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Mar 14, 2008

Chelsea rated it:

I'm 11 pages in, and I've been a fan since page 1. Footnotes! Red Sox! Diehard fans!

There will be no objectivity here. BEST BOOK EVER. Bill Simmons, why haven't we gotten married and had babies yet?

Now that I've finished it, my review is pretty much the same. (Footnotes!) And, really, Red Sox fans will love the book, anyone who hates the Yankees will like the book, and anyone who thinks Shawshank Redemption is the best movie of all time will adore the book.

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5 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

AJ rated it:

When i was about 7, I used the money I was given for my dad's birthday gift to buy him a sweet baseball/hockey/football game for our computer; when my mother gently questioned the selflessness of this gift, I insisted that it was the kind of thing he would love and it definitely was not because i wanted it for myself.

Of course I was lying. I was 7.

Anyway, I did the same thing about 10 years later when I bought this for him. On the one hand, I used my own money, and it w More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2012

Maura rated it:

It's a book compiled of columns Bill Simmons wrote between 1997 and 2005 chronicling the path of the Red Sox to their World Series victory. What you need to know is:

(1) to really love this book, you need to care about baseball at the very least, but better yet, love the Red Sox.
(2) but even if you don't, you'll probably still find his writing style amusing (i've been known to read his columns on the NBA even tho i'm not sure i know any current players beyond Shaq. They're still More...

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May 24, 2011

Mike rated it:

This book is a collection of sports writer (and life-long Red Sox fan) Bill Simmons’s columns about the Red Sox over a ten year period. He follows his team from the dark, dark days of the late nineties, through the false promise of the early 2000s, and into the promised land of the 2004 and 2007 World Series wins. Obviously, this book is perfect for any Red Sox fan, but it is also great for any baseball or sports fan. Simmons is an extraordinarily insightful, clever, and hilarious writer. Sev More...

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Jan 01, 2011

Rob rated it:

I'm pleased for Bill Simmons that his team won the world series. In an ideal world he would feel fulfilled and it would lead him to try and do more with fewer words and fewer footnotes and fewer tedious cultural references and fewer references to his friends and their interminable trips to "Vegas" that I can only assume are funnier if you are actually there.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I really enjoyed his writing at one time, he has plenty of tells that have More...

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Jul 29, 2009

Gyoh80525 rated it:

This book is a series of columns written by the author (who is currently a columnist for espn.com) about what it was like to see the Red Sox win the World Series for the first time in 86 years. It is that actual columns written at the time with commentary written a few years later. The book is at times brutally funny (like when the author describes the "Tom Cruise face". Basically he's trying to look sad when Goose dies in Top Gun but it really looks like he is trying to take a dump) More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 07, 2011

Tony rated it:

I can't stand Boston sports teams and (to a greater extent) Boston sports fans. They have this feeling of entitlement that no other city matches, like for some reason the Red Sox deserved to win those 86 years that they didn't or that Bird is the greatest athlete that ever lived. They are annoying, but where would we be without them?

So why would I read a book about the Red Sox if I hate the team? For the same reason I read a huge book about basketball, even though prior to finishi More...

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Nov 25, 2009

Sarah rated it:

So here's the thing; I hate the Sox. They are, if not my most hated, then my second most hated team in all of professional sports. I hate the Cowboys, I hate the Yankees, I haaaate the Montreal Canadiens.. I (still) hate Manny Ramirez, I hate Tim Wakefield's knuckleball, I hate the Green Monster, I hate Fever Pitch.. I fucking hate the Boston Red Sox.

I don't know if it's because Roger Clemens is a dickhead, I don't know if it's because all of my first memories of attending Jays games More...

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Jul 06, 2010

Mike rated it:

This is a must-read book for the fan of the 1995–04 Red Sox. This was a special era in their history, when they went from a lovable cast of not-very-good players to a lovable cast of really, really good players (who were probably mostly juiced).

The rise of Bill Simmons, the Boston Sports Guy and subsequently simply The Sports Guy, has been chronicled before, but I will recount it briefly here. He began as a sort of underground blogger on the Boston sports scene, dedicated to giving More...

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Nov 02, 2011

Tyler rated it:

Tyler Succi
11/2/11

Plot Summary:
What this book is about is a guy named Bill Simmons being a HUGE sports fan. Particularly a Red Sox/ New England fan. He really focuses on the Red Sox most. He has a lot of interesting facts about them and talks about the "curse" a lot too. Bill himself is really the main character. Other characters he mentions is the "sports gal", he wedding buds, and his dad. He doesn't really bring names into the story at all. The book its More...

