Championship film a holiday Astros treat
Highlight videos from World Series are chock full of drama and extras
Astros fans who haven’t already blown their holiday shopping budgets on World Series memorabilia can finish the job Tuesday with the release of two DVD/Blu-ray sets from Major League Baseball Productions and Shout! Factory.
The quicker option is the 90-minute documentary ($24.99 suggested retail for DVD/$34.93 Blu-ray). Fans with hours to reminisce can opt for the eight-disc set that includes all seven game telecasts plus Game 7 of the American League Championship Series ($59.99 DVD/$79.97 Blu-ray). Both are available at substantial discounts online.
The World Series documentary is an annual feel-good souvenir for fans of the winning team, so it should come as no surprise that it does not include any reference to Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel’s unfortunate gesture and comments regarding Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish or to the fine and suspension levied for next year by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred.
An MLB spokesperson said the issue was not addressed in the film because the incident and its consequences for next season had no direct bearing on the Series outcome. Also, the spokesperson said that while both players addressed the issue during clubhouse media sessions, producers did not conduct individual interviews with Gurriel or Darvish on the topic.
At any rate, there was more than enough drama spread across seven games to fill out a 90-minute program. The 10-inning, 13-12 Game 5 slugfest alone probably would be worthy of a half-hour on its own.
Other than interviews with players from both teams and some candid shots during batting practice, the only significant departure from on-field action is a brief section on Jose Altuve with his family at their Houston home before Game 3.
That section was a nobrainer for Danny Field, the film’s co-producer, who visited Venezuela with Altuve for an MLB documentary that aired prior to the 2015 season.
“The last pitch (of Game 7) is an incredible moment to see the joy on the guys’ faces, but for me (the highlight) is a special family moment at the Altuves’ house,” Field said prior to a screening of the film earlier this month. “Knowing what he means to this organization and this city and the kind of person he is. That is what I will remember most.”
The single-disc documentary also includes bonus features on regularseason highlights, the team’s post-Harvey return to Minute Maid Park, series-clinching moments against the Red Sox and Yankees and highlights from the parade.
Texans, college ratings both on decline
While NFL viewership nationwide is down in the 8 percent range nationwide, the Texans are in a solid double-digit swoon.
Through 11 games, Texans games averaged 734,636 viewers in Houston, down 18.5 percent from 901,272 through 11 games a year ago. With a playoff berth highly unlikely, that number should decline considerably; last year’s 16-game average was 892,312.
A year ago, the Texans had three regular-season games that drew more than a million local viewers. Their Sunday night game against the Chiefs in October is the only game to top a million this year. Eight games topped 900,000 last year; this year, the Chiefs game is the only one to do so.
This also hasn’t exactly been a banner year for college football Nielsen ratings in Houston, either.
In 2016, 11 regularseason games topped a 7.0 rating and 21 games drew audiences of at least 200,000 viewers. This season, the highest regularseason rating was 6.8, and only five games topped 200,000 viewers.
It’s been a blah year for Houston, Texas and Texas A&M, granted, but SEC interest is on the wane this year, too. Perhaps we all have a finite amount of time for watching sports, and this fall’s quota has been gobbled up by the Astros.
A&M aftermath
CBS Sports analyst Gary Danielson, who will call the Auburn-Georgia game Saturday on CBS with Brad Nessler, said he remains a Kevin Sumlin fan but doesn’t think that Texas A&M had the material on defense for most of Sumlin’s tenure to compete in the SEC until this year.
At the risk of sounding like a grumpy curmudgeon Hall of Famer, this fits in with my theory that Texas high schools have so committed themselves to the spread offense that they are neglecting interior defensive players, particularly at defensive tackle and inside linebacker, and that Texas colleges as a result suffer at those positions.
Danielson, however, takes my concerns about schemes and philosophies a step farther, casting doubt on whether Sumlin’s spread offense ever had a chance to succeed in the SEC apart from his initial season of 2012 with Johnny Manziel.
“I don’t believe that up-tempo, finesse football works in the SEC,” Danielson said. “There are too many NFL defensive players in this league.”