Oh, to be a Red Sox fan. It is a mark of the singular angst that attends the territory that the four retired numbers--9 (Ted Williams), 4 (Joe Cronin), 1 (Bobby Doerr), and 8 (Carl Yastrzemski)--taunt the faithful every game from their perch on Fenway's right-field facade; they precisely correspond to the date--September 4, 1918--that the Sox won their last World Series title. Less than two years later, owner Harry Frazee would sell his star pitcher and outfielder, Babe Ruth, to the Yankees, and the curse of the Bambino would take hold of Boston hearts.
From Cy Young to Cy Young award winner Pedro Martinez, this is a franchise full of myth and history--the first to win a World Series and the last to cross the color line--and, contend authors Glenn Stout, the series editor of the annual Best American Sportswriting volume, and Richard A. Johnson, curator of the Sports Museum of New England, the most interesting franchise in the history of the game. Their splendid, fully illustrated chronicle, rich with anecdotes, of the club from 1901 to the present makes it hard to argue with the assessment. The Sox have always been interesting--as well as frustrating, enigmatic, contradictory, and thrilling, and Red Sox Century touches all of those bases. This is an exhaustively researched history, but it's also a fan's book, filled with affection and exasperation. Stout and Johnson effectively pepper their narrative with personal reflections and observations from writers such as Peter Gammons, Dan Shaughnessy, and Elizabeth Dooley. They also pick a Red Sox all-century team, make a fine case for Pedro's '99 season as the best ever for a pitcher, compile some requisite stats, and assemble the most complete Sox bibliography ever. About the only thing they don't supply is a good parking place near Fenway. --Jeff Silverman
From Publishers Weekly
In this richly illustrated history, sports writers Stout and Johnson argue that the Boston Red Sox are the most interesting franchise to have played the game of baseball, an ambitious and somewhat far-fetched thesis since the team has not won a World Series title in almost 82 years. As evidence, the authors offer up the most comprehensive chronicle of the team's life to date, from its creation in 1901 and its glory days in the teens to its thrilling but exasperating losses in the World Series of 1946, 1975 and 1986. Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Roger Clemens and even Pedro Martinez are all colorfully profiled, as are the men who have owned and managed the team over the years. Of special interest are the fans themselves, who, the authors argue, are unique in their fatalistic, frequently bitter, but doggedly loyal devotion to their team. But as reverent toward the Red Sox as Stout and Johnson may be, they eschew the sentimentality and nostalgia so prevalent in baseball writing today. They provide a revisionist account of the legendary sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, and boil down the mythical "Curse of the Bambino," which is thought to have resulted from that transaction, to nothing more than a "convenient excuse." Stout and Johnson's book is honest, well written and rigorously researched, which will make it accessible to fans of any ball club. Their contention that Boston's is the most interesting team, however, will be a tough sell to anyone living beyond the borders of Massachusetts. 225 b&w photos. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The Boston Red Sox have always been New England's team, but the appeal of the franchise extends across the nation. So much of the game's history and so many of its memorable moments are associated with the Red Sox that to be a baseball fan at all is to identify with the team on some level. Stout, the series editor for Best American Sports Writing, and Johnson, the curator of the New England Sports Museum, have compiled a wondrous book that will enthrall baseball fans of all ages and team affiliations. Yes, even Yankee fans will settle in with this one, if only to revel in the Bronx Bombers' mastery over the Sox. The hundreds of photos are augmented by a text that includes essays by, among others, Peter Gammons, Dan Shaughnessy, and Tim Horgan. The narrative, as we follow the Sox through their history, is compelling and filled with rich, behind-the-scenes details of such memorable moments as Ted Williams' .400 season, Johnny Pesky and Bill Buckner's World Series gaffes, Carlton Fisk's body-English homer in the 1975 series, and, of course, the curse of the Bambino. The latter--Boston's sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees--is the superstitious fan's excuse for 80 years of broken hearts. No baseball collection will be complete without this extraordinary book. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Red Sox Century: The Definitive History of Baseball's Most Storied Franchise FROM THE PUBLISHER
For More Than a Hundred Years, the Red Sox have meant all sorts of things to all sorts of people, often all at once -- elation, frustration, nostalgia, nausea, amazement, bewilderment, love, and loss. But one thing is certain: the Boston Red Sox are the most interesting team ever to take the field. Red Sox Century tells the Red Sox story in its entirety for the first time, from the team's inception in 1901 and its early peak in 1918, when it won its fifth and last World Series; to the glory years, which saw the rise of such greats as Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Teddy Ballgame, and Yaz and witnessed the "Impossible Dream" of 1967; to the near misses in 1975, 1986, and 2003; to now. The Sox are still chasing that elusive sixth world championship -- a championship that fate seems not to want them to have. Now updated through the 2003 season, and including new writing from Thomas Boswell, Red Sox Century is the "definitive look at Fenway's finest...Artistic, well researched, and elegant" (Boston Globe). This is a book that no self-respecting Red Sox fan should be without.
Art & Photography
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