Right now I have heard of two books in the works-- one by Leigh Montville due to be release just before Christmas-- and the other by Stephen King(Faithful) due out 1st week in December.

Has anyone heard of any others of interest?

Actually, Faithful" comes out 11/21 (today) according to King's website.

Thanks for the head's up. I believe CHB has a book in the works too., although I could care less when that one comes out.

I figured I'd give this thread a bump to see if anyone has heard of any other books about the 2004 season. I've already read the two that are out there(King and Montville).

Here are some I've heard about:
A Tale of Two Cities: The 2004 Yankee-Red Sox Rivalry and the War for the Pennant by Tony Massarotti and John Harper, ISBN: 1592287042 (March 2005)

Emperors and Idiots : The Hundred Year Rivalry between the Yankees and Red Sox, From the Very Beginning to the End of the Curse by Mike Vaccaro, ISBN: 0385513542 (March 2005)

Red Sox Nation: An Unexpurgated History Of The Red Sox by Peter Golenbock, ISBN: 1572437448 (March 2005)

I can't find the link from the Globe, but I know Damon's got a book coming out near Opening Day.

Montville's new book is called "Why Not Us?" How would you like to be one of the guys on the cover of the book?

Not really, because they're not very good looking.

Didn't ask ya to trade places Bud! It would just be cool to be on a historic book like this one by Montville.

hey, I'm IN it!

This is a total diversion, and should probably go in a more general book thread, but I just finished reading "I Was Right On Time" by Buck O'Neil, and feel compelled to recommend it. A great baseball book. I highly recommend it to anyone who, like me, was enthralled by watching Buck on Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries (also great to have in your collection), and is also great for anyone who wants to learn more about the Negro Leagues.

/hijack

Me too! Though they totally butchered my user name. It's 6 letters long! How hard is it?!?!?

I heard that someone's publishing the Win It For thread over at SoSH, but it may not come out for a while.

thanks for the head's up. If you hear of others, post em'.

I heard that Johnny Damon is writing a book about the 2004 season, and it will be released in the first week in April, just as the World Champions begin their title defense in New York against the Chokers.......

There is a rumor that our own JTB is coming out with a book entitled, "The man who loved Mark Bellhorn."

I hear it's a must read.

A new edition of Watching Baseball, by Jerry Remy, will be available in April, 2005. One would assume that excerpts from the 2004 Sox season will be included, and all the typos from the first edition... not included.

Speaking of typos did anyone notice the ones in Faithful.
I thought it was a great book, but i noticed two typos in it.
1. They called the Toronto Blue Jays Simon Pond Simon Bond
2. The other one of them said that the Brawl May 20, 1976 was started when Thurman Munson barrelled over Carlton Fisk. as we all know it was Lou Pinella.

anyone else notice these?

iam reading faithful now...i am only in the month of may, but so far its pretty good....i like the laid back style, and king can be funny as hell.

The style allows you to read a page or two here and there and not miss a beat, which works out well for me at the moment.

I agree about King being funny. In some cases I've enjoyed reading the introductions to his books more than I have reading the actual story. If you want more King anecdotes and humor I recommend his book "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft" even if you're not particularly interested in creative writing. It's a fun and interesting read.

Damon's book should be the most interesting of all of them out there.

I caught another mistake in the book. O'Nan says that Albert Pujols singled with one out in the ninth of Game 4. Actually Pujols led off the inning with a single. I did find a few miscues like that, but overall it's a great read.

i agree gerky...i read a few pages here or there, and its great.

has anyone read massarotti's tale of two cities book? that one sounds pisser.

Maybe his editor; it's not out until March of THIS year.

Hate to give this guy publicity, but:
Reversing the Curse by Dan Shaughnessy (Updated to include 2004), ISBN: 0618517480 (May 2005)

And there is also:
Red Sox: Where Have You Gone? by Steve Buckley, ISBN:1582619611 (March 2005)

Edited, because it is 2005....

Bought a copy of Faithful today. Haven't read a word yet. But LOVE the front cover!!!!!

