DESTINY 5 - RED SOX 4 declared one Boston headline after Bucky Dent's unlikely home run had cost the Red Sox the dramatic 1978 playoff game at Fenway Park against the Yankees for the Eastern Division title of the American League. No one has commented more eloquently and openly on destiny's victories over the Sox and their devoted fans through the years than writer and New York radio personality Jonathan Schwartz, who left his heart in Fenway at an early age. Schwartz's stirring and unusually intimate account of the beauty and heartbreak of that resplendent day in '78 appeared in Sports Illustrated in 1979. It is now issued, on the 25th anniversary of the game, with a new autobiographical essay in which Schwartz reflects on the Sox, his life, and destiny's various line-ups in the two decades since Dent. With an Introduction by Boston Globe sports columnist Bob Ryan.
Author: Jonathan Schwartz
Publisher: The Lyons Press
Customer Reviews
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About as Long as Hamlet and Just as Poetically Tragic
Jonathan Schwartz captures the sweet sadness of being a lifelong Red Sox fan (at least until 2004).
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One More Excrutiating Day in the Curse of the Bambino
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.<p>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).<p>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.<p>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. <p>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.<p>Most of the book recounts the game. It is interspaced with pre and post game comments from the key players. <p>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.<p>The final score: New York 5, Boston 4 (or as Schwartz puts it "Destiny 5, Boston 4). <p>Required reading and rereading for all Red Sox fans until the Curse of the Bambino is lifted!<p>Overcome your disbelief that anyone team could have so much bad luck with so much talent by reading this engaging story of baseball tragedy! <p>
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