Customer Reviews

Interviews from Red Sox Nation

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
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From his insightful interview with Curt Schilling, to his informative interview with Bob Ryan, to his heartfelt interview with Anne Quinn, and all those in-between, David's work here is among the best I've read regarding the Boston Red Sox. David keeps an eye on the future with his numerous interviews with Red Sox prospects, but never takes his eye off the past, including interviews with Red Sox names from the past, including Rico Petrocelli, Johnny Pesky, and Dan Duquette (the latter being worth the price of the book alone). Well worth the experience and a pleasure to read.

... But this one is a keeper!

Mr. Laurila covers a lot of ground here - from an exhaustive interview with Curt Schilling, to Words Of Wisdom from Superfan Anne Quinn - from a wild ride with Bill "Spaceman" Lee to an interesting session with a pretty grumpy Bill James. As an interviewer, he's SCARILY well-prepared, but also has the good sense to know when to get out of the way and let these people tell their stories.

Very enjoyable read. Here's hoping that there's a second volume..

The author asks good questions and gets stories and points-of-view in the interviews that are different from the usual stuff. Also a really varied collection of interviewees. Mike Tamburro (Pawtucket Red Sox Pres.)'s interview is a side-splitter. Surprising view from Hillenbrand on his relationship with the Sox. I'm going to get my Dad, who's retired in Fla., a copy so we can talk about it over the phone.

This book is a bedtime reader's dream. Its contents consist of eight chapters of interview transcripts, none longer than ten pages, perfect for reading one or two at a time. The interviewees run the baseball gamut from prospects to veterans to retired players; from writers to analysts to historians; from coaches to GMs to scouts. There's even a chapter of interviews with celebrity Sox fans and players' relatives.

Laurila's gift as an interviewer is his concision. He has thoroughly researched his questions prior to asking them, and so is quickly able to get to the pith of the discussions with each of his subjects, while staying out of the way and letting his interviewees talk. He paints accurate pictures of the mindsets of young, confident pitching prospects...he coaxes cherished memories from the likes of Johnny Pesky and Chaz Scoggins...he elicits dense yet palatable discourses on sabermetrics from such visionaries as Bill James, Pete Palmer, and Eric M. Van.

Must-reads in this tome include a discussion of the steroid issue with Howard Bryant; a trip down memory lane with official Red Sox scorer Chaz Scoggins; a debunking by Glenn Stout of the collective historical fallacies surrounding the Red Sox franchise; and a sabermetric tour de force with Pete Palmer. To be honest there really isn't a dud in the entire tome, but these mentioned are truly outstanding.

In summary, there's something in this book for every kind of Red Sox fan. This is required reading for anyone in Red Sox Nation.

What an excellent way to explore the world of the "Red Sox Nation". Rather than regurgitated information and conjecture, Laurila interviews people from all angles of the organization. From minor league players to Red Sox management, Laurila expertly uncovers what "Red Sox Nation" really encompasses. This is a great book for baseball fans whether they are from the Nation of Red Sox fans or not. Can't wait for the next installment!

You'll know that they are absolutely terrible at asking decent interview questions. I watched the entirety of Theo Epstein's resignation press conference last year, and given the stunning fact that such an event was taking place at all and nobody had any idea why or what had happened, I expected that even the silliest of questions would elicit some information. Unfortunately, I underestimated the stupidity of the interrogators and the exercise ended with the audience even more confused than before Theo started talking.

David Laurila shows us that there is hope. Though I'm somewhat biased, since I frequent [...], where Laurila is a contributor and moderator, I have to say that this book is exceedingly well done. It's a compilation of interviews of various Red Sox players, fans, coaches, front office staffers, and miscellaneous others. Nobody is too obscure to be interviewed for this book, but don't be turned off, because Laurila actually asks decent questions and gets interesting and often funny responses from all of them. Red Sox fans will find the Shea Hillenbrand interview particularly good, if they remember how he left town in 2003.

The one problem with it is that it's fairly dense. Read it in small chunks or everything will start to run together. The intention of the book is to be disjointed, so it shouldn't be read like a novel.