Customer Reviews

Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

As a Detroiter, I am truly happy for Sox Fans...I know how happy we hockey Fans were when the Red Wings won their first Stanley cup in 48 years back in 1997...I can only imagine what sox fans felt waiting over 80 years!

I've had the opportunity to meet Stephen King..Oddly enough here in Detroit as he was following his Red Sox on a road trip. We talked for about 15 minutes and he wanted to talk more about the Sox than his books! That was about 15 years ago and he's remained a truly passionate fan.

This book with his daily journal is really a hoot to read. It's kind of cool to see a guy who's a millionaire many tims over agaonizing over his favorite sports team just like the guy on the assembly line in the Ford plant.

King paints a picture filled with hope yet covered with a layer pessimism that only one who has seen so many dashed hopes can ever relate to. The missives back and forth between King and O' Nan, discussing stats and performances like a couple of fan boys was so fun to read. It's serendipitous too that this, the most significant and eventful season in Red Sox history, was the one King and O'Nan happened to chronicle. It had more tortuous (often torturous) story lines and plot points than either novelist could hope to devise - from the team's promising start to its maddening mid-season mediocrity to its overpowering win streak that annihilated the wild-card competition to its monumental post-season comeback.

What a read. Enjoy it Sox fans!

Bear with me for a second here...I am not really a Red Sox fan. At least, I wasn't until the playoffs. Naturally, being a good American, I rooted for the Sox against the "Evil Empire," and I was worried about them when they were down 0-3. As they began their amazing comeback, I felt myself being swept under their spell and by the time they went into the Series, I had gone out and bought myself a nice "B" ballcap. This book captures all of the joy and magic that the Red Sox gave to ALL baseball fans (except for a few diehard fans of the Yanks and Cards). Let's face it...stories like the Red Sox in '04 are why we love baseball. It's the stuff of legends. Yeah, sure, the overpaid billionaires on the Yankees might win the Series every other year, but all of their victories combined aren't as special as that of the Sox this year. My team didn't make it to the Series this year, but thanks to the Red Sox, I had something to really cheer about. Steven King and Stewart O'Nan provide giddy, partisan commentary that perfectly reflects the hopes, fears, frustrations, and triumphs of this franchise and their fans. I read a pretty hateful review of this book from a Yankee fan who apparently can't handle the truth, but speaking as an * objective * fan of baseball at large, I can tell you that most of the country was pretty thrilled at the Red Sox and their victories, especially over the Yankees. Hey, the Cardnials are a great franchise also, but this was the year of the Sox, and this book gives underdogs everywhere cause to cheer. If you love baseball and great sportswriting, pick it up.

I have been a Red Sox fan as long as I can remember. Moving out of New England years back, I still follow the Sox and ecstatic was not even the word when I saw Foulke throw the ball to first to record the final out. And I got to relieve this memory and more in Faithful. What I loved about the book is not only did it follow the games, it followed the life of two other Sox fans and how it can be all-consuming to be a part of "Red Sox Nation" I loved that even though Stephen King is a famous author he still gets excited by his idols and wants autographs and other memorabilia just like little kids. Being a Sox fan is not easy at times and they showed the angst and anxiety that comes along with the job. But I bet if they had to do it over again, they would not change being a Sox fan for anything. And neither would I.

"It's amazing how loud you have to yell at the TV so the players can hear." The amazing thing is that Stephen King was just as scared to watch the Red Sox as the rest of us were this year. Thankfully, this is one of the great baseball books, and I've read most of them, from Bouton to Stengalese. Netman in the Monster Seats, Mr. King's tics, and a double diary format that makes it very tempting to skip to the end to see if they had as tough a time as I did watching the playoffs! This is a must have for any real baseball fan's library.

Stephen King is more than a horror writer, he has seen horror first hand. He's survived a horrific car accident, but also, he has seen too many Red Sox heartbreaks.

He can remember the days of Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Bucky F-ing Dent, 1986, 1999 and 2003. He and novelist Stewart O'Nan compiled their e-mails, correspondences and personal journal entries for this special book. What was going to be a discussion between two Red Sox fans showing their frustrations over another failed Red Sox campaign became an excellent recap of the 2004 season from Spring Training to the final out of the World Series.

O'Nan and King are excellent writers. Their styles shine brilliantly in their e-mails to one another.

They do not edit their original disgust about manager Terry Francona. They do not hide their frustation over the horrendous June stretch that eventually led to the trade of Nomar Garciaparra.

They can be funny, witty and critical at the same time.

This is not only for Red Sox fans, but baseball fans who follow thier teams as passionately as O'Nan and King.

I highly recommend the book.

If you are a Red Sox fan, you should have probably already read this book. Being able to experience the ups and downs of the season all over again was just wild. So many things happened in the beginning of the season that I had compeletely forgotten before reading this book...and just getting the sense of hope loss in what the authors said at some particular points during the season. (There were times when I was shocked that Stephen King continued to contribute on a regular basis.)

I don't know what else to say, but if you haven't picked up this book yet, I recommend you do it right now.

In what was one of the most unprecedented baseball season in the last century, the storyline for a great book was there for the taking. Unfortunately Steven King and Stewart O'Nan didn't come close to telling the tale. This book was for the most part a post game wrap-up of each nights action, an occasional email discussion between the authors , and O'Nan describing how many foul balls or BP home runs he caught (it seemed like dozens).

