Now I Can Die in Peace: How The Sports Guy Found Salvation Thanks to the World Champion (Twice!) Red Sox (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933060727
• ISBN-13: 978-1933060729
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,700 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Following the Bible's Format, March 26, 2009

By	The Ginger Man - See all my reviews

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Following the 2004 season, The Sports Guy wrote the best of the many books about the Red Sox championship run. In preparation for opening day of 2009, he has revised it to include 100 pages of updated columns.

Simmons starts the new section with an analysis of how Sox fans confronted a new and uncursed existence. He asks "What happens when your identity gets stripped away, when you get the chance to start from scratch?" He follows this with: a comparison of Larry Bird and Big Papi, coverage of the Dice-K acquisition, the 2007 championship, the Rocket and the Roids, a defense of Manny being Manny and the 2008 loss to the Rays. Through it all, Simmons writing is more about what it is to be a fan than it is about the team or the game.

If you strip away the occassionally on target pop culture references and the more accurately directed humor, this book is the story of the love affair of Simmons, his family and his city for a team. (Part of that sentence is stolen from Ken Coleman's 1967 Impossible Dream narration.) The Sports Guy proudly wears his passion on his sleeve: "I think like a fan, write like a fan and try like hell to keep it that way." It is a lifelong relationship: "You love sports most when you are 16, then you love it a little less every year."

Reading these columns, another diehard instinctively feels an affinity for Simmons and appreciates his commitment, knowledge and intermittant suffering. This is made easier because the author often recognizes when he has stepped across the line that separates the healthfully obsessed from the not quite well (One of his footnotes points out, "This paragraph made me sound like an a**hole.") He doesn't always know when he is wandering on the borderline of the geek but that lack of concern and authenticity is part of his charm. He is, above all else, one of us.

In The Natural, Robert Redford's Roy Hobbs character asks the sportswriter played by Robert Duvall if he ever played the game. The answer: "No. But I made it more fun to watch." So does Simmons. (This is my attempt at pop culture relevance.) In the 70s and 80s, I didn't consider a Sox season over until I had read what Roger Angell and Peter Gammons wrote about it. That mantle has passed to Simmons. And, apparently, he is not going to disappoint. His plan is to "re-release this book with more chapters every few years, kinda like what God did with the bible."

Keep releasing them. We'll keep reading.

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, November 16, 2009

By	Martin Margas "Martin Margas" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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As a Red Sox, this book was everything that I needed looking forward to next season. Bill Simmons has a great insight and experience dealing with Boston sports and that was apparent in his book.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You'll laugh out loud, October 2, 2009

By	M. Perez "Pastafarian" (Middle of the cornfields, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you aren't acquainted with Bill Simmons get ready for a treat. This book is an excellent read about the intersection of sports, pop culture, die-hard fandom, and how to embrace said fandom even if your team routinely rips your heart out.

I guarantee you will laugh out loud repeatedly and find yourself in tears (from laughing) at least a couple of times.