I'm reading King's Faithful right now. It reads like a couple of sox fans typing whatever random thoughts cross their minds. It's day to day drivel at best and I can't on earth understand why anyone would read the random daily thoughts of a red sox fan.

signed,

daily royal rooter reader

Correct me if I'm wrong, but he commented on BK flipping the bird in the ALCS in '03, didn't that actually happen in the ALDS against Oakland?

You are correct sir! It happen during the introductions before Game 3 of the ALDS against Oakland........

i think the book Faithful is great errors and all. it shows two fans who just happen to be good writers talking about their team, i know that reading it it took me back to where i was during each game. brought back great memories of 2004. can't wait for Damon's book, that will be off the charts as well.

Yes, GoNM and I will be doing it boldface/ normal type- me the Bellhorn, he the Reese. The yin, the yang. Good stuff.

Spaceman Bill Lee's book "Have Glove, Will Travel - Adventures of a Baseball Vagabond" comes out next month.

Previews and a typical Lee-ian excerpt can be found here: Have Glove, Will Travel.

In a brief conversation, he did say that he addresses the Series in the book. Now whether he meant the '04 Series or the '75 Series, we'll have to see!

Here's the Johnny Damon book others have talked about. It's entitled Idiot : ... Or How I Learned to Stop Thinking and Beat "The Curse". Peter Golenbock did the ghostwriting. Golenbock's a Yankee fan, but a good sports historian. His written a lot about the Yanks, but has also done "Wrigleyville" and "The Spirit of St. Louis." He also has a different Red Sox book coming out (previously referenced in this thread).

I like how Damon can be relied on for an interview no matter what. I remember after the second lost in the ALCS, he said something about having dug themselves into a hole. After Game 3's thrashing, he said "I guess we've dug ourselves into an even deeper hole. But even idiots know how to dig."

Very exciting book coming out by Baseball Prospectus on the Red Sox/Yankees series last year. I haven't been able to find any title or ISBN yet, just snippets of descriptions in various contributing author's blogs:

From The Pinstriped Blog by Steven Goldman:
"When not looking at pretty pictures, I've been editing a new book from the Baseball Prospectus about (forgive me, Yankees fans) how the Boston Red Sox went about breaking their so-called curse and winning the World Series. We talk about where they got smart, where they got lucky, and of course we detail every one of their confrontations with the Yankees in 2004. Among other topics, we explore why the Yankees have been so successful against Pedro Martinez, why the Red Sox seem to have the key to Mariano Rivera, and how the recipe for future confrontations between these two superpowers will require the Red Sox to emulate aspects of Yankees' methodology, loathe as they might be to admit it. That will be out this spring."

From Futility Infielder by Jay Jaffe:
"That Pedro Martinez chapter he referenced is mine, and I spent a good part of December working on it, mining data via Retrosheet, going over my own blog entries about his two late-September starts against them, watching parts of those performances via MLB.tv, and bemusedly reviewing his history of outrageous Yankee-themed quotations about drilling the Bambino in the ass and calling the Yankees his daddy....
Hehehe... even though the project concerns the championship victory of the team I loathe and the worst collapse in baseball history of the team I spend the most time covering, I'm incredibly grateful and excited to be part of it. It's a great story, one of the best in baseball history, and as a writer I'd be a damn fool not to put aside my own rooting interests to participate in its telling with a group of writers I admire (and earning a little scratch in the process). Not to worry, Sox fans, among BP's ranks there are plenty of folks on both sides of the aisle to insure a balanced book, and that includes editor Goldman."

Yeah, I know, 2 Yankee fan authors. But Goldman, even though he is part of the YES Network, is no schill.

This book promises to be terrific. Maybe someone else out there knows the title and so forth? And the names of any other contributors?

Blood Feud: The Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Struggle of Good Versus Evil
by Jim Prime and Bill Nowlin, ISBN: 1579401112, March 2005

Plan to do a lot of buying and reading in March; that is when the majority of these new books are being released.

Win If For will be coming out this spring. I have already written the Preface and the Afterward; Curt Schilling is writing the Forward.

