The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games [Hardcover]

Cecilia Tan (Author), Bill Nowlin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2006

Advance Praise for THE 50 GREATEST RED SOX GAMES



"Here's the deal. It costs about $43 for a grandstand seat at Fenway Park these days, unless you buy the ticket from a scalper, which makes the cost $2 million. If you went to just 50 games of any dimension that means the cost would be either $2,150 or $100 million. Here, for considerably less, you get the 50 greatest games the Red Sox ever played plus tight prose, snappy anecdotes, and reasoned judgments. Bargains like this don't come often. Plus, you don't even have to pay for parking."
--Leigh Montville, author of Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero

"It's a daunting task, but Cecilia Tan and Bill Nowlin have come up with the Red Sox greatest hits album, the box set. Enjoy."
--Dan Shaughnessy, author of Reversing the Curse

"Old Towne Team fans will think they have died and gone to heaven with The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games in their grasp. Informative, exciting, entertaining . . . Cecilia Tan and Bill Nowlin have done a good deed for the Fenway faithful."
--Harvey Frommer, coauthor of Red Sox vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Any guesses as to which game Cecilia Tan and Bill Nowlin choose as the greatest of them all in their Fifty Greatest Red Sox Games (Wiley)? Correct. And second to that magic engagement that spanned Oct. 17 and 18, 2004, is Sunday, Oct. 12, 1986, best remembered for Dave Henderson's exculpatory home run and sacrifice fly against the Angels. It saved the Red Sox from extinction in the ALCS, propelling them toward Oct. 25, 1986, the sixth greatest contest, according to the two savants, synonymous though it is with the expression 'Bill Buckner.' The games, which range from 1903 to 2004, are excellently described and reflected upon—as well as highly debatable, making the book a bible for bibulous evenings." (The Boston Globe)

Review

"Here's the deal. It costs about $43 for a grandstand seat at Fenway Park these days, unless you buy the ticket from a scalper, which makes the cost $2,000,000. If you went to just 50 games of any dimension that means the cost would be either $2150 or $1,000,000,000. Here, for considerably less, you get the 50 GREATEST games the Red Sox ever played plus tight prose, snappy anecdotes and reasoned judgements. Bargains like this don't come often. Plus, you don't even have to pay for parking."
—Leigh Montville, author Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero

"It’s a daunting task, but Cecilia Tan and Bill Nowlin have come up with the Red Sox greatest hits album, the box set. Enjoy."
—Dan Shaughnessy, author of Reversing the Curse

"Old Towne Team fans will think they have died and gone to heaven with The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games in their grasp. Informative, exciting, entertaining...Cecilia Tan and Bill Nowlin have done a good deed for the Fenway faithful."
—Harvey Frommer, co-author, Red Sox Vs. Yankees: The Great Rivalry

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471697516
• ISBN-13: 978-0471697510
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,736,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars From Big Bill Dinneen to Keith Foulke; 50 games, 101 years, July 1, 2007

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The Ginger Man - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games (Hardcover)

The authors have set themselves the difficult task of deciding which Red Sox games are not in the top 50. My personal feeling is that you cannot leave out the clinching playoff game against the Indians in 1999 in which an injured Pedro Martinez comes out of the bullpen to pitch hitless relief while Troy O'Leary clinches the series with a grand slam.

Overall though, Tan and Nowlin do a good job of selecting games from all Red Sox eras without overemphasizing the most recent. They do an especially good job describing games from early 20th century world championship runs. Extensive research was done and is obvious in the text. I most enjoyed the quotes from newspapers of the time written in syntax that could have come out of Guys and Dolls. Each game summary is 3-4 pages long. I think play by play detail is stressed at the expense of placing the game in full context. But the book is fun to read especially at the beach or during a baseball game in which the Sox have a big lead and you are passing the time.

This is probably a book for Sox fans only and one that would not likely have been written without the success of 2004. Older fans can relive some great moments while newer Sox followers (and they do seem to sprout up everywhere) can use this book as a primer on seasons they have missed.