Synopses & Reviews
In the year 2001, the Red Sox will celebrate one hundred years of baseball in Boston. In no other city, in no other sport, has there been a team that has enjoyed such a loyal following and yet has broken more hearts. This is the Red Sox story in its entirety, much of it never before told -- from the team's inception, orchestrated by baseball czar Ban Johnson, and its early peak in 1918, with its fifth and last World Series win; through the glory years, which saw the rise of such greats as Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Teddy Ballgame, and Yaz, and which witnessed the "Impossible Dream" of 1967 and near-misses in 1975 and 1986; to the present, when the Sox are still chasing the world championship that their fabled destiny seems not to want them to have.
In these pages, many a Red Sox myth is debunked, and many stories are told for the first time. Did the Red Sox fix the first World Series game ever played? What is the truth about Babe Ruth and Harry Frazee? Did Johnny Pesky hold the ball? Does Fenway Park have a future? Will the Red Sox ever win a World Series again? Drawn from countless interviews and tireless research and illustrated with more than two hundred photographs, Red Sox Century is far more than a picture book. It is a comprehensive and always colorful history of a team that helped to define not only its city but its sport.
Review
Red Sox Century serves as both a history of the team and a tribute to the American game. You can read it straight through or dip into it like well-water on a hot day. In either case it richly repays your attention. Robert B. Parker
Synopsis
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. 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 Tom Boswell and 275 photographs, Red Sox Century is the definitive look at Fenways finest . . . Artistic, well researched, and elegant” (Boston Globe). This is a book that no self-respecting Red Sox fan should be without.
About the Author
Richard A. Johnson is the curator of the Sports Museum of New England, the author of A Century of Boston Sports: Photographs and Memories, the co-author of Young at Heart: The Story of Johnny Kelley, and a freelance writer whose work is also published frequently in regional and national magazines and newspapers. He has written numerous illustrated sports books with Glenn Stout, including Yankees Century and The Dodgers, and they are both frequent commentators on all things Red Sox for national and regional television and radio, including HBO and ESPN.Glenn Stout has been the series editor of The Best American Sports Writing since its inception and has written three illustrated biographies with Richard A. Johnson: Ted Williams: A Portrait in Words and Pictures, Joe DiMaggio: An Illustrated Life, and Jackie Robinson: Between the Baselines. He is a columnist for Boston Baseball, and the acclaimed author of Red Sox Century, Yankees Century, and The Dodgers. His work has appeared in many regional and national magazines and newspapers.