SawxBlog

Remembering Fenway Park: Book Review

_{Harvey Frommer's Remembering Fenway Park is a piece that surprised me.}

I have to admit before reviewing Harvey Frommer's Remembering Fenway Park I was a little skeptical on how authentic an experience it could actually be. Frommer's already written 40+ sports books in his life, including Remembering Yankee Stadium, so right away I could see that this was a professional, and not a die-hard writing the book, which made me worried about a cookie cutter formula being applied to the most precious of jewels, Fenway Park.

On the surface this is not really a problem at all. I mean, it's not like David Halberstam was a die-hard Sox fan when he wrote The Teammates, and it's not a prerequisite when writing a book on the Team by any means, however, for something as personal as Fenway Park, it'd help. All this said, when my advanced copy showed up in the mail I was instantly blown away. This is not a book meant to be read cover-to-cover to then be shelved away on a forgotten book case for eternity. It's a book that's meant to be slowly grazed upon and washed over you, presented on a coffee table with pride, and used as a conversation piece. Even if illiterate, the quality of the well made book, and the depth of the amazing pictures found within, are enough to get you lost for hours in times now past.

The trick that Frommer pulls that may be part of his "cookie cutter" approach is that this is an oral narrative history. However, once past the impeccable presentation, this is what truly holds the book up, for it's the voice of the people who've made Fenway so special that contribute to the pages within. Forrmer players, managers, writers, and all likes inbetween contribute their thoughts and memories in Remembering Fenway Park. Having Johnny Pesky doing the foreword doesn't hurt Frommer's chances of endearing himself with Red Sox fans either. While the $45.00 asking price is a little steep, it's a price worth the money if not in possession of a good Red Sox coffee table book, and it's something you'd find yourself going back to often, and aging well. Frommer may have a professional formula applied to his sports books such as Remembering Fenway Park, lucky for us though, he's one hell of an alchemist, and he represented our church with a white gloved treatment of care.

OVERALL: 8.5/10

Purchase Remembering Fenway Park here - http://harveyfrommersports.com/remembering_fenway/

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Fenway Park E-Guide: Review

Ballpark E-Guides Fenway Park edition could be a useful tool.

Kurt Smith's "Fenway Park E-Guide" is available for download over at http://www.ballparkeguides.com/ for a very economical $5.00. This is a PDF put together to help those visiting Fenway Park get around, buy tickets, along with almost anything else you'd like to do while watching the Red Sox play in Boston. There's a lot of knowledge and research packed into the 25 pages, and you can tell that Smith did his homework while researching.

Some of the more valuble and unique sections of the guide are his Tightwad Tips, which give money saving suggestions on things such as Parking and Food. Being intimately familiar with Fenway myself, there wasn't anything new in the Guide for me, however, I could definetly see the value in it for people from out of town or those making their yearly pilgrimage to the Mecca that's Fenway.

I think a lot of value could be added to the Guide with a little more attention to the actual layout, as a lot of the information is jammed into the pages, without any discernible deliniation between sections, making them run together. Adding a table of contents, and/or a glossary would really take the Guide to the next level, and make it an invaluble tool when printed out and visiting Fenway.

All that said, for the price, and for the information that's already there, this is a recomended Guide for those not haunting Fenway on a regular basis, and for even those who do, I'm sure they'd learn something new from Smith's thourough research.

OVERALL: 7/10

Purchase "Fenway Park E-Guide" here - http://www.ballparkeguides.com/

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The Die-Hard Sports Fans Guide to Boston: A Spectators Handbook: Book Review

When I first sat down to read "The Die-Hard Sports Fan's Guide to Boston", I wasn't sure what to expect. There are few places in the world with fans as fervent as the ones in Beantown. Boston fans bleed their teams' colors, live and die with their successes and failures, and generally make fans in other parts of the country seem like idle followers. Christopher Klein has managed to put together a nice little compendium of the various sports teams, from the collegiate and amateur levels through the professional ranks, as well as a fairly detailed history behind each. While a lot of detail is given to Boston's professional teams, he does spend a good part of the book on the college and non-pro teams as well. Along with descriptions and histories of the franchises, he gives some insight into how to maximize your sports-watching. He also provides key information about where to get tickets, the best places to eat, fun things for the kids to do, even the accessibility of a given sports complex. All of this creates a book that can make even a casual fan into a die-hard.

