Customer Reviews

Now I Can Die in Peace: How ESPN's Sports Guy Found Salvation, with a Little Help from Nomar, Pedro, Shawshank and the 2004

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I've read Bill Simmons' ESPN.com columns since they began in 2001. His ability to combine sports with pop culture references made him a unique writer and one who can be wildly fun to read as you never knew what he could come up with. One column may be a running diary of his fantasy league basketball draft while another may deal with using "The Godfather" quotes to summarize the baseball season.

Bill's new book contains columns that he wrote for ESPN.com as well as those written before that time dealing with his obsession with the Boston Red Sox and their attempt to win their first World Series since 1918. If you started reading Simmons on ESPN.com, you'll get about 100 or so pages of columns you've never read before (written prior to mid-2001). The remaining 250 pages will probably seem familiar to you as they all appeared on ESPN.com, but Bill has added footnotes along the edges with additional obsevations, witty comments and thoughts on how he feels about what he wrote at this point in time. He also has appeared to rework his columns, with the most notable change being that he has added considerable profanity to his ESPN.com columns (which was not there when originally published). I thought that was an interesting twist to his reworking of the material.

The ups and downs of the Red Sox, with the gut-wrenching loss in Game 7 of the ALCS against the Yankees in 2003 chronicled as well as the joy he experienced from his team finally winning it all in 2004. He covers all the emotions well. When his 2004 season columns were originally written, I was genuinely happy for him and the other Red Sox fans, as they had gone through a lot over the years.

I don't think Bill is quite as good of a writer as he was 3 or 4 years ago (when, as he would put it, he was throwing in the mid-90s), but this book does a pretty good case of showcasing his talent on a subject that he is passionate about. I still think it is worth the purchase even if you've read the original columns.

I hope Bill puts another collection together of his columns someday. I just hope it doesn't deal with the Patriots!

By compiling five years worth of past articles written for ESPN's Page Two, Bill Simmons manages to write, re-write, comment upon, criticize, and yes-even argue with his infamous Sports Guy musings while telling the story of how the Red Sox finally won the World Series. This is no lazy rehash of old columns. His ingenious use of footnotes (there are at least 2 million or so per page) adds layers of "back story" to the plot. If you are a dedicated Sports Guy reader, you can skip re-reading all those columns again and go straight to the footnotes for his skewed hindsight and hilarious ramblings on serial killers, mullet haircuts, Hoover Dam ,and of course, the Yankees. If you've never read Simmons before, this book is a perfect introduction to the Sports Guy.

Rather than being the typical sports retrospective play-by-play of the 2004 World Series, Simmons manages to tell a very personal and very funny story about becoming and staying a true believer. Sure, sure-we all know the ending of this story-the Sox finally win. In Simmons' hands, the ending is hardly the point. Rather, it's the five-year ride he takes us on, with stops in Hollywood, Fenway, matrimony, and even fatherhood. It makes no difference if you love the Sox, hate the Yankees, or even care about sports. Read this book if you enjoy sharp, opinionated, fast moving, and funny writing.

Reading the Sports Guy has always been a mixed experience for me. There are times when he makes me laugh out loud, but for every guffaw, there's an equal feeling that I've just spent five or so minutes of my life that I'll never get back. This book helped me understand why I have these feelings.

The pluses: There are some laugh out loud funny moments. And I enjoyed reading the earlier columns from the pre-ESPN days.

The minuses: 1. the 500 marginal "footnotes." They're not superfluous; in fact, as the book progresses, they're more readable than the original text itself. But the way they're placed along the page margins is very distracting; and more than that, as I continued reading, I concluded that they were an extremely lazy way of putting these columns into context. It's as though Simmons couldn't have been bothered to write short essays introducing each section, where he could have made these marginal thoughts into something special, because it would have required some real reflection and construction in his writing. Which brings me to...

2. Reading The Sports Guy in a concentrated dose in print instead of online two or three times a week is a very different experience, and what works as you're reading online over morning coffee doesn't carry over as well in print. Simmons's writing style can best be described as, "let me just throw everything up against the wall, and if some of it sticks, OK, and if none of it does, that's OK, too." The book made me realize just how much I've skimmed through the online columns.

And I agree with a previous reviewer: the typos, as well as factual errors make we wonder if anyone read galley proofs, or if everything was just downloaded as is.

