Chicago Cubs 2016 World Series: The Complete Game 7 – Ultimate Edition (Blu-ray Review)
Still vcan’t get enough of that 2016 Chicago Cubs World Series victory? That first one in over one hundred years or so? You bought the first Blu-ray release and enjoyed the heartfelt little documentary. You were hardcore and picked yourself up the Collector’s Edition with every game on it. Now, you’re going to be the super Cubby loyalist and grab yourself this Ultimate Edition of Game 7. Why not be happy with the one you have in the Collector’s Edition? Well, this comes with a disc that has a long montage of the victory parade as well as lengthy highlights of the other series leading up to the championship as well as the World Series itself. Who this might be the best for is someone who didn’t want the collector’s edition, but wouldn’t mind dabbling in just having this one complete game (the one that mattered). Well, whoever you are, you have your chance at this one on May 9th, so get your order in and have it on day of release.
The definitive 2016 World Series™ Game 7 is presented in its entirety, preserving the complete, unedited footage of the game for which Chicago Cubs fans had been waiting 108 years!
The Cubs came back from a 3-games-to-1 World Series deficit to end years of frustration, but it was no easy feat. The winner-take-all Game 7 featured drama and tension throughout, including two ties and an extra frame of baseball. In the eighth, Rajai Davis of the Indians™ erased the Cubs lead with a 2-run home run which sent the game to extras and Cubs fans to hysteria. A 17-minute rain delay washed away the panic, then World Series MVP Ben Zobrist smacked an RBI double for the lead and Miguel Montero singled in Anthony Rizzo for a 2-run cushion that would be sorely needed as the Indians would not go quietly in the tenth.
Game 7 will go down as one of the most epic in baseball history: four hours, 28 minutes of stomach-churning drama that mercifully ended a drought and changed history.
This is the fourth time I’ve had to write about this World Series win for the Chicago Cubs. Being not a fan of the team or even someone who watched this series, I’m stretched a little thin. This is a very thrilling Game 7 and one that feels as if it was scripted because it was so damn dramatic. As if there were any other way for the Cubs fans. This disc allows you to relive it as it was played. Watch as Cubs fans get nerve wracked and Lebron James flexes and gets intense for a team that he’s not even a diehard fan of (He’s a Yankee lifer) and then wallow in some disappiontment in the end, but not before realizing he still gets to hoard all that Cleveland championship glory for himself for another year and counting.
And there you have it, my thoughts on the Game or the series, for the third time. Shout! Factory has done a marvelous job with these releases though, and really aiming at all types of fans for them and having none of them totally overlap one another completely in terms of content. A worthy purchase for those still celebrating or just loving their team.
Video 
Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Layers: BD-50
Clarity/Detail: I didn’t tune in to any of these games, but I did catch snippets and have watched live broadcasts of baseball games in HD before. This Blu-ray has a definitive increase in quality over the broadcast. Details are more refined, the image sharper, more 3-dimensional and the colors pop much better on this Blu-ray release which is to be expected.
Depth: Depth is also an area of improvement and strength. Players are much more detached from the background and move smoothly and cleanly through the field and the ball is also well rounded and free in its travel.
Black Levels: Blacks are deep, providing some good shading, strong shadows and overall help to enhance the sharpness and definition of all the textures, patterns and detail.
Color Reproduction: Where you can see a real bump in the quality from broadcast to here is the boldness and fullness of the color. The Cubs’ blue uniforms, the orange in the Indians, the green filed all really pop quite well. The brown on the dirt and brick color also look saturated and strong.
Flesh Tones: Skin tones are natural and consistent throughout each game. Facial features are much more clear and detailed in the close up shots, but do impress in medium ones. Mostly this pertains the players, though some folks in the crowd get good texture.
Noise/Artifacts: Clean
Audio
Audio Format(s): Fox TV Broadcast (English 2.o DTS-HD MA), Cleveland Radio Network (English 2.0 DTS-HD MA), Chicago Radio Network (English 2.0 DTS-HD MA), Spanish Broadcast (Spanish 2.0 DTS-HD MA). The bonus disc only features English 2.0 DTS-HD MA.
Subtitles: N/A
Dynamics: Audio is pretty crisp and clean. The catchers mitt catching a hard pitch snaps really good and the sound of bat and ball connecting is a thing of beauty. Its lossless, too, so its much prettier than what you heard on the broadcast. The ambiance of stadium musics, crowd noise, effects and all sorts of other things come across a lot cleaner, more distinct and are easier to make out and discern from everything else.
Height: N/A
Low Frequency Extension: N/A
Surround Sound Presentation: N/A
Dialogue Reproduction: Announcer dialogue is rich, clean and full sounding.
Extras
This release is a 2-Blu-ray disc set. Disc 1 is the game and is an identical disc to the Collector’s Edition release. It also comes with the complete stats from the game on the reverse side of the cover insert.
Disc 1
The game features 4 audio options; the Fox Television Broadcast, Cleveleand Radio, Chicago Radio and Spanish Broadcast.
Disc 2
Postseason Victories – Has a PLAY ALL function.
- NLDS Highlights (HD, 16:54) – Highlights from the series against the San Francisco Giants.
- NLCS Highlights (HD, 29:12) – Highlights from the series against the Los Angeles Dodgers
- World Series Highlights (HD, 30:56) – Highlights from the series agains the Cleveland Indians.
World Series Parade Highlights (HD, 15:54) – A montage of the victory parade in Chicago.
Summary 
This Game 7 Ultimate Edition makes for a nice companion to Shout! Factory’s original Chicago Cubs release with the little documentary. Someone who didn’t want to go the full mile with the entire series would probably enjoy this. Plus, the extras do not overlap and just add to what there was before. Another nice little release for the Chicago Cubs bandwagon and die hard.