And that may be the problem. Most of the information covered in this book is common knowledge to true die-hard Boston fans. While there are some fun facts relating to the history of each sports team, any die-hard worth his salt already knows the best place to score a Red Sox ticket, or which bars to avoid after a Celtics game lets out. The saving grace is that many die-hard fans are often die-hards for only one or two of the teams in town. Some Red Sox fans don't watch the Bruins. Some Bruins fans don't watch the Celtics. So, for those fans, this book can be a great refresher for the other teams in town, and perhaps pique some interest in a sport they wouldn't necessarily follow. Personally, I found the information regarding the college teams interesting, as I've rarely followed non-professional teams in the past. Now that I've read TDSFGTB, a new appreciation for Boston College football and Harvard hockey has been discovered.

Overall, I rate this book a solid 7 out of 10. For a rather short book, it is packed with a wealth of information. And, even if it does contain many tidbits of knowledge that most die-hards already know, I imagine even the most hardcore fan can appreciate this knowledge being gathered into one place. Give it a read, and see how far into die-hard fandom it will take you.

OVERALL: 7/10

Book Site - http://www.bostonsportsguide.com/
Author Site - http://www.christopherklein.com/

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The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78: Book Review

I have to admit, that when I was first approached to review Richard Bradley's new book, The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78, I was more then a little hesitant to check it out. The reasons should be fairly obvious because A) In the end evil conquers good B) Bucky Dent gets a new middle name and C) Yaz pops up to end the game. It'd be comparable to reading a book about the 1986 World Series (Which I've sort of done) and just seemed kind of masochistic.

What ended up swaying me to read The Greatest Game was because (I'm dating myself here) I was born one year after this "greatest game" and figured I should buff up on my knowledge of the history of the great (and recently frustrating) rivalry that is Red Sox vs. Yankees. I've already read David Halberstam's masterpiece, Summer of '49, which also ends poorly for the Sox fan so I figured it couldn't be too bad, and it wasn't, to a point.

Very early in the book you can see the skill that Richard Bradley posses as a writer, and it's no surprise that he has written for the likes of The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, George, and the New Republic. I think my favorite part of how he did the entire book is break the game and 1978 season into cohesive chucks volleying back and forth between the Sox and Yanks. He takes you from the end of the 1977 season through Spring Training, and to the climatic end of the '78 season. I also really appreciated how he profiled the players on each side of the diamond equally and in an unbiased way. Learning about the likes of Munson, Fisk, Yaz, and more was a true treat and a glimpse into that time.

Bradley paints a vivd,and at times painful picture of what baseball and its players were like back in the 1970's. People who know or live in Boston will get a kick out of the Yankees getting drunk the night at Daisy Buchanan's of all places (After a night involving too much tequila I've sworn off that place!), and it's little touches like that that assist you in remembering the men who played the game in a time that is now past. Free agency was still and infant, players were just entering mega-star staatus via Reggie Jackson, and an innosence still permiated the millions dollar game. Bottom line, this is a good book if you're a Sox fan, Yanks fan, or baseball fan.

OVERALL: 8/10

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Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends, and Eerie Events: Book Review

Reading Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends, and Eerie Events was certainly a little bit off the beaten path of the normal baseball book I read and review, however I think that's something that originally attracted me to reviewing it. I've been known to have an interest in things that are "unexplainable" and definitely think that at worst case scenario it's fun to think about.

