Customer Reviews

Impossible Dreams: A Red Sox Collection

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

 

 

This book is really deceiving. There are tons of Red Sox books out this year and this book is not only the cheapest but the cover, except for the Fisk photo, is sort of a weird color. But it's one of the best Sox books I've ever read. The book is a collection of stories from 1901 until the present written by people covering the Red Sox. About 95% of it was new to me and about 95% of that was great. There are stories about the Red Sox world championships (!!!) in 1903 and 1918, Gammons and Ray Fitzgerald on the 1975 World Series, tons of stuff on the Impossible Dream team and even a really really funny poem about Bill Lee. There's a whole section on Ted Williams and the Jackie Robinson tryout, too. It's sort of like reading Red Sox history as it happened. When I showed it to my Dad he remembered some of the old writers and started telling me stories about them and we stayed up late skimming throuigh the book and talking about them. It was really fun.

If you liked Red Sox Century then you will absolutely love this. This book is the best writing about the team ever put together, mostly from the newspapers, so it includes stories by guys who write now like Tony Maz and Buckley and Shaughnessy (not his obnoxious stuff) and old timers like Gammons, George Frazier and even Dave Egan. I'm a huge Sox fan but I hadn't read most of what is in here. Original stories from ther 1903 1912 and 1918 World Series, too. I mean this as a compliment, but it's perfect for the beach or the bathroom, or just to have next to your chair as you watch the Sox this summer. It's perfect to browse through while watching a game. I just wish it ended with the Red Sox finally winning the world series.

This is a good anthology of Red Sox writing, but none of these excellent writers is able to change history so that the Red Sox win THE BIG ONE once in awhile. Read Bill Lee's The Little Red (Sox) Book to see a whole bunch of happy endings told in a hilarious way by the one and only Spaceman!

Are you kidding? People actually write books about one of the worst franchises in the history of sports? Please. The title should be "We are the professional underachievers of the modern era". The Red Sox and the word dreams should never go together in a sentence. Unless of course it's used in the context of destroying people's dreams. That would be correct. If you have any respect for baseball history you should just forget this book. It's a piece of garbage - don't even bother.