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Aug 26, 2009

Tara rated it:

I don't like the Red Sox OR the Yankees, but I appreciate Simmons' humor and the fact that he's a true Sox fan and not a bandwagoner. I almost died reading pages 265-273, being an Angels fan myself (when you cut us, we bleed too, Bill! We bleed too!)* Incidentally, the season this book highlights marks the season I really, and I mean really, started to dislike the Red Sox. What I do like is Simmons' approach to being a fan. And I will give him this... he is more emotionally invested in his teams More...

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Dec 29, 2009

Sarah rated it:

Well, the title says it all - a collection of Simmons' columns written from 1998-2004 as the Red Sox rebuild and win the World Series.

I've never read Simmons' columns before so everything here was new to me. He's a pretty good writer, very entertaining. One complaint is that he uses the same pop culture references over and over again - okay, we get, you love The Shawshank Redemption. These essays actually made me re-evaluate my opinion of some Sox players - I've never been a Nomar fa More...

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Jul 30, 2011

Jeff added it

It was an entertaining book, reliving that improbable season of 2004 with someone who has suffered as much as I did with the Sox . Simmons takes you through the hellish history of the tortured franchise all the way up to (spoiler alert !) the World Series sweep, which is obviously the big payoff of the book. It was nice to experience that Yankee series again, that's for sure. My only problem is all the fucking Shawshank references. Jesus Christ, enough already with the Shawshank. Sure, I enjoyed More...

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Mar 24, 2009

Archie rated it:

When this book was published in 2005, I had already been reading Bill Simmons' column "The Sports Guy" for half a decade. I looked forward to it every day in college. His combination of wit, sports knowledge with fresh takes and opinions, and adding elements of pop culture made me a huge fan. It influenced me to take a stab at writing my own column in college that combined wit, relationship knowledge with fresh takes and opinions, and of course, elements of pop culture.

So w More...

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Jan 16, 2012

Drew rated it:

Bill Simmons is an influential writer for me, personally, because I have read everything he has written since about 1998. As a 7th grade Red Sox fan in Concord, New Hampshire, I found a writer calling himself the Boston Sports Guy writing on AOL Digital City Boston (this may have been even before there was an espn.com, and certainly before he was writing on ESPN and grantland.com). I have a hard time even being objective about the writing, because reading this is such an exercise in nostalgia, t More...

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Apr 10, 2009

Mike rated it:

This is mostly just a collection of Bill Simmons columns from '98 through the Red Sox world series win in 2004 (and i believe a few after that). As a huge Simmons fan (he rights for ESPN.com from the fans point of view, with a ton of humor and tangents, most of with which I can very much identify, like Vegas, growing up in the '80's, going to a non-sports school, having two kids....), I had actually read most of the columns previously, but by putting them together into a singular thread it rea More...

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Jun 13, 2009

Christopher rated it:

Bill Simmons, known as ESPN's Sports Guy, is my favorite sportswriter. The only problem I have with him is that he's a fan of the Red Sox. I hate the Red Sox more than any other sports team. Even more than the Yankees. Anyway, I waited awhile to read this book-- until the reality finally sunk in that the Red Sox had indeed finally won a world series. I bought the paperback version in which Simmons goes through and adds commentary to the original version, which is fun. I hope he goes throug More...

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Sep 14, 2009

Denis rated it:

I'm a big fan of Simmons' columns, but he did so much Red Sox stuff in 2004 that it took a while before I felt like I could read the book without having the experience colored by how overexposed that team became after they won (and it also didn't help that they beat the Rockies in 2007).

Unfortunately, the book has not aged well. It's tough to buy into the hero worship of guys who have since been revealed to be poor role models, especially since part of Simmons' angle is that it's a More...

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Apr 22, 2010

Amy rated it:

This book is a reprinting of articles the author wrote, with the addition of footnotes that sometimes explain a reference or express his feelings about writing a particular segment. It was worth reading for two reasons: 1) It's about the Boston Red Sox winning their first World Series after an 86 year drought in 2004 and 2)It's incredibly humorous.

If you're a Red Sox fan, you know the story of 2004 and what led up to it. The book goes back over the details starting in October 1998. I More...

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May 07, 2011

Matvei rated it:

It's hard for anyone to write a book about the things they love, I think, and it's especially hard when that love borders on the masochistic and obsessive - what else can you do but vent, gush, and pontificate about the significance of your emotions? About the only way to make such an effort work is to gear it to your fellow sufferers as testament and therapy, which explains why Kahlil Gibran is featured in every crappy wedding vow, why Charles Bukowski has such godlike status in AA, and why fel More...