I think that's one of the funnest parts about reading this book, the actual thinking about seeing the ghost  of a famous ballplayer of the past. Does the book make you a believer in ghosts? Not even close. Is it the best book I've ever read? Nope. But it is a fun read, and in between baseball specters and ghouls there's a lot of baseball history crammed into here, which is something I never will pass up. There's quite a few Red Sox references in here as well as numerous other ballclubs. They go from Spring Training facilities to ball parks to hotels, and each chapter seems new and fun.

Some of the stories seem a little forced and unnecessarily, however in general the theme of the book wins out which makes it a quick and enjoyable read. I mean come on we're talking ghosts and baseball here, if Field of Dreams proved anything, it proved that those two for whatever reason are a magical combo, and there certainly is magic at times between these pages.

Overall: 7/10

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Florida Spring Training: Your Guide to Touring the Grapefruit League: Book Review

With the beginning of 2008 Spring Training sitting upon our door step I thought what better way to kick it off then reviewing, Florida Spring Training: Your Guide to Touring the Grapefruit League. This is Alan Byrd's first book, and you can tell he has picked a subject that he loves and is passionate about, spring training baseball. Byrd is a native New Englander who was transplanted in Florida at a young age. He may have ended up missing out on a slew of Fenway games, however he was given one of the best gifts a baseball fan can receive, and that's Spring Training.

The magic and hope that spring training brings each year is well documented, and something I'll talk about in more detail later this week. Needless to say I'm definitely a little jealous of the research Byrd was able to do for this book, as well as the countless spring training games he's been witness to over the years. I've yet to attend spring training, however if I was, Florida Spring Training: Your Guide to Touring the Grapefruit League, would be one of the first things I'd pack.

This is not the type of book that you sit down with and read cover to cover (although you could), it's to be used much more as a guide in planning your trip as well as using once you're at your destination. It's very much like a Lonely Planet or Frommer's book on traveling, except the destination of choice here is the Grapefruit League, which isn't too bad of a destination at all.

City of Palms in Ft. Myers, the Red Sox spring training facility, has about 10 pages dedicated to it which are helpful. Each facility discussed mentions things such as food, parking, place to go after the game, where to find good shade, etc.

Overall: 6.5/10

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Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong: Book Review

Baseball Between the Numbers: Why Everything You Know About the Game Is Wrong, which is a book put together by the great minds over at BaseballProspectus.com, was one of the more interesting and challenging baseball books I've read in awhile. Unlike some of the other books I've reviewed on SawxBlog, I wouldn't suggest this book for the casual baseball fan. This is a book that is based around a lot of modern day statistics that are not showing up in your newspapers box scores yet, and if you're not looking to be challenged you won't make it too far with Baseball Between the Numbers.

The more educated or sophisticated fan will not be surprised with a lot that's in here, and I'm sure they'd already have prior knowledge of most of what's being talked about here. However, how Baseball Prospectus approaches these statistics, and the subsequent arguments that arise from them, is always done in a fun and interesting way. Having titles of chapters like, "What if Rickey Henderson Had Pete Incaviglia's Legs" & "Why Doesn't Billy Beane's Shit Work in the Playoffs?" are sure to pique your interest.

There's a notes and glossary section in the back of the book to help you understand acronyms you may not be too familiar with so you don't get too lost in the fray of baseball statistics. The the team of writers do a decent job in not trying to talk over your head, and there's also an assortment of graphs and equations that couple together with what you're reading within the pages.

In short if you have a passion for the game, and a desire to see the game more like modern day GM's and front offices are looking at it, then this book is most certainly for you. I found myself re-reading a few paragraphs more then once, but felt like it was very good in my continuing education of the game. I also feel that this book is especially good for Red Sox fans to read. Not only because I'd like us to continue to be some of the more knowledgeable fans in the game, but also because the pursuit and balance of modern day baseball statistics has become bible throughout the Red Sox organization, and has obviously shown its dividends in the previous few seasons (the payroll doesn't hurt either...).

