HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

What: “MLB All-Access Sound” DVD

Producer: Major League Productions

Distributor: Q Video

Price: $19.95

The word “sound” in the title of this one-hour baseball DVD indicates it might be about the crack of the bat, the pop of the glove and the roar of the crowd. But this highly entertaining DVD, which hits the market today, is mostly about hidden sound and conversations captured through the magic of microphones.

There are seven main segments, plus five bonus features. The DVD opens with a light-hearted segment titled “The Sounds of Spring Training.” It includes players kidding around about wearing a microphone for the making of a DVD and also includes some pretty bizarre conversations. For example, two unidentified Milwaukee Brewers are shown debating how to hook up a DVD player, which is hilarious.

There’s a segment on All-Star games, and also one on the history of baseball and microphones that dates to talking movies. It includes sound bites from such players as Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. A segment on players’ off-the-field activities has Angel center fielder Darin Erstad ice fishing in his hometown of Jamestown, N.D., and Angel first baseman Scott Spiezio performing with his rock band.

Any show that features microphones is going to include Tom Lasorda, and there is plenty of Lasorda here. Most of it comes from a World Series segment, which tells you it’s not recent. One segment has an umpire telling Lasorda, “Will you quit talking to yourself?” Says Lasorda: “When I start answering myself is when you have a problem.”

The bonus features include one on Oakland Athletic pitcher Barry Zito as he drives around Los Angeles and another focusing on Angel right fielder Tim Salmon at the Angels’ World Series ring ceremony at the start of the season.

-- Larry Stewart