The Curse of Carl Mays [Paperback]

Howard Camerik (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 5, 2006

Was it really Bambino's Curse, or something else all along? It's October 25, 1986-for Red Sox Nation, a date that will live in infamy. Game Six. Pat McCarvill is Boston's popular mayor, presiding over a boomtown riding the wave of the "Massachusetts Miracle." Despite his success, he's forever haunted by a youthful decision to abandon a once-promising professional baseball career. McCarvill was born on the anniversary of the tragedy to which he has always felt strangely connected: the death of Ray Chapman, killed by a pitch thrown by a one-time Red Sox star, Carl Mays. Hours before Game Six is to begin, that cosmic connection will unfold. McCarvill is injured while playing in a pre-game charity event, but the paramedics dispatched to his aid mysteriously travel back to 1920, rescuing Chapman instead. The historical timeline has been tampered with, and back in 1986 things have changed-for McCarvill, for the Red Sox, for all of Boston. Now, a legendary fable will be debunked, a life's regret will be redeemed, and a city's dream will be fulfilled . but at what cost?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An intriguing and inventive tale connecting one of baseball’s great tragedies to one of its most storied curses." -- Mike Sowell, author, The Pitch That Killed

About the Author

Howard Camerik is a baseball enthusiast, a competitive ballplayer, a practicing attorney for 18 years, and a partner in the Boca Raton, Florida office of the national law firm Blank Rome LLP. Born in New York, raised partly in Memphis, and educated at the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan Law School, he presently lives in Weston, Florida with his wife and two daughters. The Curse of Carl Mays is his first novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing (July 5, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1589398815
• ISBN-13: 978-1589398818
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,414,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reading Material for Red Sox Fans this October, September 13, 2006

By 

Eric Hanson (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Curse of Carl Mays (Paperback)

I'll admit: when I first saw a description for Howard Camerik's The Curse of Carl Mays, I was a bit skeptical, especially when I saw the book involved the 1986 World Series, the subject of that flop-written-all-over-it movie from last year, Game 6. Successful Boston mayor has baseball dreams left over from his aborted playing days, blames the 68 year World Series win drought on an ornery Red Sox pitcher (Carl Mays, a headhunter who supposedly learned his malicious ways from a Red Sox manager, sold by the Sox to the Yankees in 1919 and then went on to accidentally kill a player by hitting him in the head), plays for a senior league charity game in Yankee Stadium the day of Game 6, gets hit in the head Matt Clement style and then strange cosmic events occur?

However, odd concept aside, once I started reading I found myself drawn in very, very quickly. Camerik is writing historical fiction, something I've always liked when well done and The Curse of Carl Mays is a great example of the genre for two reasons:

1. Research: everything in Camerik's book, from the layout of the Polo Grounds in 1920 to the political views of Bill Lee to the names of minor league baseball players with peripheral interest to the plot is meticulously researched, something that's vital to any good piece of historical fiction, where attention to detail is very, very important. In the case of a book like The Curse of Carl Mays, where the main character (Boston mayor Pat McCarvill) is a fictional character inserted into highly documented situations like mayor of Boston and member of various minor and major league baseball teams, this amount of research is absolutely vital to making the plot work at all.

2. Description: going along with the attention to detail in The Curse of Carl Mays is a good deal of description for characters, places and events, which help the reader to visualize exactly what's going on. Description is certainly helpful in any piece of fiction, but it's even more important when you're writing about the past.

On the whole, if you're looking for an exciting story about baseball, the Red Sox and more importantly, being a Red Sox fan, you can't go wrong checking out Howard Camerik's The Curse of Carl Mays.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A NATIONAL TREASURE FOR RED SOX NATION, July 31, 2006

By 

Kevin P. Mason - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Curse of Carl Mays (Hardcover)

"The Curse of Carl Mays" is a wonderful novel with an imaginative plot, unfolding against the backdrop of historical events before ultimately veering off into an alternate history. Red Sox fanatics who still can't believe what happened on October 25th 1986 will find it "wicked awesome."

Forget about "The Curse of the Bambino," which itself was the creature of a writer's imagination. This author posits a better theory, cleverly connecting the Red Sox's long years of frustration to Harry Frazee's peddling of his other star pitcher, Carl Mays, and Mays' eventual date with infamy - a beanball that killed popular Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman.

The story is told mostly through the life of Pat McCarvill, a former baseball bonus baby turned lawyer turned politician, who in 1986 is Boston's 41-year old mayor (I can easily see this as a movie part tailor-made for Red Sox fanatic Ben Affleck). Come October 25th (the day of "Game Six"), McCarvill is playing in a charity game in Yankee Stadium - a stone's throw from the site where Ray Chapman bought it at the old Polo Grounds - and he is drilled just as Chapman was 66 years before. Paramedics are dispatched, but they end up across the Harlem River and back in 1920, where they use their modern medical skills to rescue Chapman instead. As if Field of Dreams collided with Back to the Future, Chapman's resurrection ripples through time - McCarvill is transformed into a different character who has lived an alternate destiny, and both the Red Sox and the city will now face their alternate destinies, too.

The author does a masterful job of connecting all the time-space altering dots. The history is well-researched (the detail is exquisite for Sox fans), the pacing is superb, the dialogue rings authentic, and the on-field baseball scenes, beginning on page one, crackle with energy. Sox fans will particularly enjoy the author's use of actual Red Sox players from history as fictional characters (Bill Buckner should have a good, cathartic cry when he reads this). Though from a small publisher, this gem deserves a wide readership. Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Story, Great Read, April 9, 2007

By 

Alan Fendrick "alfreader" (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Curse of Carl Mays (Paperback)

Book was suggested by a friend and I took it on vacation. Finished in a day and a half, kept rushing to get back to it. Great blend of one of the greatest moments for Mets fans (I was lucky enough to be at game 6)with true baseball history. Author Camerik's descriptions of the events from the 20s (or was it 1918) were stellar especially considering this was a pre-ESPN, pre-internet era with limited recorded history.

Always fascinating to ponder how slightly tweaking the past could affect the future/present and throw in the sports twist and you have one entertaining read.