Baseball Between the Numbers may or may not flip the world of baseball on end for you, depending on your depth of knowledge on modern day stats, but if you love the game, you'll have to respect the knowledge and commit shown by the individual authors within the book, which truly does get you between the numbers.

Overall: 9.5/10

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Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head--My 25 Years in Baseball: Book Review

I saw Tim Kurkjian speak about his new book, Is This a Great Game, or What?: From A-Rod's Heart to Zim's Head--My 25 Years in Baseball, back in November at The Great Fenway Park Writers Series, and it was one of the better events I've been to. Tim's love for the game of baseball was ever apparent that night, and it was just as apparent when reading Is This a Great Game...

Kurkjian has a ton of great stories that you'd only know or hear from being so close to the game for such an extended period of time. Tim's very humble in his abilities and profession, and his passion for the game is unparalleled. He's long been one of my favorite talking heads on Baseball Tonight, and some of the stories that lie with in the book are absolutely golden.

A lot of Tim's stories involve the Baltimore Orioles since that's where he was on the beat for so long and is where he currently resides. This leads to some amazing stories on Cal Ripken that really shows his competitive nature and spirit. Another aspect I really like about Tim is his his ability to defend baseball against other sports.

He makes the great point that baseball is a sport more of a skill then just pure athleticism, unlike football or basketball which rely heavily on athleticism. I thought one of the most interesting points he made was in comparing baseball and basketball (another sport he loves). The point he made is the worse thing that can happen in basketball is that you'll get dunked on, and the worse thing that can happen to you in baseball is that you can die. He dedicates an entire chapter to how certain ballplayers dealt with, or didn't deal with, the effects of recovering from serious injuries involving baseballs. Which was truly fascinating.

The book is written simply, and is a fairly quick read. If I had to use one adjective to describe the book it'd be 'fun'. Tim's joy of covering the game truly shines through and that makes for a fun read. And that's what baseball's supposed to be right? Fun.

Overall: 7/10

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Cobb: A Biography: Book Review

Before I get started in on the Cobb review, I just wanted to let you all know that we're getting closer to pitchers and catchers reporting (19 days baby!), and we'll finally all have something to read, write, and digest aside from the Sox having a freaking logo on their jersey while in Japan. I guess we do have the hype of a certain football game to be jammed down our throats and distract us, and as amazing as the Pats season has been (and boy has it been amazing, just read my second to last post), I miss my Sox.

I miss hearing Don and Remy, I miss crowded T's as I leave work (well...sort of), I miss scouring Craigs List for Sox tickets, I miss seeing Manny Ortez (Kerry reference there people), I mean...I guess I just miss the ritual of baseball. Like I said, we only have 19 days left, and we'll be able to see the Patriots win the Superbowl in between those days, but the fact is we're close again folks. We'll have the ability to see the the 2008 Red Sox be the first team since the 1916 Red Sox to repeat as champions, and truly take the throne of the team of the decade. And that my friends, is something to look forward to.

Unless there's some earth shattering news I'm going to be focusing on reviews on some books, DVDs, and even the Fenway Park Tour that I've been holding onto for a bit the next few days. Holler my way if you got something to say, and as always, Go Sox/Pats. Now, onto Cobb.

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I've read and written two baseball book reviews before that basically revolved around a biography on a player. One was on the best Red Sox player who ever lived (Ted Williams), and the other was on the best baseball player who ever lived (Babe Ruth). Now I write about the first player ever to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, a guy who beat out the like of Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson, Mr. Ty Cobb.

One of my favorite authors of all-time, Ernest Hemingway, probably summed up the essence of Ty Cobb best in his one sentence description of his sometime friend, sometime hunting buddy:

"Ty Cobb, the greatest of all ballplayers - and an absolute shit."
       - Ernest Hemingway

I couldn't have written it any better. There's absolutely no doubt that against all odds Cobb was the best player of his era, and looking back he has to be in almost every top 5 list imaginable. I mean, he stole home an unbelievable 54 times! He played the game with a ferocity and abandonment that is absolutely admirable. He bent any and every rule as far as he could to win, which in the end, is what every ballplayer worth his salt wants to do, win the game at hand. His skills at the time in hitting and base running were far more advanced then those of his peers, and his baseball smarts and cunning ability to get into the minds of his opposition were at the level of the shrewdest of generals.

