Emperors and Idiots
The Hundred Year Rivalry Between the Yankees and Red Sox, from the Very Beginning to the End of the Curse
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Narrated by:
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Scott Brick
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By:
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Mike Vaccaro
About this listen
The New York Yankees. The Boston Red Sox. For a hundred years, no two teams have locked horns as fiercely or as frequently - and no two seasons frame the colossal battle more perfectly than 2003 and 2004. Now, with incredible energy and access, leading sports columnist Mike Vaccaro chronicles the history of the greatest rivalry in sports, and the two stunning American League Championship Series that define a century of baseball.
October 17, 2003: A night no Yankees or Red Sox fan will ever forget. At 12:15 am, bottom of the 11th inning of game seven of the ALCS, New York third-baseman Aaron Boone launches a ball over Yankee Stadium's left-field fence. The Yankees win their 39th pennant, and send the perennially vexed Boston Red Sox home...again...suffering another devastating loss to their longtime nemesis.
October 20, 2004: A year later, an eerie reprise, but this time things are different. After losing three straight to the Yankees, Boston has charged back to win the next three, forcing a decisive game seven. From the start of the game Boston is in control, and by winning this game they march toward their first World Series victory since 1918.
These two explosive years define an extraordinary, epic rivalry - from Mariano Rivera and Roger Clemens to Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling, Derek Jeter and Aaron Boone to David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, from nearly a century of Yankee domination to the undisputed breaking of “The Curse.”
With the razor-sharp instincts that have made him a top sports journalist, Mike Vaccaro delves into the history of the rollicking rivalry: a vicious collision in 1903 (between the New York Highlanders and Boston Pilgrims) that draws first blood; the era of Babe Ruth and his legendary trade from the Red Sox to the Yankees, ushering in the notorious Curse; the golden age of DiMaggio and Williams; the unstoppable power of Mantle and Maris; the heart and soul of Fisk and Yastrzemski versus Pinella and Munson; and the modern era of dueling owners, skyrocketing payrolls, and a renewed rivalry that attracts sell-out crowds even to Yankees-Red Sox spring training games.
Emperors and Idiots is as lively, fascinating, and raucous as the teams themselves, a must-have volume for any Yankees or Red Sox fan.
©2005 Mike Vaccaro (P)2005 Books on Tape, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Mike Vaccaro dissects the always intense relationship between the Yankees and the Red Sox the way a scholarly grandfather could analyze the two sides of a family tree: with deep, detailed stories about the two teams and two cities that are nice or nasty and never dull. Every fan knows this rivalry cannot be rivaled in sports. But in a style that feels like a history lesson being taught from the bleachers, Vaccaro reminds us again and again why that is so true.” (Jack Curry, The New York Times national baseball columnist)
“Exceptionally researched and cleanly written, [Emperors and Idiots] takes the subject seriously but doesn’t get bogged down in detail. Just about everyone who is anyone is interviewed and, amazingly, there are a few new stories here. But perhaps the best thing about this book is its evenhandedness.” (Yahoo! Sports)
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Story
Legendary Dodgers Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax, Wes Parker, Jeff Torborg, Dick Tracewski, and Tommy Davis encapsulated 1960s America: white and black, Jewish and Christian, wealthy and working class, pro-Vietnam and anti-war, golden boy and seasoned veteran. The Last Innocents is a thoughtful, technicolor portrait of these seven players - friends, mentors, confidants, rivals, and allies - and their storied team that offers an intriguing look at a sport and a nation in transition.
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Reliving my youth
- By PJ on 05-24-17
By: Michael Leahy
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The Captain
- The Journey of Derek Jeter
- By: Ian O'Connor
- Narrated by: Nick Pollifrone
- Length: 14 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Every spring, Little Leaguers across the country mimic his stance and squabble over the right to wear his number, 2, the next number to be retired by the world’s most famous ball team. Derek Jeter is their hero. He walks in the footsteps of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle, and someday his shadow will loom just as large. Yet he has never been the best player in baseball. In fact, he hasn’t always been the best player on his team. But his intangible grace and Jordanesque ability to play big in the biggest of postseason moments make him the face of the modern Yankee dynasty, and of America’s game.