And Simmons should re-read his own footnote 426 and take his own advice where his copious TV and movie references are concerned. If he is serious about being a good writer rather a purveyor of cheap yuks, he'll take his own advice.

I've read the Sports Guy for five years and was lukewarm about the subject of this book. I basically wanted an encyclopedia of his old work or entirely new observations done in his typical style. I pretty much knew where he stood with the BoSox. Ultimately, I bought it because I wanted a first edition when it quickly went to second edition. I am glad I did for reasons completely unrelated to getting a collector's edition of an instant sports/pop-culture classic.

****cliche alert******

I truly can't put it down. (sorry, it's true).

It's like reading his column for hours. Fun footnotes on the side of the pages are basically like a running diary of him narrating the columns and giving you funny and enlightening asides.

I am unhealthily addicted to reading it (just ask my wife). I'm telling you, it's like intellectual crack. Buy it if you like the Sports Guy. Buy it if you like to sit down with your buddies and crack jokes and watch sports. Buy it if you just appreciate a fresh writing style unencumbered by the need to be "literary" in the hoity-toity sense.

I'm not a fan of the Red Sox, rather, I'm a fan of the Sports Guy & baseball in general. I read Simmons' online columns regularly, & therefore was looking forward to this book. I have to say I was disappointed -- I enjoy his writing style & sense of humor, but this book seemed all to familiar to regular readers of his columns. Therefore I'd say this book is worth a read for diehard Red Sox fans and/or those who don't regularly read Simmons online....otherwise, skip it!

As a religious reader of Simmons' stuff online, I was sketpical about buying this book. The extensive footnotes, however, which contain added jokes, exponential material and goofy asides made it more than worthwhile. The fun of this collection wasn't so much in reading the articles again, but in learning what the author thought about them as time passed.

I first discovered Bill Simmons from [...] "Page 2" site during the afterglow of the 2004 World Series and became an immediate fan if only because he seemed to share some of the better traits of English writer, sports fan, and pop culture junkie Nick Hornby and also seemed to be without a doubt the closest thing to a "soul mate" I could expect to find in a sportswriter. Not in terms of amorous or emotional desire/attachment, I mean...but this guy seemed to be writing the thoughts that existed in my own head regarding...well, pretty much everything (or at least all things sports-related) and putting those thoughts down in writing EXACTLY as I would do it myself.

Anyway, "Now I Can Die In Peace" is essentially a "Best Of..." collection of columns that Simmons himself compiled in the five years leading up to (and shortly following) the 2004 World Series won by (do I really need to say that at this point?), detailing his own devotion to his boyhood team, examining how it has affected him, his family, and indeed an entire fanbase. This is not done in a cynical fashion (as with Dan Shaughnessy's "Curse Of The Bambino" efforts) or with any degree of schmaltz (the Farrelly Bros. re-make of "Fever Pitch" immediately comes to mind), but in an openly contemplative prose where he at times reaffirms his devotion in one column while questioning it in another (specifically questioning whether raising a child as a Red Sox fan is something that should be done to ANYONE, let alone a child of his own). Simmons is also repeatedly defensive over the impressions of Red Sox Nation to the nation as a whole; he refutes the cynical notion that Red Sox fans wouldn't know what to do with themselves if the Sox ever won it all, that somehow their lives would literally lose all meaning were it to actually occur. He insists that no one ever set about to back in the "glory" of 85 years of romance with the tragedy that was the Red Sox between 1918 and 2004, that all they ever wanted was to be fans of "just another team" that people couldn't mock and deride with chants of World War I-era years. They don't need to win EVERY World Series (Yankees fans); just one (Braves fans) will do, thank you...preferably during the lifetimes of the writer and his father.

And of course Simmons is nothing if not witty. Sure, he has points to bring across, and they are valid points, but without his sense of timing and delivery (yes, I know this is a book, but trust me, it carries over into print) he wouldn't be near the entertaining writer that he actually is. I also appreciated how he included the column he wrote after the New England Patriots win in Super Bowl XXXVI (still my favorite piece he's ever done) as well, as if to say to the Red Sox "SEE?! It CAN be done!"), but he probably missed an opportunity when, after New England's second (or third?) Super Bowl win he was called oout (by a Yankees fan, if I remember correctly) for having an increased sense of self-importance derived from the performance of his sports team (the Pats) when he had previously accused Yankees fans of the exact same thing (which of course is true).

Oops.

