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What: Superstar Shortstops

Cost: $14.95, Polygram Video

In a time when home runs grab all the headlines, here’s a switch: a video filled with defensive highlights.

This video comes at a time when one of the debates in baseball is over who is best at the position: Nomar Garciaparra of Boston, Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees or Alex Rodriguez of Seattle.

But rather than showing countless highlights of the three, the video showcases the evolution of the shortstop--how the position has gone from primarily a defensive position to one that has a member of the 40 home run/40 stolen base club, Rodriguez, and a player that has hit 30 home runs in each of his first two seasons, Garciaparra.

From Honus Wagner, a member of the original Hall of Fame class, to Phil Rizzuto and Pee Wee Reese, the emotional leaders of the Yankees and Dodgers of the ‘40s and ‘50s, to Ernie Banks, the first true power-hitting shortstop, plenty of vintage footage fills the cassette.

Superstar Shortstops also recognizes numerous shortstops in between Wagner’s era and today that have established the position as arguably the most important defensively in the game.

The defensive talents of Dave Concepcion, Barry Larkin, Luis Aparicio, Rey Ordonez and, of course, Ozzie Smith are all on display.

But the best part of the video is the reminder it serves to the young fans of today’s three superstar shortstops: before you call these three the best group of shortstops playing at one time, remember the ‘80s. It wasn’t that long ago that Cal Ripken, Robin Yount and Alan Trammell were staging a similar battle over who was the best at the position.

Although their offensive numbers weren’t as impressive as those of Jeter, Garciaparra and Rodriguez, Yount’s a Hall of Famer; Ripken’s on the verge of 400 home runs, holder of the record for consecutive games played and a future Hall of Famer; and all three went to the World Series, Yount being the only one whose team didn’t win it.

Today’s shortstops might go down as three of the best, but there have been plenty of others at the position worth recognizing, and Superstar Shortstops does a worthy job of that.