The Boys of October : How the 1975 Boston Red Sox Embodied Baseball's Ideals - and Restored Our Spirits [Hardcover]

Doug Hornig (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 2003

An inspiring look at the heroism and heartbreak of the 1975 World Series

In a year when the nation sorely needed a diversion from the harsh news of the day, it arrived in the form of a Fall Classic that would live up to its name and never be forgotten.

The Boys of October takes the reader back to those 12 exhilarating days in 1975, when the field was guarded by greatness--Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench--as the ragtag Boys from Beantown faced Cincinnati's "Big Red Machine."

Their triumphs and tribulations are all here, from Fisk's historic winning homer in the wee hours of Game Six, to the series' nail-biting finale, decided by a single, heart-stopping run. Through it all, the Boston Red Sox embodied the spirit of the game, in victory and defeat, to give us the series we needed-- and one we'll never forget. Against the backdrop of one turbulent summer, The Boys of October celebrates baseball and the heroes who made it what it is.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The 1975 World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds may have been the best ever played. Native New Englander Hornig, best known for his suspense novels, shares that view. In the magical fall of '75, Hornig was driving a cab in Boston; the Sox, despite their ultimate loss to the Reds, helped him move on with his life. More than two decades later he decided to write a book about members of the team. He interviews Luis Tiant, the colorful Cuban hurler who seemed to glance at the moon before every pitch; Carl Yaztremski, the Hall of Fame outfielder who defined clutch; and Don Zimmer, the Sox coach and soon-to-be manager. Hornig also chats with Bernie Carbo, who succumbed to drugs and alcohol after his playing days. As the memoir of a young man reconnecting with the heroes of his youth, this book may mean more to the author than to anyone else, but it will also be treasured by older fans who share those same heroes. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"...very fine book... that transcends the box-score mentality of so much sportswriting." -- New York Times Book Review, May 25, 2003

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (March 21, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071402470
• ISBN-13: 978-0071402477
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,463,659 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So-So Overview, July 9, 2003

By 

Eric Paddon (Morristown, NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Boys of October : How the 1975 Boston Red Sox Embodied Baseball's Ideals - and Restored Our Spirits (Hardcover)

This is a competent, but not stellar overview of the 75 World Series. The problem is that it is not told from the standpoint of an objective chronicle of why this was such a great World Series, it is told from the narrow perspective of one fan, who feels the need to indulge in his narrower perspectives about things that have nothing to do with the subject I want to be reading about. I can put up with an overview from a Red Sox fan's perspective, but do I really have to read his tiresome (and for me personally offensive) digressions about Cold War politics? Or is this kind of arrogance that assumes I'm going to nod in agreement with his asinine remarks about Fidel Castro just so endemic to political liberals who write about baseball?

Enough of that rant though. I really can not fathom why the author can't do something as simple as provide a little background context to this World Series. There is no mention of Boston's drive to the pennant that season in terms of how they did it, and nothing about their stunning upset of Oakland (three time defending champions) in the LCS. Instead, the author just starts with the World Series and breaks down the games so narrowly, which ordinarily would be a nice thing to do, but the absence of some background in his earlier chapters explaining how we got to this point ends up creating a pretty poor narrative overall. The author in a sense expects us to be familiar already with the 75 World Series and the season that led to us, hence his justification for dumping us in the middle of a story with not enough perspective on how we got there in the first place. Without the smarmy political asides we would still have a book that aspires to be definitive, but in the end can be no better than a supplement.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A quick read, but lacking depth, July 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Boys of October : How the 1975 Boston Red Sox Embodied Baseball's Ideals - and Restored Our Spirits (Hardcover)

The author is too passionate about the Red Sox to write an objective review of the great '75 Series. And the interviews he does manage to get from participants lack depth. I often felt, which the author admits, that he was watching the games on videotape and writing about what he saw. The title pulled me in, and i was disappointed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A quick read, but lacking depth, July 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Boys of October : How the 1975 Boston Red Sox Embodied Baseball's Ideals - and Restored Our Spirits (Hardcover)

The author is too passionate about the Red Sox to write an objective review of the great '75 Series. And the interviews he does manage to get from participants lack depth. I often felt, which the author admits, that he was watching the games on videotape and writing about what he saw. The title pulled me in, and i was disappointed.