Blu-ray Review: Major League Baseball Presents 2020 World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers

By , Contributor
Right in time to coincide with spring training and the impending 2021 MLB season, Shout Factory unleashes the complete, six-game 2020 World Series. Dave Roberts and his Dodgers finally won the biggie, after winning NL Pennants in '17 and '18. The less said about the 2017 contest, versus the cheating Houston Astros, the better at this point. Suffice it to say, Roberts fought long and hard for this victory—the Dodgers first since the recently-departed Tommy Lasorda took them there in '88. Roberts, in five years of managing the Dodgers, has never finished less than first place in the NL West. Perhaps it's too soon to make this call, but if he keeps up this pace he just might follow Walt Alston and Lasorda into Cooperstown.

Shout's set includes all six World Series games, plus the NLDS and NLCH clinchers (versus the Padres and Braves, respectively). You got the full games, minus commercials, and Fox's TV broadcast and the L.A. radio broadcast (English or Spanish). In past editions of Shout's World Series release, there was also the option of listening to the losing team's radio broadcast. That is not provided this year, for whatever reason. Speaking of that team, the Tampa Bay Rays provided some excellent competition for the Dodgers. Game 4 offers the series' most thrilling moments.

That game will go down as boasting one of the most unpredictable conclusions in MLB postseason history. Brett Phillips' unlikely, two-out walk-off single, driving in instant WS legend Randy Arozarena, and a series of L.A. blunders provides the most awesome sequence of events in the series. Also notable for the Rays is Blake Snell's Game 6 start. Tampa manager Kevin Cash deserves every bit of criticism levied against him for yanking Snell 5 1/3 innings into a potentially career-best performance. Snell was working a one-hitter, yielded just the second Dodgers' hit of the game, and Cash gave him the hook. One of the most jaw-dropping lapses of judgement in World Series history. Snell's angered reaction (memed endlessly almost as soon as it occured) was entirely justified and speaks volumes.

But again, Roberts' and his team absolutely earned their win during this COVID-shortened season. Who but the most hardened, Dodger-hating heart didn't feel good for Clayton Kershaw, finally redeeming himself for past poor postseason outings. His two wins in this series go a long ways towards removing any postseason-curse stigmas that surrounded this future Cooperstown inductee.

Major League Baseball Presents 2020 World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers, even without the option of listening to Tampa Bay radio commentary, is another excellent presentation for collectors of Shout's WS sets. A great way to usher in the 2021 MLB season, as the Dodgers are poised to make another strong run for the postseason.

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Chaz Lipp writes for The Morton Report.

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