the Astros to the Brewers on August 30, 1982 for the stretch run. I came across Astros Daily listing this as one of the best trades in Astros history because they got Kevin Bass. Sure it would have been nice to have Bass as a Brewer, but Don Sutton certainly provided what the Brewers needed.

Losing Rollie Fingers in 1982 was a tough blow. Especially in the World Series, the Cardinals having Bruce Suttor was a big advantage.

It seems odd now to look back on a best of five game ALCS.

There sure is a huge difference between stadiums today and those of yesteryear. Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Anaheim Stadium and of course our beloved County Stadium were prominent, and each looked pretty bleak compared to today's parks.

Overall, I'd give the documentary a B-. It was good, but there could be a longer, more in-depth version of this. 70 minutes really isn't enough time to go into much detail on more than just the main characters and stars. That said, I was in 2nd grade in 1982. Brewer mania is about as far back as my sporting memory goes and I certainly don't recall details of the season, so I still learned a lot from the documentary. It just left me wanting more.

Special Features

Robin Yount's HOF acceptance speech.

Paul Molitor's HOF acceptance speech.

Final half inning of the final regular season game vs Baltimore

Final half inning of game 4 of the ALCS... mislabeled on the DVD as the clincher.

All Brewer postseason home runs.

Game 5 ALCS

This was awesome.

Random notes:

It's almost surreal to see a game without the score, situation, promos, other scores, etc. taking up screen real estate. Forgot what that was like -- I like it. Didn't realize I was capable of remembering the score through an entire half inning.

Very entertaining announcing team: Keith Jackson, Jim Palmer, and Earl Weaver. Palmer and Weaver had a great rapport. The only flub was JP inventing a word "potentiality", some offshoot of potential.

Some KJ gems:
"This 1st inning opens up like we are gonna have some fun this afternoon." You know you can hear him say it.
"Good hummer up high and got 'em."

Aerial shots were great, but not as cool as the shots of the crowd -- looked like a huge party. Or as KJ would say, "An exuberant fan exhorting the crowd."

Didn't realize 1982 was Molitor's first year primarily at 3rd base.

What did Ty Cobb, Pete Ward, and Marshall Edwards have in common? They all held the bat with a gap between their hands.

I learned that Pete Ladd's nickname was Bigfoot. He slammed the door in the 9th.

It would have been nice to include the box score. But of course that's readily available. [ Link ]

Game highlights:

* 4th inning

Great announcing exchange after Cecil Cooper tagged Bobby Grich with an empty glove on a dribbler down the first base line.
KJ: "Cooper reaches out and tags him with an empty glove! You tell me how many times you've seen that, Earl Weaver."
EW: "It happened in a World Series. Elrod Hendricks tagged ah, I forget the runner, do you remember the runner, Jim?"
JP: "I was pitching. It was Bernie Karbo, who tried to come in from third base but what happened was that the umpire got in the way so he didn't have much choice. He tried to reach around him."

In the same inning, JP calls a suicide squeeze by Bob Boone right before it happened, noting that the Angels had done the same thing in game 2. Leading to EW saying "That's good thinking. If I were in the dugout I'd be ashamed of myself for not thinking of it."

Related, Bob Boone was a great bunter. The suicide squeeze was perfect, and he had a nice sacrifice bunt in the 9th.

JP was on fire that inning, calling the inning ending double play during the windup, too. That double play was huge; what looked like a big inning held to one run.

Then in the bottom of the 4th, Oglivie, the first batter up, jacks a home run to right. The double play followed by the home run was a big momentum swing.

* Top of the 5th inning

Charlie Moore makes a perfect throw to gun down Reggie Jackson at third.

* Bottom of the 7th

Cecil Cooper comes up with the bases loaded, two out. He delivers a clutch 2-run single, Brewers take the lead 4-3 and the stadium ERUPTS. KJ points out, "delirium reigns."

* Top of the 8th

Marshall Edwards replaces a gimpy Gorman Thomas in CF. That proves fortuitous when Edwards makes a great catch crashing into the wall on a Don Baylor smash.

* 9th inning

PANDEMONIUM. Great crowd shots. Note to self for later this year: get lower deck playoff seats so I can rush the field. I don't care how many cops on horses there are.

Summary

I think this should be required viewing for the Brewers, especially the game. It was a well-played, exciting playoff game, and showed how much Milwaukee supports and loves the Brewers. If they haven't already, they should watch it together as a team. Perhaps on the flight back from San Diego... the team would get excited, Yost would see some great bullpen usage and nicely-timed substitutions, and BA and Rock could learn that unless you have something informative or entertaining to say, pipe down.

I recommend getting this primarily for ALCS game 5. I know I'll be watching that again with my buddies. Thanks, Jeff!

Harvey's Wallbangers: The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers on Amazon.com

SB Nation User Blog: John Brew

Harvey's Wallbangers DVD Review