The Boys of October : How the 1975 Boston Red Sox Embodied Baseball's Ideals--and Restored Our Spirits

by Doug Hornig

"A replay of another sort, a psalm, really, to the '75 Red Sox . . . transcend[s] the box-score mentality of so much sportswriting . . . captures the true joy of baseball . . . very fine." --The New York Times Book Review An inspiring look at the 1975 World Series, The Boys of October takes the reader back to those 12 exhilarating days in 1975, when the ragtag Boys from Beantown faced Cincinnati's "Big Red Machine." Against the backdrop of a hot summer during turbulent times, this compelling book celebrates baseball and the heroes who made it what it is.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1899

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hornig has lots of good and interesting things to say, but the format of the book (a television-like play-by-play of all 6 games of the 1975 world series -- complete with commercial breaks -- combined with what would be background color commentary that reaches not only into past but the future of the players lives) put me off. Not enough, of course, to stop reading, and the end result was worth the effort. There is lots to help any fan appreciate the game more deeply, to place the players lives in a historical context, and to reflect on the role of sports in American life. The subtitle is unfortunate (and misleading) and the index, which includes only proper names, should have pointed as well to some of the author's best developed themes -- racism, drugs, ways to make the game more exciting, and the impact of media.

[Harold Kasselman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the read, but it didn't touch me as I had hoped. It was fun to relive literally the play by play of the 1975 world series, one that the author feels was the greatest of all time. I don't agree, although it is one of the best especially game six. The sub title implies there will be some cultural analysis of the times as well as the baseball synopsis. If that's what you enjoy, you will be disappointed. There is very little about the historical context, and what there is leaves the reader flat. Still, I enjoyed the short and pithy interviews with some of the players from the series. Most, if not all were former were Red Sox. I found the plights of Dick Drago, Bernie Carbo, and Rick Wise especially poignant. This was written in 2002 but the author presciently discusses the plight of baseball's future; namely pace of play, the emphasis of the home run over small ball, the length of the games(all of the games were under three hours except game three a ten inning game that came in at three hours and three minutes), and the rise of the pitching specialists. I was surprised to read that as early as 2002 those issues were so prevalent. So, in conclusion, it's a worthwhile read especially if you are a Red Sox or Reds fan.

[Seamus Houlihan · Rating 4 out of 5]

rambles a bit, but very enjoyable and quite passionate

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I was a little kind playing baseball and wiffleball in the backyard (mid to late 1980s), my heroes were always Atlanta Braves and I always pretended to be Dale Murphy. I was pretty good at it too and I had the swing completely down and even drove the ball pretty well, with the exception of the times in which my Uncle John would come in to pitch. I would do the fake commentary pretending to be Dale Murphy and my Uncle John would then tell me that if I was Dale Murphy, he would be Luis Tiant. By that time, Luis Tiant had been out of the game forever and I had no idea who he was talking about. In fact, I mainly thought he made the guy up. Anyway, he would do the herky jerky motions and I would be so baffled by the delivery that I rarely made good contact with the ball.

Years later, with the ubiquity of sports highlight shows and their never ending need to rank the greatest (you fill in the blank) of all time, I saw highlights of this mysterious pitcher and learned about the 1975 World Series between the Red Sox and the Big Red Machine of Cincinnati. This book is the story of the 1975 Boston Red Sox (though not really about the season as much as the 1975 World Series), as told through the remembrances of a long-suffering Red Sox fan, who was actually driving a cab during that time. This book chronicles every at bat, sometimes every pitch of the 75 Series, and no Red Sox chronicle of that time would be complete with out the homage to Pudge Fisk’s homerun in Game Six. Great background on some of the true characters of the Red Sox of that season, with particularly memorable sections involving Tiant, Yaz, Carbo, and Don Zimmer, and even some neat vignettes about where they are now.

In a lot of ways, this book seems very quaint and passé now after Red Sox World Series wins in 2004 (and now 2007), but this book was no doubt an essential part of the whole tortured Red Sox fan genre that was much in vogue, especially in the early 2000s.

[Spiros · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, a confession: ever since my beloved Bosox won last year's World Series, I have found myself to be entirely incapable of wearing my Red Sox cap, the one I purchased before the 2004 season. Now, whenever I see anyone kitted out in Red Sox garb (which is becoming increasingly frequent), I think to myself "What an asshole". Tragically, the Red Sox have become the new Yankees, the ultimate frontrunners.
This book, written before the Sox first championship in eighty-six years, is a delightful tonic to that malaise. It chronicles, in almost play by play detail, the seven games of the 1975 World Series, argued by many (well, me) to be the Greatest World Series Ever. Period. End of discussion.
I date my love of the Red Sox to that Series. Generally speaking, the teams I became enamored of were the teams that stood, however feebly, between the Dodgers or Reds and a championship; hence my abiding fandom for the Pirates, Phillies, and Cardinals. No team ever stood up more heroically than the '75 Red Sox, for which they will always remain my Other Favorite Team. To this day, I go into every season hoping that if the Giants can't win it (which, face it, ain't gonna happen in my lifetime), then the Red Sox can.
To me, the Big Red Machine represented Evil, with their clean-cut corporate image, their clean cut astroturf stadium, and the way they bitchslapped my Giants around. Basically, Baseball's Imperial Storm Troopers. The Red Sox were a whole different story, a funky, defeatist rag-tag bunch of larger than life characters, such as Yaz, Petro, Pudge, El Tiante, the Roostah, and my favorite, the Spaceman: how could you not pull for that cast? They taught me life's most valuable lesson: in the battle of Good vs. Evil, Evil is going to win; the glory lies in putting up a good fight, and having a good time while doing so.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