However there was an awfully dark side to Ty Cobb. He was an open racist who wasn't all that far removed from the conflict of the Civil War. He was a violent man, who in later years grew to have an insatiable appetite for drink. He was an awful husband, and an even worse father. He was rude, confrontational, and and an uncompromising figure.

I believe a large reason why Cobb became the man he was is due to the murky and untimely death of his father, who was truly the only man he ever looked up to or respected. The long and short of it is Cobb's mother may or may not have been having an affair on his father, however she most certainly did shoot him when he was peering into their second story window, which in result ended with the the drawing of his last breath.

From their a true rage always lied within Cobb, and although he always took care of his Mother, everything seems to stem from this life altering event. The author of the book, Al Stump, does a beautiful job in giving enough of Cobb's life pre and post baseball, however he spends a significant chunk on Cobb's playing days. From Cobb writing letters to an Atlanta newspaper hyping his own play, to his shrewd and smart business decisions (he invested heavily in some company named Coca-Cola), to his constant battle with teammates and opponents alike, Cobb always seems to succeed in his personal battles, but never in the larger and more broad picture of life.

One thing that I'm finding extremely interesting is how hated the best player of each generation seems to be. It happened with Cobb, it happened with Ruth and Williams to an extent, and it's most certainly happening to Bonds and A-Rod now. The best players seem to be part of a club that only they can understand, and maybe their arrogance and cocky nature is large part of their success. And may be a reason why some of these players never end up winning many or any World Series. Or maybe like Hemingway said, they're just shits. Either way, reading this shed a great deal of light on the man and player, and also the game around the time, which is always fun. Reading about the rivalry of him and Ruth was utterly fascinating, and I feel lucky enough to have stumbled across this book, and suggest you do the same.

Overall: 7.5/10

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The Mitchell Report and how it's related to the Red Sox & Beyond

The Mitchell Report will be just as important as Juiced when history looks back on the steroid era. (Mitchell Report Screen-shot)

Before I get started with my analysis of the Mitchell Report let's first talk about the special version we put together here at SawxBlog. This version is a condensed PDF of the report with only the pages that contain the words Red Sox on them. There were 23 total pages that contained the words Red Sox on them, and the words Red Sox appeared (by my count) a total of 37 times. If you try to read this version cover-to-cover it probably won't make too much sense to you, and it will appear jumbled. However this will let you know the context that the words Red Sox were brought up in the report, which is at the very least interesting. I will also provide a link to the complete report which I also highly recommend reading. In the SawxBlog Red Sox version any appearance of the words Red Sox is highlighted yellow for your convenience.

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Depending on your Browser you may have to right-click to save the SawxBlog Red Sox version.

- Click Here to Download the SawxBlog Red Sox version of the Mitchell Report

- Click Here to Download the Complete Mitchell Report

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So it's taken me a little while to throw my hat in the ring on the issue of the Mitchell Report, however I'm confident enough to say that I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on both the report and what it means for baseball, and more specifically, the Boston Red Sox. Bold statement I know, but it's one I'm willing to make. Being the baseball dork I am, the first thing I did when the report was released was to print it out and  run down to the Boylston Street Copy Cop and get all 409 pages of the report bound for posterity sake, as well as readability. This report is something that's going right into my baseball library, and may be one of my more prized pieces. I've read the entire report cover to cover, and feel it's an important moment in baseball history, and one that a lot can be learned from.

Much like Jose Canseco's book Juiced was scoffed at when it was first published, so was the Mitchell Report by a lot of baseball experts upon its release. However as we've been seeing over the past month, running parallel with the life of Juiced, the longer the Mitchell Report is out there, the more credibility and steam it gains. This is happening a lot faster then it did for Juiced, however Juiced helped pave the way for this report and other books such as Game of Shadows, and has allowed these books and reports to be viewed with a less skeptical eye.

