Customer Reviews

One Day at Fenway

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

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."

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

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.

Its been 18 years and I didn't think anything would ever hurt more, but trying to read this book hurt just as bad as Buckner did. Wait, that nots true. Time heals all wounds they say, and Bill can show his face around town without an armed escort nowadays, so maybe thwe pain has mellowed a bit from 1986, but the wounds this book caused are still fresh, so they hurt more.
Furthermore, while BB's error and its pain is something every Sox fan (heck, every baseball fan) knows, hopefully this authors work will never reach such a universal audience.
The writing is poor, the editing is worse, and, the highest of crimes, the author makes the Sox boring. The endless use of interminable quotes from innumerable sources stretches a thin manuscript to the breaking point. Using the Yankees and all their associated history as a foil is cliched and, in my opinion, just another trick like the endless quotes to stretch this outline of an idea into a barely book length product in order to dupe more cash out of unsuspecting customers.
Bill Buckner apologized for his folly. Kettmann should do the same.

I first heard about this book when I read Rob Neyer's column about it and his initial secretive reveiw. My expectations were not that high, but I found it thoroughly enjoyable and I implore Neyer to read the book from cover to cover to draw a better appreciation for it. That being said, Kettman allows his Yankee protagonists to get off without much scrutiny in two specific instances. With respect to Spike Lee, the book notes that Lee grew up a Mets fan, hating the Yankees, but now is a Yankees fan with no explanation for the change. Was Lee a Mets fan thru the mid to late 80s and then when the Mets started doing poorly and the Yankees started doing well - did he just jump ship or jump on the bandwagon? I think that is a question that needs to be asked. Without explanation we can only assume that Lee is a fan of neither team and that he simply cheers for whomever is winning. This seems to proven out by the fact that he hates all Boston sports teams except the Patriots (NFLs most recent dynasty). When pressed on his his dislike for the Red Sox, Lee rightly points out that the Red Sox were the last team to integrate. But why love the Yankees, the 2nd to last team to integrate? These questions were never asked by Kettman and they remain open.
The second Yankee that gets a free pass is Brian Cashman. When Spike Lee is asked to throw out the first ball at Fenway wearing a Jeter jersey, Cashman opines that this would NEVER happen at Yankee stadium, i.e., a Sox fan in a Sox jersey would never throw out the first ball at Yankee Stadium. Cashman infers that the Yankees are very concerned about the sanctity of their field. Cashman, like all Yankees, prefers to have a selective memory when it comes to Yankee history. When they rehash the 26 championships they reach all the way back to 1921 and cherry pick the glory years from then to the present, and I'll give them the fact that there were many. But unfortunately for the Yankees, their history includes the late 1960s and early 70s. And unfortunately for Cashman, it includes a Carl Yaztremski Day that was held AT YANKEE STADIUM in 1967 where Carl Yaztremski was presented with a car by the Yankees with Massachusetts license plates that said YAZ #8. Now, as a Red Sox fan, unlike Cashman, I can honestly tell you that will never happen at Fenway with any Yankee and never DID happen. Had Kettman done his research he could have pushed Mssrs. Lee and Cashman on their failings, but failed to do so. All that being said it was a wonderful book and 2004 was a wonderful season. The Yankees choked and the Red Sox won it all. I know the book takes place in 2003, but I just had to mention 2004. Go Sox!

Thank you, Kettman, for bringing me back to first-grade reading class. With the much storied tradition between these two teams, beloved Fenway Park, and the game of baseball, none of these emotions are evoked during the reading of this book.

Other reviewers cite this book as a wasted opportunity. No, it is a waste of my money, your money, and even the single lousy star that I was forced to grant it in this review.

First off, it takes a lot of effort and dedication to complete a novel. Many people talk of writing--I have heard it said that the only difference between writers and everyone else is that they have the confidence to test if they are really any good.

Kettmann has written a very descriptive book, one that I would not have seen on my radar had it not been for the politics surrounding money, publishing, and successful marketing. I am a huge Yankees fan. I loathe the Red Sox with a passion. This year is even better than last year, because we all know the ending. Still, this year is exciting beyond comparison.

The same is not true for this book. Any other two teams, and I would say that this book was a success. The Yankees and the Red Sox are not any two teams, however. If I am going to spend 30 hours of my life (the money aside), I expect perfection. I expect to feel the same level of anxiety and excitement as I do during a 14-4 blow-out. Why do I watch the ninth inning when my team is up or down five runs? Because it is the Yankees! Because it is the Red Sox!

This turned out to be more a picture of a baseball game--but no sound. It's the hotdog at Fenway, without the mustard. It's a picture of Fenway's green monster, but in black and white. There are a lot of details, I can see Jeter in the batter's box but it doesn't feel like Jeter, it feels like someone painting Jeter.

I give the book 3 stars, instead of one or two out of a respect for both the effort the writer must have put into this book, and because I know, just like every Yankees or Boston fan knows, that the wildcard (read: mediocrity) might be enough for normal baseball fans (like SF Giants fans who "luv Barry") but us Yankee and Sox fans demand something more. We demand something magical, because that is all we know.

Amazon would be good to respect the nature of opinion0--, that is, that one is bound to come across one that you don't agree with. That's why it's been set up to allow each person their own. Deleting a post that does not violate the Conditions of Use, and follows the Amazon.com review guidelines gives me pause when considering relying on those same reviews.

My name is Matthew Desario, a business owner in Los Angeles. I am still in a poor mood over my x721 error on DirecTV today during the Sox / Yankees game. The Angels game in my local market didnt begin until after the Sox/Yanks ended, yet I was still blocked out even with a 109 dollar/month DTV subscription, an addition 200 on the MLB Game Pass from DTV, and here is the kicker, another ESPN MLB GamePass for online use that i signed up for today, only to discover that even on the internet, Fox is everywhere. I couldn't even look at Mr. Kettmann's books today because Fox was airing its own version of One Day at Fenway and my use of the book was blacked out until 5PM.

They say it doesn't matter if you're a Red Sox fan or a Yankee fan, because you'll love this book. Apparently, however, it does matter if you are a fan of any other team in MLB because I thought this book was awful. It was written with the sophistication of a 7th grader on the short bus and had about as much insight as a rock. I suppose you could call it a page turner because I turned the pages as fast as possible trying to find something to enjoy. At pg 27 I gave up. Save yourself the trouble and don't even bother.

The book is really simplistic, not in much depth, but it does a great job of conveying the essence of attending a baseball game. Some of the small details are really nice, and it just makes me want to go to a baseball game tomorrow. More to the point, it makes me want to have kids so that I can teach them to play catch and then go to the stadium and tell them stories about the Great Dimaggo...uh...the Great Will Clark. Sorry, got a little Hemmingway carried away there. Basically, the book is doing a good job of rekindling my love for baseball, just in time for the post-season. I walked through the baseball glove aisle in the sports store at the mall yesterday and the smell of leather took me all the way back to being 8 years old and playing for The Legal Eagles in the Pleasant Hill Baseball Association. All things considered, even if the book is superficial and simple, it takes me back to the days when I loved baseball and reminds me why, and that itself is more that I can reasonably ask.

There are numerous books out there which capture the excitement and intensity of baseball rivalries with better prose, insights, and unknown facts than this lazy, dull, poorly written effort. Red Sox fans, do not buy this just because it's about your team. Your memories are worth more than the $25 it takes to buy this drivel.