The third volume in also the most organized in the series. There are rather distinct "chapters" on the great pitchers of the decade (Gibson, Marichal, Koufax), the glory days and rapid decline of the New York Yankees, the lowly birth and sudden success of the New York Mets, and the case for Willie Mays being the greatest player of the decade. There even is a bit of sports journalism involved in suggesting that the decline of the Yankees had to do with the refusal of the team management to sign black ball players. This time you will also find that more often than not whoever's voice you hear, whether it is Al Kaline or Joe Pepitone, actually appears on the screen. Billy Crystal is back to talk about baseball again as is sportscaster Bob Costas, and there are more baseball poems, including, of course, Grantland Rice's "Game Called," which brings the show to a close.
As always, the ultimate appeal of the "When it Was a Game" series is that you get to see the baseball players you grew up admiring, who lived before your time and were only available as black & white images in color. Rich, gorgeous color that makes the red on the bill of Hank Aaron's cap, the blue on Don Drysdale' hat, the organge of the name "Oriole" on Brooks Robinson's jersey, and the green of the Yankee Stadium grass look as good as you have ever seen them. Again, I am reminded of the classic Bowman 1953 baseball cards that had gorgeous color photographs.
But if you're going to talk about the National League being a haven for up and coming African-American and Hispanic players during the 1960s, why are you going to omit Richie Allen of the Philadelphia Phillies? OK, yeah, the Phillies were a bad team for most of their history. Still, WIWAG 3 at least used footage of Ernie Banks who played for those crappy Cubs teams.
Allen was the first -- and shamefully, possibly -- the last, black superstar slugger the Phillies ever had. He was a big part of the Phillies' contention for the NL pennant in '64, his rookie year, before the infamous collapse.
I'm a 40-something African American baseball fan who has thrown his loyalty behind the Phillies, because I considered them my home team and partly because I was too young to be aware of the Phillies' sorry racial history.
That Allen wasn't even seen or mentioned in WIWAG 3 was an incredibly glaring omission. I cannot believe there was no footage anywhere of the guy the producers could have used.