First: I have the envelope I was using as a bookmark, and written on it (at 3 am last night, when I couldn't sleep) is "I want to marry this man's tangents and have little half-tangent, half-human babies with them." I love a good tangent, and not only were they plentiful in this book, but they were appropriate, topical, enlightening, funny, and often touching.

But, so was the book.

I'm a sucker for a heroes-as-men story, and this is a good one. Hornig tells the story of the 1975 Boston Red Sox vs. Cincinnati Reds World Series basically pitch by pitch. He interviewed most of the members of the Red Sox team (the focus of his story), giving us not only their background and context for their performance in the Series, but also what happened to them after; there are some fascinating lives that were part of this team, both good and bad.

Hornig does a great job of keeping up the tension, despite all the tangents and, you know, everyone knowing how this one ends. And the ending is just as painful 32 years later (says the girl who wasn't born until 11 years after these games were played).

Hornig's take on the series isn't as poetic as Roger Angell's, which was practically a religious experience for me (and which Hornig quotes several times), but it's much more in line with an actual fan's experience, I think; he frequently refers to watching the Series with old timer Uncle Oscar. (The postscript mentioning that Uncle Oscar passed away in 1992, having never seen a Red Sox World Series win during his lifetime, was a tough read for me, because I had an Uncle Oscar of my own.)

It's also interesting to note that this book came out in 2003, so he's writing from the perspective of a fan who still hasn't gotten a Championship.

[Ted Haussman · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a certain rich irony that Hornig wrote or completed this book in 2002, right on the cusp of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry reaching a boiling point and the utter, devastating, losing-again-in-hideous-fashion 7 game ALCS of 2003, which, as we know, was the final gasp in the 85 year tragedy of the Red Sox. Improbably, astonishingly, and wondrously, they would dig themselves an impossible hole against the hated Yankees in 2004 and then miraculously return from the dead in the -never-done-before-never-done-again reverse sweep of the Yankees, the final two games coming at Yankee Stadium. Today, the taunting "1918" chants have receded into distant memory and roll off us Red Sox fans as though we're coated in Teflon. In the epilogue, he talks about how certain great series generate memorable plays, "ones so indelible that they can be referred to with initial caps (e.g., the Strikeout)". Say "The Steal" to any Red Sox or Yankee fan and he/she will know what you mean. Perhaps in some small, wee measure, Hornig helped to reverse the silly curse.

As for the book itself, I enjoyed it mightily. I was only 7 in suburban Boston when the 1975 Wirld Series was played but I still remember bits and pieces of it and have watched the highlights many times. #27 became my all-time favorite Red Sox for his heroics in Game 6. Hornig does an able job of weaving interesting side stories into the play-by-play of the Series itself.

My only criticism is that it is somewhat of a "homer" book. He only interviewed the former 175 Red Sox players, never explaining why he did not seek to interview the Reds. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read (despite my Red Sox falling apart as I was reading).

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had so much fun reading this book. The author clearly loves baseball and the 75 Red Sox, and his description of the Series is from a true Red Sox fan's perspective (complete with the constant question "so how are they going to blow it this time?") A fan, but with the advantage of having been able to arrange interviews with so many members of the team, years later, to get their perspectives.

As much as I enjoyed the memories that the book brought back, of all the weird and wonderful events of the Series, it was just as interesting to find out what happened to the players in the years since then.

I lived in Boston then, and the memory of the 6th game of the Series is still strong - when Fisk hit the home run to win, we all threw open our apartment windows and screamed like it was New Years Eve - you could hear car horns honking all over the city. I don't believe I've ever been that excited about a sports event, before or since.

[Ian Headon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my first baseball boom and I loved it

As an irish guy, I reckoned this number of people could not like baseball without there being something.....so I picked up 2 books in NYC - moneyball and this

This is stunning

The epilogue about the old timer at the bar is beautiful and the baseball is a accessible but authentic

It converted me

[Mike Nayyar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, sentimental look back on the 1975 world series.

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading was discombobulated, hard to follow at times. Great tidbits about the Red Sox, but personal accounts about the Sox mixed in with the history made it hard to follow.