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Great book, terrible narrator.
- By Butter on 05-09-14
By: Ian O'Connor
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Summer of '68
- The Season That Changed Baseball - and America - Forever
- By: Tim Wendel
- Narrated by: Mark Ashby
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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From the beginning, ’68 was a season rocked by national tragedy and sweeping change. Opening Day was postponed and later played in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral. That summer, as the pennant races were heating up, the assassination of Robert Kennedy was later followed by rioting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. But even as tensions boiled over and violence spilled into the streets, something remarkable was happening in major league ballparks across the country. Pitchers were dominating like never before, and with records falling and shut-outs mounting, many began hailing ’68 as “The Year of the Pitcher".
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Detroit Upsets St. Louis in 1968 World Series.
- By Matthew Tsien on 05-01-18
By: Tim Wendel
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A Band of Misfits
- Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants
- By: Andrew Baggarly
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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For 53 years, San Francisco waited. Waited for a team like the 2010 Giants to come along. Waited for a team that could end a title drought that started in New York and carried on for more than five decades after a move to the West Coast. Waited for that one magical postseason run that could unleash more than a half-century of pent-up frustration. At long last, the 2010 Giants hopped on that magic carpet and made it happen. San Jose Mercury News beat reporter Andrew Baggarly captured the 2010 Giants' incredible run through the regular season, playoffs and World Series in his new book.
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Relived that season!
- By jeff olson on 12-20-18
By: Andrew Baggarly
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Game Six
- Cincinnati, Boston, and the 1975 World Series: The Triumph of America's Pastime
- By: Mark Frost
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman
- Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Mark Frost takes listeners back to the 1975 World Series in this thrilling account of the greatest baseball game ever played. The Reds and Red Sox endured three soggy days of inactivity to reach game six. But all that downtime could not prepare them for what happened when the skies finally cleared.
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For the love of Baseball
- By Al on 03-23-10
By: Mark Frost
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The Grandest Stage
- A History of the World Series
- By: Tyler Kepner
- Narrated by: Tyler Kepner
- Length: 10 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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The World Series is the most enduring showcase in American team sports. It’s the place where legends are made, where celebration and devastation can hinge on a fly ball off a foul pole or a grounder beneath a first baseman’s glove. And there’s no one better to bring this rich history to life than New York Times national baseball columnist Tyler Kepner, whose bestselling book about pitching, K, was lauded as “Michelangelo explaining the brush strokes on the Sistine Chapel” by Newsday.
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Excellent!
- By DavidF on 09-09-24
By: Tyler Kepner
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The Best Team Money Can Buy
- The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Wild Struggle to Build a Baseball Powerhouse
- By: Molly Knight
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In 2012 the Los Angeles Dodgers were bought out of bankruptcy in the most expensive sale in sports history. Los Angeles icon Magic Johnson and his partners hoped to put together a team worthy of Hollywood. By most accounts they have succeeded, if not always in the way they might have imagined.
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BOTH BOOK AND TEAM NEED TO BE BETTER
- By Ray on 09-06-15
By: Molly Knight
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Bums
- An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers
- By: Peter Golenbock
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 19 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Before the team headed to Los Angeles in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were one of the most colorful and beloved teams in baseball. In Bums, best-selling author Peter Golenbock has compiled a fascinating oral history of the Ebbets Field heroes with recollections from former players, writers, front-office executives, and faithful fans.
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A MUST for the true Dodgers or Giants fan!!