With the amount of players coming forward and admitting to their involvement in the report also gives it that much more credibility, and really is the biggest asset of the report. The report does a wonderful job of outlining the history of not only steroids and baseball, but drug use in general in baseball, which obviously runs along the same line (no pun indented) as steroids. My biggest gripe about the report is that doesn't really present a clear cut solution to the problem presented to baseball by steroids. Maybe this wasn't the end result, but the Mitchell Report is clearly a large step in not moving away from the steroid era, but accepting it as a fact, and moving on from there.

A lot of people were expecting or hoping for the Mitchell Report to be "the final chapter" on the steroid era, as well as "close the book" on the issues involving steroids. However the fact of the matter is that to able to close the door you'd have to be out of the room, and with new designer steroid drugs being made all the time, with resulting different varying degrees of detection by baseball (and sports in general) we probably will never truly be out of the steroid era. Who knows maybe we'll now call it the "HGH Era", or "Steroid Era: The Golden Years". HGH is the perfect example of this, and even though it's now widely known about on the public stage, there's still no real way to try and detect it via blood or urine tests. A lot of the players who were indicted in the Mitchell Report were indicted because of internet and paper trails they left behind, and I think that's where a lot of the future for "catching" players using illegal substances lies. Like everything in life though, everything is ever evolving, and so will it be with trying to keep up with how and what players are using.

As far as the Red Sox and the Mitchell Report go, the Sox got off fairly easy, but still had some big-time names included. They did have a former MVP (Mo Vaughn, one of my all-time favorite players...) named, as well as two players from the 2007 Championship team (Gagme & Donnelly), however aside from the Paxton Crawford incident (which wasn't really news), it was fairly minor. Does this mean that no Red Sock on the 2004 squad used steroids, or that only two on the 2007 team used steroids? Of course not. You'd have to be the blindest homer in the world to not recognize and accept that every team in MLB baseball was and is affected by this. Christ, Jose Canseco was in our beloved Fenway Clubhouse, that alone tells you the Sox are clean by no means.

What I liked about the report that some don't is that names were named. Now, we'll never know every player who used steroids from 1980-2006, that's impossible, but we have to know some, and it may not be fair that some aren't mentioned, but you know what life isn't fair, and if you play sometimes you have to pay. If you had the advantage of the enhancement of steroids and were playing with loaded dice then what you get is what you get, and you're getting no sympathy from me. I love the fact that finally pitchers are really being thrown into the ring of steroid users, and it's no longer just "dudes who can hit a long ball" that are/were considered users.. Which leads me the that big lying Texan, and the best pitcher in Red Sox history, Roger Clemens.

I'm not going to write much on this clown right now because I'm going to wait until he digs his grave a little deeper with his 60 Minutes interview, but it sure is saying a lot about baseball that in the past 20 years the best hitter (Barry Bonds) and the best pitcher (Roger Clemens) both used steroids. I think Roger's embarrassing himself and his reputation an immense amount with how he's handling this and it really is a shame he can't man up like a lot of other people and admit the truth. But what do you expect, he's always been a paid mercenary who cared most about money, and by him taking 'roids he sure got more money. Maybe Dan Duquette was right when he said he was entering the "twilight of his career", it doesn't seem so crazy anymore that's for sure.

So yeah, in short (or is it long now?), the Mitchell Report helped open the umbrella a little further on how deep steroids have penetrated the game, and the depth goes as deep as bone. It's now a hitter/pitcher thing, and the very best of each of those is involved. We further know and have the history of this evolution down, however until we can really breakdown the good ol' boy fraternity and get players to talk more openly about the use of steroids, we'll only find out the who and the when little by little, and piece by piece.

The solution? Your guess is as good as mine but be sure to stay tuned, this is far from over. That's one point the Mitchell Report was sure to make.