Why Not Us?: The 86-year Journey of the Boston Red Sox Fans From Unparalleled Suffering to the Promised Land of the 2004 World Series - Hardcover

Montville, Leigh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1586483331 ISBN 13: 9781586483333

Publisher: PublicAffairs, 2005

Synopsis

Generation after generation watched and hoped and prayed for victory. And generation after generation turned away frustrated and disappointed- 1946 (when the Sox lost the World Series in 7 games), '48 (lost a one game play-off to Cleveland), '49 (heartbreak to the Yankees), '67 (again, lost the Series in 7), '75 (and again, lost the Series in 7), Bucky in '78, Buckner in '86, Boone in 2003. Yet every spring the fans flocked back, hopeful again. The losing, the angst, the self-flagellation became so routine that it even developed marketing names. The suffering was called "The Curse of the Bambino". The sufferers were called "Red Sox Nation" - the ultimate underdogs. Would it ever end?

And then it did.

Why Not Us? is about what the Red Sox's amazing victory in the 2004 World Series meant to the fans. It's about how it felt to be a Red Sox fan - not only at 20 minutes to midnight on October 27, 2004, but decades before. Leigh Montville, best-selling author of Ted Williams and At the Altar of Speed , has interviewed dozens of fans: friends, friends of friends, old sportswriters, ball-players, public figures, and plain folk. Here are their stories-bittersweet stories of passion and pain, eternal hope and crushing despair, the seemingly endless agony and the strange ecstasy of being a Red Sox fan.

About this title

About the Author:

Leigh Montville, former sports columnist at the Boston Globe and former senior writer at Sports Illustrated , is the best-selling author of Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero and At the Altar of Speed: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of Dale Earnhardt. He lives near Fenway Park.

From School Library Journal:

Adult/High School–The triumph of the Boston Red Sox in the autumn of the 2004 World Series leaped from the sports pages into the headlines. The longtime search of the Sox for that elusive victory had become part of our cultural consciousness: any mention of the long-suffering but ever-hopeful Red Sox Nation (as the fans are called) was understood throughout the U.S. Montville has brought together a treasure trove of stories, including his own, that give just the right sense of what it has meant to be a fan of this team. The similar themes never become tedious or repetitive: instead they work together to depict the Red Sox fan base. Even for those who do not care about the team or about baseball, this book offers wonderful insight into the passions that one develops in youth and about their importance in our lives.–Ted Westervelt, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
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About this edition

• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1586483331
• ISBN 13: 9781586483333
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 192