- By Karen on 02-25-07
By: Peter Golenbock
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Long Shot
- By: Mike Piazza, Lonnie Wheeler
- Narrated by: Holter Graham, Mike Piazza
- Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Mike Piazza was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 62nd round of the 1988 baseball draft as a "courtesy pick". The Dodgers never expected him to play for them - or anyone else. Mike had other ideas. Overcoming his detractors, he became the National League Rookie of the Year in 1993, broke the record for season batting average by a catcher, holds the record for career home runs at his position, and was selected as an All Star 12 times. Mike was groomed for baseball success by his ambitious, self-made father in Pennsylvania, a classic father-son American-dream story.
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I only thought i knew the Mike Piazza story
- By James on 03-24-13
By: Mike Piazza, and others
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108 Stitches
- Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game
- By: Ron Darling, Daniel Paisner - contributor
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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This is New York Times bestselling author and Emmy-nominated broadcaster Ron Darling's 108 baseball anecdotes that connect America’s game to the men who played it. Darling has played with or reported on just about everybody who has put on a uniform since 1983, and they in turn have played with or reported on just about everybody who put on a uniform in a previous generation. Like the 108 stitches on a baseball, Darling's experiences are interwoven with every athlete who has ever played, every coach or manager, and every fan.
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Meh
- By Amazon Customer on 04-13-19
By: Ron Darling, and others
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1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever
- By: Bill Madden
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Jackie Robinson heroically broke the color barrier in 1947. But how—and, in practice, when—did the integration of the sport actually occur? Bill Madden shows that baseball’s famous black experiment” did not truly succeed until the coming of age of Willie Mays and the emergence of some star players—Larry Doby, Hank Aaron, and Ernie Banks—in 1954. And as a relevant backdrop off the field, it was in May of that year that the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled, in the case of Brown v. Board of Education, that segregation be outlawed in America’s public schools.
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Acumen bugaboo
- By steve finkelstein on 04-25-21
By: Bill Madden
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Babe
- The Legend Comes to Life
- By: Robert W. Creamer
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 13 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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He was the biggest man baseball has ever produced. Babe Ruth transcended the sport that brought him fame, money, and adulation, moving beyond the limits of baselines and outfield fences into the mainstream of American life. In this extraordinary biography, Creamer uncovers the complex and captivating man behind the legend.
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The definitive biography of Babe Ruth
- By DKT on 05-30-16
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Pull Up a Chair
- The Vin Scully Story
- By: Curt Smith
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 11 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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Since 1950, the instantly recognizable voice of Vin Scully has invited listeners to “pull up a chair” for his peerless play-by-play sports reporting. Recruited and mentored by the legendary Red Barber, Scully has narrated NBC’s Game of the Week, twelve All-Star Games, eighteen no-hitters, and twenty-five World Series, describing players from Duke Snider to Orel Hershiser to Manny Ramirez, with hundreds in between.
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Almost perfect
- By steve finkelstein on 02-06-21
By: Curt Smith
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The Year of the Pitcher
- Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball’s Golden Age
- By: Sridhar Pappu
- Narrated by: Leon Nixon
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Year of the Pitcher is the story of the remarkable 1968 baseball season, which culminated in one of the greatest World Series contests ever, with the Detroit Tigers coming back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Cardinals in Game Seven of the World Series. In 1968, two remarkable pitchers would dominate the game as well as the broadsheets. One was black, the other white. Bob Gibson, together with the St. Louis Cardinals, embodied an entire generation's hope for integration at a heated moment in American history. Denny McLain, his adversary, was a crass self-promoter.
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Misleading Title
- By Paul on 01-25-19
By: Sridhar Pappu
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Opening Day
- The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season
- By: Jonathan Eig
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 12 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Drawing on interviews with surviving players, sportswriters, and eyewitnesses, as well as newly discovered material from archives around the country, Jonathan Eig presents a fresh portrait of a ferocious competitor who embodied integration's promise and helped launch the modern civil-rights era. Full of new details and thrilling action, Opening Day brings to life baseball's ultimate story.
