One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America [Paperback]

Steve Kettmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2005

Fenway Park, Saturday, 8/30/03: Yankees versus Red Sox. Not just a special day in a historic rivalry but a unique one in the long tradition of baseball writing. For on this day award-winning sportswriter Steve Kettmann worked with a team of top reporters to chronicle everything that happened, from the point of view of everyone involved. With One Day at Fenway, Kettmann goes beyond the ballpark to bring you interviews and anecdotes involving all the major players -- from Red Sox owner John Henry and CEO Larry Lucchino, privately second-guessing Grady Little's managing moves during the game; to Yankee skipper Joe Torre, worrying on the bench about Mariano Rivera, who can't find home plate; to Sox slugger Manny Ramirez, who missed the game with a throat infection. And there's more: the famous and infamous players in the field and in the boardrooms, rabid fans on both sides, the not-so-innocent bystanders -- all here in this brilliant re-creation of a day in the life of America's favorite pastime.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A book about a year-old, regular-season baseball game doesn’t seem like it would contain much suspense, but Kettmann’s account of the August 30, 2003 contest between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees is engrossing. With help from a team of researchers who watched the game alongside selected fans, players and front-office personnel from both ballclubs, Kettmann presents the action from multiple points of view, cutting around Fenway Park in an almost cinematic fashion and drawing readers in even though the outcome is foregone (10-7 Yankees). As the game unfolds, readers meet famous people and ordinary fans, among them former Senator George Mitchell, film directors Spike Lee and Peter Farrelly, Boston general manager Theo Epstein, Sox owner John Henry, Fenway Park scoreboard operator Rich Maloney and a Yankee rooter who plans to propose to his girlfriend on the giant video screen. Not all the commentary offered by these observers is insightful, but it makes for a remarkably vivid recreation of a day at Fenway. Thanks to the diverse cast, readers also learn fascinating tidbits about everything from grounds keeping, to Japanese superstitions, to the methods outfielders use to track fly balls. It helps that this game has a great back-story—two rival teams playing in a historic ballpark with a pennant on the line—and Kettmann, a sportswriter and Red Sox fan, has a knack for conveying the tensions that build throughout the afternoon. He also has a great eye for detail, describing the way pitcher Andy Pettitte wipes his face with his shoulder and the laughter that erupts when hulking outfielder Ruben Sierra jokingly works out at shortstop. Though Kettmann’s smug, innuendo-laced comments about certain players’ alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs are off-putting, this is a small flaw in an otherwise riveting book.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Madison Smartt Bell Steve Kettmann's kaleidoscopic rendering of a single Yankees-Red Sox game makes a fascinating narrative even for those who know little about the sport. With its cast of dozens of acutely interested characters, One Day at Fenway is the Black Hawk Down of baseball.

Leigh Montville, author of Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero For less than what you normally would pay to park, you get to sit in the good seats, the bad seats, the dugout itself....You squint and watch the action for a couple of innings through a hole in the scoreboard. All this and it's the Yankees and it's a hell of a game and...just start reading. You won't be disappointed. This is the ultimate Fenway experience.

Billy Beane, General Manager, Oakland Athletics I was blown away. Baseball books usually bore me, but Steve grabbed my attention with every page. When the Yankees and the Red Sox play, even as an opposing general manager I become a fan. Steve not only captured the intensity on the field but also the layers of interest that surround the greatest rivalry in sports.

Dan Shaughnessy, author of The Curse of the Bambino A fascinating dissection of a Red Sox-Yankees game. Steve Kettmann needs only nine innings to explain 100 years of a baseball rivalry.

Jonathan Cohn, Senior Editor, The New Republic No rivalry in sports is as intense as the Red Sox and Yankees, and no year in that rivalry was as intense as 2003. In One Day at Fenway, Steve Kettman has picked out the season's quintessential game and reconstructed it so vividly that you feel like you're right in the dugout with the players, hanging on every pitch. Whether you're a fan of good baseball or just good storytelling, this is a book you'll want to read.

Bruce Jenkins, San Francisco Chronicle It's good to know that the Yankees' tiny general manager played some serious hardball in his day. It's priceless to learn that the Red Sox' GM plays a mean guitar after midnight. And it's refreshing to discover that a single ballgame can be so gloriously revived. Perhaps it could only be at Fenway Park, with the terrified exhilaration of its patrons. But in bringing a year-old game to life, Steve Kettmann creates the kind of energy and suspense reserved for the here and now.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Atria Books (August 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743483669
• ISBN-13: 978-0743483667
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,852,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

54 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic idea, flawed execution, September 7, 2004

By 

John Budd (Dallas,TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Day at Fenway (Hardcover)

This book popped up in my Amazon recommendations naturally enough--after all, I've read hundreds of baseball books over the years, and bought many of them at Amazon.

One of my favorite all-time baseball books is "Nine Innings" by Dan Okrent, which takes an average ballgame and talks about all the back-stories of that game. That book is a classic, and I would highly recommend it.

"One Day at Fenway" had the potential to be the equal of "Nine Innings." Perhaps even better, as the cast of voices that Kettmann calls upon is broad and impressive. Unfortunately, however, Kettmann's effort falls short. While I was eager to hear all of those voices, I found that few of them had anything to say that anyone more than a casual fan would find interesting.

If you are a hardcore baseball fan who follows the game on a daily basis, "Nine Innings" is your book. If you go to games a couple times a year as a source of entertainment along the lines of going to the movies, watching something on TV, or keeping track of which supermodel/actress is dating Derek Jeter, you just may enjoy "One Day at Fenway."

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Great Idea- Lacking Execution, September 12, 2004

By 

Bart Ewing "Ribman" (KC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: One Day at Fenway (Hardcover)

This was a neat idea for a baseball book but the writing and story just don't match the possibilites. A better example in this genre is Dan Okrents "Nine Innings" which centered on a Baltimore -Milwaukee matchup- not as sexy as the uber Sox/Yanks but a great walk through the game. This is where the book is frustrating- this game could be a powerful force for literature but in my opinion too much emphasis on the famous and not enough on the average Joes that fuel this rivarly. A Studs Terkel approach would have benifitted the reader greatly in regards to maintaining interest. It's not about the names but the game itself and the cities they represent-I could give a **** about what Spike Lee thinks

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Heck, even Billy Beane liked it!, May 17, 2005

By 

M. Johnson (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Day at Fenway (Hardcover)

And he gets bored with baseball books, according to his review on the sleeve. You wouldn't think a regular season game would be all that interesting that it would warrant a book. But the Yankees and Red Sox are perhaps the only two teams which a book like this could be written. The story flows very nicely and there are some interesting tidbits on certain players that you may not know about. Every perspective is covered in this book. Player, general manager, owner, and fan are all accounted for. I took off a star because of Kettman's epilogue that turned into a rant saying basically that the Yankees are evil and the Red Sox will someday win a World Series because of this wonderful group running the show. Hey Steve, if I want a Red Sox homer I'll listen to Peter Gammons okay? Other than that, this is a enjoyable book. Just stop after the game is over.