When people think of the old Yankee Stadium, there are usually two categories that these opinions fall. On one side, you've got those who think of the stereotypical "Bronx Zoo," which the fans of the stadium enjoy and revel in. They hurl insults at players, some of whom play for the New York Yankees, and occasionally throw things at them and on the field that would rival those tossed at a Mexican soccer match. Then you have those who enjoy the stadium and its atmosphere. Like it or not, it has played host to heavyweight prizefights, papal visits and enough historic events with the Yankees that other franchises would awe and marvel at. While the new Yankee stadium has yet to make its own history (other than buried Red Sox jerseys and nauseatingly high ticket prices), the folks at Major League Baseball and A & E have decided to take another stroll down memory lane in the first House that Babe Ruth built.

This isn't the first time that MLB and A&E have done such a thing, as they have already produced a compilation of memorable games played at the stadium, titled "Essential Games of Yankee Stadium." However, this set houses the games which sport the rare pitching accomplishments, titled "Perfect Games and No-Hitters." Taking the latter first, a no-hitter is when a pitcher doesn't allow a hit, but does allow a baserunner. A perfect game is when no one reaches base. To put the perfect game in context, in the more than 100 of professional baseball, this feat has only been realized 17 times, with Yankee Stadium seeing three of them. Don Larsen's effort in the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers remains the only occurrence of postseason pitching perfection. Decades later (in 1998 and 1999), David Wells and David Cone repeated the effort, almost 14 months to the day of one another, against the Minnesota Twins and Montreal Expos (respectively). No-hitters are a little more common, with over 200 in baseball history. Yankee Stadium has witnessed 10 of them, with eight of those being Yankee wins. The three most recent "no-no's" and perfect games are included in this set. Along with the perfect games, Dave Righetti's no-hitter on the 4th of July, 1983 against Boston, Jim Abbott's against Cleveland and Dwight Gooden's against Seattle are the other discs on the set.

Aside from the efforts themselves being remarkable, the stories of many of those who threw them, or the games they were involved in, are just as memorable. Abbott was born with a birth defect which essentially left him without a right hand, and his work in the majors being miraculous enough, the no-no helped make him a part of Yankee Stadium lore. Cone and Gooden pitched for the crosstown rival Mets and experienced great success before coming to the Yankees, with Cone's game starting with a first pitch ceremony from Larsen to Yogi Berra, the pitcher and catcher of the '56 game, and ending with Cone pitching a gem of his own. Larsen and Wells went to the same high school, albeit decades apart. Gooden's wunderkind status was diminished by the excesses of success, and he came to the Yankees a slightly broken pitcher, bouncing in and out of rehab for alcohol and drugs. Yet on a May evening in 1996, he experienced the joy of throwing a no-hitter, his first (and last). As someone who doesn't like the Yankees, I can certainly appreciate the drama they bring to sporting events, that's for sure.

This multi-disc boxed set is the fourth such set produced around memorable Yankee moments, with the 1977 Series, the Championship run of the late '90s and the "Essential Games" set mentioned earlier. However, this set covers a variety of moments, and of these sets, is the most unique of the bunch. Together, these games will stir up old memories and instill new ones into Yankee fans new and old.

Presented in full frame video, the games are pulled from the broadcast tape and replicated here on six shiny silver discs for the world to enjoy. There are some moments of interference and distortion within the games, but as mentioned at many opportunities throughout the set, these flaws are inherent to the source material. The games look good for their varying degrees of age, and Yankee fans will like having them on DVD.

Two-channel stereo sound on these discs, which is a surprise for the two discs that would presumably not have been originally broadcast in stereo. But the games are free of hissing or static noise that would otherwise distract from the enjoyment of the games, and they sound as clear as they're ever going to be.

From a packaging perspective, the discs are, housed in six slimline cases and a relatively sturdy cardboard case. A&E normally gives you every conceivable detail related to the game, but eschews this for a slightly simpler presentation and lots of Yankee blue. But that's not to say they're without some perks. On the Larsen perfect game, you can choose from the Mel Allen/Vin Scully broadcast, but you can select Bob Wolff's radio call as an additional audio track. Wolff has been an announcer for many New York sports teams, and this is a nice perk to add to the 1956 disc. The other material is on the sixth disc with Cone's perfect game, and includes interviews with each of the participants, along with looks at the tributes to Gooden and Wells' accomplishments which the city held in their honors. You can either play these nine segments individually or as one long segment (1:20:24).

Yankees fans far and wide might still cringe at the words "New Yankee Stadium", but with this six-disc set of magical pitching moments, they can revisit some of their greatest memories of games that were thrown by some of their favorite players. It's a pretty straightforward presentation and has enough extras to give you that additional perspective, and for fans of the team, this is worth getting for completist's sake alone.