I have already read Idiot as Peter Golenbock is a friend of mine and he had me check it for content cross-checking purposes. Lots of fascinating observations on Johnny's part, particularly his take on rival players. It will deservedly be a best-seller; Johnny and Pete did a great job on the book.

I am currently perusing through a book co-authored by John Harper and Tony Mazzoriti entitled, A Tale of Two Cities. Fascinating antidotes throughout, with marvelous quotations with cuss words included from players, coaches, and management of both sides. That book will be out in a month.

i was at a barnes & noble the other day and i couldn't believe how many books there were on the Red Sox

Spaceman's book is out... no mention of the 04 WS but I'm halfway through it and have been laughing my *ss off! Hunter Thompson-like tales of Spaceman's life after Boston and Montreal, traveling the globe and playing ball anywhere with anybody and everybody.

The dust jacket had a link to SPACEMAN IN CUBA which appears to be Lee's venture into documentary filmmaking.

The clip reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Kramer drove the Reality Tour bus... only this time it's Spaceman driving. I can't wait for the premier!

The Jacklamabe/ "Win it For" book is coming out - here is the link if anyone's interested:
www.sportspublishingllc.com/book.cfm?id=726

I picked up Red Sox Nation today at Borders (I had funds on a gift card to burn; I would otherwise get it through the link above, of course). I'll let you know how it is. Golenbock is also Johnny Damon's co-writer on his book.

The final four chapters are ladened with interviews from a few choice fans, including familiar posters from both Royal Rooters and SOSH. The ending of the tome is extremely moving.

I just blew through A Tale of Two Cities this weekend. I was expecting a little more stuff on the playoff series, but it was still pretty good. However, there is a lot of juicy stuff that happens in both of these clubhouses that I did not realize before. I won't spoil it by telling everybody what these segments are. As a point of reference, this book blew Faithful by King and O'Nan out of the water.

I still can't read the "Win It For" section of Leigh Montville's book without tearing up. Not even Faith Rewarded does that to me...

Thanks. Win it For - the book - will be published on or around Opening Day. Copies of the first edition are almost off the press as I write this.

I am meeting with editor Dean Miller tomorrow to peruse through an advanced copy of Win it For. Several Royal Rooters posters will be featured in the tome. I'll let you know what I think of the product as soon as I can. From what I've heard thus far, the book truly captures the essence of the original thread.

I have just pre-ordered my copy of Win It For today. I can't wait until it arrives. If interested here is the publishers address:
http://www.sportspublishingllc.com/book.cfm?id=726

Does anybody know when "Win it for" will be in the bookstore, or amazon.com?

I'm confident that Shaun will make sure we're among the first to know.

Just got "Win it for" today at my local Borders here in Cleveland. Reading through it is almost a perfect ending to a perfect day.

Resurrecting an old thread here, but I think this thread is most appropriate. The Baseball Prospectus will release Mind Game: How the Boston Red Sox Got Smart and Finally Won a World Series shortly. Steve Goldman, one of the authors, does indeed write a Yankees blog, but there are other authors. Others featured include Gary Huckabay and Dave Pease.

Just got done reading "Faithful" a few weeks ago.

King was great, of course, but O'Nan was painfully annoying.

How many teams can he refer to as "we?" He was born/raised in Pittsburgh and is a lifelong Bucs fan, so he refers to them as "we." And of course, he also calls the Sox "we."

I don't have a problem with calling one team "we" -- I do it too -- but there's something dishonest and bandwagonny about referring to multiple teams as "we." If the Sox and the Pirates were to ever meet in a WS, how would O'Nan describe it? "Going into the Series, I thought for sure we'd beat us in 5 games -- 6 max -- but amazingly we got beat by us in 4 games. I just can't believe we handled us so easily. That's awesome! And it sucks."

Anyway, O'Nan has the fan mentality (fantality?) of a 9 year old, what with the butterfly nets, and the autographs, and the "hey, go get 'em, Trot!" rah-rah stuff.

But like I said, King was King. One of the best writers of our generation.

I just noticed this book on Amazon. Has anyone read it or seen any reviews yet?

EDIT - Here is an inside look of the book by author Steve Goldman on Baseball Prospectus.
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=4224