If you're really looking for a good review of the season, I'd suggest saving your money and getting the NESN DVD (not the MLB one). Stick to the horror SK... - EH

I am a passing Red Sox fan. By that I mean, if they are on TV (rarely here in Texas, but it happens), I will make plans to watch the game. And I was happy to see them finally bump the "curse' and win the big one. But the main thing that drew me to this book was not the Red Sox, but Stephen King. I compare King to pizza and beer. His style is friendly and readable, like a good buddies getting together to hash over old times. The bold print is King's and although the subject tends to drag over the course of the book, I always looked forward to reading King's entries. The same can't be said about O'Nan. If King is pizza and beer, O'Nan is bread and water; bland, tasteless and not very appetizing. I could care less how many balls O'Nan cons or cajoles out of the players, his writing style is boring, and does everyone in Red Sox Nation drive an escalade or is O'Nan just hung up on them?

There are plenty of other books out there chronicling the Red Sox victorious season, and probably most of them make for better reading.

The book's f-in great. King's always made me laugh, kept me staying up late & turning pages since I was twelve; however, it's O'Nan's leave-no-stone-unturned storytelling that rocks this book, makes it more of an epic that you want someone to make a movie of, that you don't want to end. SERIOUSLY, go check out his other titles--DO IT!!-- and King's pop-up book edition of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon will be sure to give one of your kids nightmares for Christmas.

Anyways, I feel like I know this Sox ball club now, like maybe I'll root for them harder in 2005. Or not. I'll probably stick to my Devil Rays, thanks. ha HA.

Go hit your local bookstore now and buy FAITHFUL--along with other amazing books by STEWART O'NAN. Ho Ho Ho.

Could horrormeister Stephen King and novelist Stewart O'Nan have known, when they took on this venture, how important this past season might be? Sure, the Sox had a great team "on paper," as the saying goes; they looked like an ample match for the smug New York Yankees, especially with the acquisition of pitching ace Curt Schilling. But who could blame Red Sox rooters, with their long history of disappointment, for not brimming with confidence. And when the season was over, there were the Yankees, once again, Division title winners.

But wait. With King involved, there has to be something supernatural going on. And, unbelievable and improbable as it seemed, the Sox, for once, did not falter, enjoying a "back from the grave," three-games-to-none come-from-behind playoff series victory --- never before accomplished in the annals of the game. But professional sports is an industry that asks the eternal question, "What have you done for us lately?" After the series, sports pundits argued if this would suffice, if the "moral victory" of just beating the hated Yankees would make a World Series title anti-climactic. The majority ruled that, no, only a full running of the board could purge "the curse of the Bambino," which had kept the Red Sox title-less since 1918. Babe Ruth, a star pitcher as well as watershed slugger for the Bostons, was sold to the Yankees after the 1919 season, turning their fortunes around and making them the poster team for sports success, while generations of Red Sox fans had gone to their graves, unfulfilled.

O'Nan does the lion's share of the work, writing on an almost-daily basis about the rise and fall of the team throughout the season, reporting on "the thousands natural shocks that flesh is heir to," to borrow from another notable writer. King drops his own opinions here and there. The style has been compared with that of a broadcast team, with O'Nan doing the play-by-play, and King the color commentary. It works quite well. On occasion, they share a dialogue with their readers. (Some readers might have difficulty differentiating between the two writers: King's comments appear in bold type, but after a few pages, the distinction is hard to tell.)

What could have been a celebrity stunt --- compared Faithful to Larry King's saccharine Why I Love Baseball --- turns into a thoughtful and enjoyable presentation (although, at times, they do carry on like a couple of sports radio nerds). One can easily believe King, who claims loyalty to the Sox since 1967, when he compares his love for the game to an addiction: "This book legitimizes my obsession and allows me to indulge in it to an even greater degree."

"I am a baseball junkie, pure and simple," avers the man who wrote The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, an ode to the former Boston reliever.

During spring training, O'Nan --- author of A Prayer for the Dying, Snow Angels and The Speed Queen, among others --- wrote, "...it's too early to wax really lyrical... (God knows there's too much labored lyricism in baseball writing these days...)." Apparently by May, the time for waxing was ripe, as he offered: "Baseball is a lazy game, meant to be played on a long, lazy summer afternoon and into the purple twilight" as he bemoaned the way money has changed the game, making it more a vehicle for television than a pleasure for the fans. How else to explain starting times for post-season games that all but guarantee the contests won't be over before the next day?

It would be hard to find a team whose fans are more manic than the Red Sox. Their followers are used to accepting the best while expecting the worst. After Boston's four game sweep of the Cardinals, sportswriters wondered what the Red Sox rooters would do now that they've lost the empathy that comes with having your heart broken over and over.

Towards the end of Faithful, King writes:

"'Can you believe it?' Joe Castiglione [the long-time Red Sox broadcaster] exults, and eighty-six years of disappointment falls away in the length of time it takes the first-base ump to hoist up his thumb in the out sign.

"This is not a dream.

"We are living real life."

For two men who make their living writing fiction, this heartfelt paean to the team and, indeed, to the entire "Red Sox nation" will let readers keep the warm feeling throughout the winter and for years to come.

--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan