A Day of Light and Shadows: One Die-Hard Red Sox Fan and His Game of a Lifetime: The Boston-New York Playoff, 1978 (Hardcover)

~ Jonathan Schwartz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This small book is a true gem, its facets glittery with obsession, sorrow, and the treacheries of hope. It appears to be about baseball and the Boston Red Sox; it is really about life, and loss, and the long grieving ache of unrequited love."
--Pete Hamill
-- Review

Review

"This wonderful book is diminutive, but its emotion for baseball fans is as weighty as the OED."
--Tim McCarver, N.Y. Yankees broadcaster

"He's a writer with a distinctive voice,
Whose pitch is perfect, whose taste is choice.
A smart, creative, insightful man,
With one tragic flaw: he's a Red Sox fan."
--Charles Osgood

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592280633
• ISBN-13: 978-1592280636
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,634,729 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One More Excrutiating Day in the Curse of the Bambino, August 6, 2000

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

This review is from: A Day of Light and Shadows (Common Reader Editions) (Hardcover)

Unless you are a Red Sox fan, you may not know about the Curse of the Bambino. In the early part of the 20th century, the Boston Red Sox dominated the American League. One of their best players was a pitcher named Babe Ruth. The owner traded the Babe to the New York Yankees in exchange for the money to invest in the Broadway production of No No, Nanette and it's been no cigar for the Red Sox ever since.

Jonathan Schwartz has one of the worst cases of Red Sox addiction that I have ever heard of. He has been a radio announcer in New York for over 30 years (that's enemy territory for Red Sox fans). To stay up with his beloved Red Sox, he spent almost $15,000 in long distance charges from 1970-77 to listen in to the air check for WITS in Hartford of the games (calling in from Paris in some cases).

This is a story first published in Sports Illustrated in 1978 and covers one of the worst periods in Red Sox history: The season when they blew a late 14 game lead to the dreaded Yankees. I lived in Boston at that time, and it was painful to recall the swoon. Yet at the end of the season, they pulled a comeback and tied the Yankees. There was to be a one-game playoff in Fenway Park (determined by a coin toss) on October 2, 1978. In a prior playoff against Cleveland in Fenway in 1948 (also on October 2), the Sox had lost 8-3.

During the slide, the worst time had been when the Red Sox lost four in a row in Fenway to the Yankees with less than a month to go. Schwartz recounts his reaction. In a funk, he impulsively walked out of his apartment with $50 and a credit card, and flew to California. Only after arriving did he remember to call his live-in girlfriend and tell her what he had done.

With the big game coming up, Schwartz thinks he should take it easy and watch the game on television. At the last minute, he cannot resist and calls in some markers to get a press pass.

Most of the book recounts the game. It is interspaced with pre and post game comments from the key players.

The ironies continue to abound. You'll have to read the book to get them all. The Sox took a 2-0 early lead, but the faithful were fearful. Bucky Dent, the light-hitting shortstop, fouled a ball off his leg and play was stopped temporarily while he was treated. On the mound, the delay cost Torres (the Red Sox pitcher and former Yankee) his concentration. You guessed it. Dent hit a home run. Gossage replaced Guidry later on and stops the Red Sox from rallying back.

The final score: New York 5, Boston 4 (or as Schwartz puts it "Destiny 5, Boston 4).

Required reading and rereading for all Red Sox fans until the Curse of the Bambino is lifted!

Overcome your disbelief that anyone team could have so much bad luck with so much talent by reading this engaging story of baseball tragedy!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars About as Long as Hamlet and Just as Poetically Tragic, July 13, 2006

By	David Clow - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jonathan Schwartz captures the sweet sadness of being a lifelong Red Sox fan (at least until 2004).