Still, if you're a casual fan of Simmons' writing and want a convenient archive of some of his best work (including footnotes spread throughout each column -the literary equivalent of a DVD "director's commentary track", per Simmons himself- that are every bit as entertaining as the columns themselves), this is a terrific book to buy. If you're as big a fan as I am there's no question that it needs a place on your shelf, right beside "True Believers" by Joe Queenan.

If you regularly read the Sports Guy's column's on [...] then DO NOT buy this book!! If you read his columuns then you have already read 75% of the book for free and the rest is mostly his early work from his first website, which is not as good as his current stuff. To be truthful, I am very disappointed. I anxiously anticipate new columns from the Sports Guy every week and will continue to read those, but this book is geared more towards people who have not followed his writing. The only reason for a Sports Guy fan to buy this book would be to make sure he has the opportunity to write another so maybe next time he will put together some ORIGINAL thoughts that are worth spending your money to read. The Sports Guy is a great writer, but as strange as it is to say, fans should avoid it.

The title "Now I Can Die in Peace" is an ironic one because The Sports Guy doesn't do anything quietly, certainly not express his opinions. He's a sugar high all the way, three bowls of Captain Crunch and where did I put the ritalin again? When he's at his best, this all seems to work anyway. But there's another problem to deal with . . .

Many Simmons readers from way back (and I am one) will attest that his writing was edgier and far better when he was with Digital City Boston (an AOL vehicle) and later on his own site. The move to ESPN was a sad one in some ways, as Bill literally and figuratively went Hollywood, got a little too happy with himself, became a little too cooperate. (One example - he used to make fun of guys like Jim Rome, now he hitches up to Rome's shows at every opportunity. He literally went from edgy outsider to smug insider just about overnight.)It was like watching your favorite garage band tear it up, get signed by a big label, and then start becoming a little contrived and a little too high on themselves (see his Katrina-NO column on the espn site for a perfect example of this - it's so narcissistic, it should come with its own vanity mirror.)

This is not to suggest that Simmons is incapable of writing a very good column now and then (a lot of his writing from the New York-Boston 2004 ALCS is superb). But many Boston fans are going to be disappointed in this effort, because rather than explaining and making relateable the unique experience of what it means to be a part of the Red Sox Nation, Simmons has accidentally underscored the groundwork of why people dislike a lot of Boston fans in the first place. If you're from Peabody or Seekonk or Woonsocket and want to know why your friends west of the Mississippi see you as whiny and expectant, don't overlook the Simmons factor. He doesn't even follow his own 5-year rules anymore, which should tell you something. Again, the title of this book is a curious one.

In closing, I wish the Sox had miraculously won this glorious World Series title a few years earlier, when Simmons still was at the top of his game. The result would have been a pure and real memento of what happened. Instead we get the watered down version, the corporate version, the self-indulgent version, and I'm not sure it's worth your time. Worst of all, if you've read Bill dutifully over the years, you've already read anywhere from 60-75 percent of this book before you make the purchase. Why buy a Greatest Hits record when (a) it's arguably not the greatest hits in the first place, and (b) you already own all the albums anyway?

The criticisms of this book seem to be fairly predictable: people either don't like Simmons' writing or they feel ripped off that the book is mostly old columns. I advise anyone considering this book to understand what it is all about before they spend their money and complain despite their own lack of research.

Simmons writes from a fan perspective, which some readers don't get. His opinion vascillates on some topics, he dislikes some teams or people for no good reason, and he often goes for humor and passion as opposed to in-depth analysis. As sports fans, we all act the same way, and shouldn't expect consistent Pulitzer material from a fan perspective. His writing is meant to be entertaining, not earth-shatteringly intellectual. If you're looking for a sports book to read for entertainment, buy this book. If you're looking for volumes of dry sports analysis from some pretentious Ph.D d-bag, look elsewhere.

Because it is a collection of columns over several years, Simmons sometimes inadvertantly repeats jokes or certain themes way too much, which can get a little tedious. Being able to examine the evolution of his Red Sox columns through these years is thoroughly enjoyable, though, and the footnotes added after the fact offer fun insights as he cringes at his own writing or looks back on statements in hindsight.

Bottom line: If you like Simmons' fan-perspective writing and understand that this book is mostly old columns, you'll probably enjoy it. Being a Red Sox fan is not a prerequisite (Go Pirates!). If you do not understand what this book is all about, however, you may find yourself disappointed that you didn't spend that 25 bucks on the Kenny G boxset, you sissy. :)

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