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Jul 17, 2010

Christian rated it:

Ever since my cousin told me that Bill S. was her favorite sports writer I have paid much more attention to him. And I think he is great. But like all fans he has a bias towards his teams and although his perspective and knowledge is extremely insightful, for the non Red Sox, Celtics fan it can be tough to bear. Thus, I appreciated his perspective, but there were times when this Brewers/Bucks fans just had a difficult time maintaining interest. Love the ESPN columns, especially the mailbags. More...

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Jan 24, 2009

John rated it:

What can I say? Of course I loved it! My favorite ESPN columnist, who is probably a bigger die-hard red Sox fan than I am, wrote a great book following Boston's improbable 2004 World Series victory. But moreso than that, he re-lived the history of Red Sox collapses dating back to when he was a kid, and given that we are about the same age he made me feel like he was reviewing my childhood/teen/adult years as well. It was a great read for me. Plus, I love his humorous style, so there it is.

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Feb 10, 2012

Matt rated it:

Simmons collection of articles, detailing his life long love affair with the Boston Red Sox as well as thier championship run in 2004, is hilarious and heart warming. Any sports fan who has dealt with the pain of wasted years following their favorite team will find pieces of themselves within this book. Refreshingly honest and sometimes sad revelations about his fanaticism are peppered throughout the book. You dont have to be a fan of the Red Sox, only a fan of sports, to enjoy this book.

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Aug 10, 2011

Joseph added it

I love Simmons, so I ran out and bought this when it came out. I didn't really think things through, however. I suppose it should have occurred to me that, since I don't give a shit about the stupid Red Sox, I wouldn't really give a shit about a bunch of Red Sox columns. The book was still entertaining; imagine how much more entertaining a book about something mildly interesting would be. Here's hoping Simmons' forthcoming book won't be about fucking Boston.

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Feb 01, 2010

Jamie rated it:

My favorite sports book by my favorite sports wrier. This is the newest edition, so I just read the last 100 pages or so, which is all the updated stuff post-2004. This book is a collection of all of his columns about the Red Sox from since 1998 on, all the ups and downs, and then the final big BIG up of winning the World Series in 2004. I read parts of this book at least once a year.

And there's the column about the Patriots winning their first Super Bowl, thrown in there because More...

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Feb 07, 2010

Jesse rated it:

I thought I would enjoy this a lot more as it essentially recaps the Red Sox march to the World Series title in '04. But it was basically material I'd already read (through his column online), but Simmons wasn't held to the same moral standards in the book as he is held to on ESPN.com (which isn't saying too much in the first place). So, it was a lot of repetitive material with some offensive and unfunny commentary added. Not one to keep.

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Mar 30, 2009

Christi rated it:

I think you have to love the Sports Guy column to "get" this book.
I laughed out loud so often at his asides and pop culture references. I think it also helps that I'm the same age and grew up in New England so his 90210 and Saved by the Bell and Shawshank references make sense to me. (Though he really really is obsessed with Shawshank, huh??)

Took me 4 years to read this book but it was a nice walk down Sox memory lane. Just in time to get excited for opening day.

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Sep 02, 2011

Josh rated it:

It's an interesting read. Since it's a collection of columns (edited and reformatted, with footnotes) it a little disjointed...but it really does tell a pretty compelling narrative of what it was like for a die-hard Red Sox fan. What's especially interesting to me is how Simmons starts the narrative earlier than just the championship season, but doesn't really try to track back through the decades of pain. It's about how this team was built and what it meant to them. It works.

Simmons i More...

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Sep 06, 2010

Brad rated it:

This was an a good and light read. Bill Simmons writing is the style I would like to adopt if I knew how to write. It is filled with random pop culture references and weird theories on sports and other trivial things. But at the same time I think he perfectly captured the neurotic nature of what it means to be a fan and especially a Red Sox fan, as I have learned. So as I a long suffering Cubs I appreciated this book and look forward to hopefully some day having a Cubs book like this...knock More...

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Mar 19, 2010

Alex rated it:

I'm a little over Bill Simmons these days; since he moved to LA he's completely lost touch with the Red Sox, and I don't care about any other sport. But this, published shortly after the Red Sox won their first World Series in (x) years, is the best literary celebration of that win.

If you don't know immediately and exactly what x is, you don't need to read this book.

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