Customer Reviews

Believe it! World Series Champion Boston Red Sox & Their Remarkable 2004 Season

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is full of editorial errors and the Boston Globe should be embarrassed that they ever printed it. We waited 86 years for a championship. The Boston Globe could have spent a few more days to get the book out without these glaring mistakes. Here are a few that I found in less than 10 minutes.

1. Box score for game 1 of World Series is incorrect. RBI category is wrong.

2. Line score at top of page shows St. Louis scoring 4 runs in top of 9th inning. (Good thing that did not really happen)

3. Page 22: Text on left of page that describes picture is incomplete sentence.

4. Box score for game 2 of World Series is wrong. They actually printed the box score for game 3. Box score from game 2 is missing. (Game 3 box score is listed twice in the book) It's like Curt Schilling never pitched!

5. Box score for game 4 shows Arroyo giving up an earned run. Hard to give up an earned run in a game that was 3-0.

6. Box score for game 5 of ALCS shows New York against Anaheim. How bad is that? Can't even get the teams right. Pretty sure the Red Sox played in that game. (I went to it!)

I contacted the Boston Globe and the editor (James Reid Laymance) directly to inform them of the errors. It has been nearly a month now and I have not been contacted.

Do not buy this book!! As a historical keepsake these errors greatly diminish its value.

I'm not a red Sox fan but I am a baseball fan and after purchasing this book I can safely say I was truly disappointed. A respected newspaper like the Boston Globe should turn out a fine publication of it's hometown baseball team conquering the Baseball World in the most dramatic fashion but it fails badly. You can't overlook the grievous statistical errors that appear at various times within the box and line scores. I also have an issue with the choice of pictures, there are very little photos of actual hitting, pitching and fielding, mostly they are of guys celebrating. The reader is left wondering if they ever played games on the field. Not enough actual baseball action photos to detail Boston's great season. A very poor effort and had i known the book would be this disappointing I obviously would have avoided buying it.

So, after 86 years, the Red Sox finally break through. And, for this special, long-awaited moment, does the once-august Boston Globe take the time to lovingly, painstakingly put together a keepsake for its maniacly devoted fans? No. Instead it puts out a complete and utter piece of dreck. Someone at the Globe or publisher Triumph Books - perhaps the entire team charged with assembling this gaffe - ought to be fired. Shame on you.

This book simply was not edited, fact-checked, reviewed, verified or even given the simplest 'once over.' Even a quick read-through should have caused even the most junior editor at the Globe/Triumph to ask that the presses be stopped.

Reviewer Arthur Weeks has compiled a great list and it gives you an idea of just how egregious these errors are - missing box scores, earned runs in shutouts, St. Louis scoring four runs in the ninth inning of a game they lost 6 - 2. You can't make this stuff up.

Here's a couple of more:

- On pages 26 - 27, two pictures claim to show Larry Walker (p. 26) and Jeff Suppan (p. 27) making baserunning blunders. In fact, both pictures are of Walker - different angles, but it's clearly Number 33 in both shots (and Suppan was wearing a warm-up jacket as I recall).

- On page 86, they bollix up the name of the very guy who coined the term 'Curse of the Bambino': the Globe's own Dan Shaughnessy, who here becomes Dan Shaugnessy.

Furthermore, the box scores are of the variety that appeared in your small, local paper circa 1969. They've got about 25% of the content of a box score that appears today in USA Today and most other corners of the statistics-crazed world of baseball. These box scores offer the reader next to no insight on the game.

One other metric to give you an idea of how thin the gruel is: the marketing blurb provided on these pages (no doubt provided by Triumph) says the book is filled with 'hundreds of color photos.' The book, in fact, has exactly 79 photos. And I'm being lenient here by including the front and back cover images and one page that contains six 1.75" x 3" photo head shots of various players.

In short: pathetic.

It's a crying shame. I urge all Red Sox fans to avoid this book.

I want my money back.

Waiting 27 years will whet your appetite for a world championship but thankfully, the wait is over! I purchased Finally! in great anticipation of the quality writing and photography the Boston Globe is known for but came away dissapointed. Photography is a bit grainy and unexciting, the format is in reverse chronology and the writing uninspired. I'm still glad to have this keepsake but not sure if I would recommend it to others. The one commemorative item I have seen that is worth the $$$ is the NESN dvd, Faith Rewarded. If you can only get one commemorative item, go for Faith Rewarded...

I wonder if anyone tried to edit this book. You would think that after 86 years of no championships, this book would be flawless. O well, at least the Boston Globe tried and I'm sure the ring is more important than a book to Red Sox fans.

[...] This book was highly disappointing to me as a huge Sox fan for a number of reasons. In an effort to produce something quickly, the Globe sportswriters wrote some of their worst articles ever. Look no further than inside the front cover, where it says that a statue will be erected to Pedro Martinez, among others. After Pedro bolted for the Mets and trashed the team, that seems highly unlikely. Perhaps if the Globe let some time pass by before writing this trash, they could have placed the championship in a better perspective. For now, however, I am glad that I borrowed a copy instead of paying for one.

In addition to the errors listed by others, I see missing letters in the middle of words, quote marks that are the wrong style (backticks instead of curly quotes, done inconsistently), inconsistent indentations ... it's a typesetting nightmare. Big disappointment.

Yes, the book is full of errors. They are altering history! It's obvious the book was rushed.

Here are some other error facts:

1) The errors seem to be inconsistent. It's almost like they tried to fix them and created others!
2) The box score errors are the saddest part of the book. When you look at the box scores to see how the Sox beat the Yanks so dramatically and the runs don't even add up in the total column...sigh...
3) In my book, the Pedro Martinez tribute story starts on page 116 and re-starts on page 118 (of course these page "numbers" might not match with yours).

Bad edit decisions exist too. Put the World series first, then the ALCS, the ALDS, and then the regular season??? So, I read it backwards.

The pictures are nice. I love the ALCS Game 3 spectator shot (p. 47)--it sums up the feelings I had at that time. Is it worth $25? How big of a fan are you? I'd still by it again, but it's a huge disappointment. What a paradox!

this book is absolutly outstanding!!!
With this book, "Finally".."Curse Reversed"..and the book published by the Boston Herald, you have a great collection and review of the Red Sox 2004 World Championship Season!!