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Great book, not so great reading
- By Joe Baseball on 08-30-07
By: Jonathan Eig
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Three Nights in August
- Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager
- By: Buzz Bissinger
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Nordling
- Length: 9 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Given unprecedented access to La Russa and his team, best-selling journalist Bissinger captures baseball's strategic and emotional essence. We watch from the dugout as La Russa's Cardinals take on their archrivals, the Chicago Cubs, in a thrilling three-game series.
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Book with good premise follows through
- By Peter on 11-18-05
By: Buzz Bissinger
What listeners say about Emperors and Idiots
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- nancy
- 04-10-05
the only thing better is being at the ballpark
if you love the yankees or the red sox -- or just a good story about baseball -- you gotta listen to this. no other book out there takes you behind the scenes in the greatest rivalry in sports like this one.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 04-14-22
Great book, painful for me lol
As a Yankees fan, of course, reliving 2004 is no fun. Just as reliving Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone is no fun for the Ted Sox Nation. Scott Brick brings the book to life with his usual narrative excellence. Great book for a fan of either team and a great introduction to the rivalry for any baseball fan.
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- Kenny W.
- 04-19-18
Solid entertaining way to learn about the history
What did you love best about Emperors and Idiots?
The narration was perfect for the tone of the book. He spoke as if blood was going to be shed at any moment. It kept me engaged and made big moments thrilling.
What did you like best about this story?
I liked learning all the fine details about the big moments in the history of the rivalry. This book really emphasized all the big moments in the history and broke down games that lead up to them. I watched nearly every inning of the 2003 and 2004 ALCS however, I was so young that I don't remember all the details that led up to the big highlights in those series. Vaccaro goes through all the specifics that led up to every big highlight in these series, and it's awesome revisiting everything.
Any additional comments?
The main story line of the book is the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Vaccaro breaks down everything about the two teams from 2003 to the end of 2004, and his way of teaching about the history dating back to 1904 was through tangents that stemmed from something that happened during those two seasons that reminded him of things that happened in the past. It was an odd way of informing everyone of the history, and often times made you annoyed because you just wanted to hear what was going to happen next in the main story line (The 03 and 04 seasons), but it's a difficult thing to write about chronologically, while keeping readers entertained. I'm not sure if this is the most effective way to teach everyone about the history of the rivalry, but it makes sense that he did, since this book was written the year after the sox won.
The book pretty much pitied the Red Sox all the way to the final few pages, when the Sox won game 7 in 04. I feel like the pity was played up a bit much at times, but if this is the way the team was really perceived by the majority, I have no problem with it, I was just looking for the most accurate history, and I wasn't around for most of the history myself.
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- Anonymous User
- 04-17-23
Amazing!
Brought back great memories of the 2 greatest years of baseball my wife and I ever enjoyed!
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Overall
- Dan
- 04-17-05
Best rivalry in sports, solid listen (Go Sox!)
If you are looking for more on the early years, you <b><i>may</b></i> be disappointed. Does not mean that there is not some lead up, but it does focus a lot on the more recent years. Not all that bad either way.
Listening to Game 6 and 7 of the 2003 ALCS is near perfect. Each of the pitches that lead to the boiling point between Pedro/Zimmer to Aaron "Bleeping" Boone. It is like "watching" the games over and over, even though for the Sox fan, it can be like ripping a band-aid off very slowly...
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3 people found this helpful
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- Ericka
- 06-24-16
A must-read for Sox fans!
Great narration, even better storytelling. It will bring you back to the turbulent ALCS matchups of 2003 and 2004 -- and take you even further back to 1978, 1948, and 1904. By the end you really feel you understand what makes the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry so special.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Donald
- 04-06-05
Great Book Even If You're Not A Red Sox Fan
This book was a joy to listen to.
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- Michael Dillman
- 09-03-12
Good but not great. (A triple, not a home run)
Great content, great subject, well-written and very well-narrated, but disjointed and lacks closure.
As an enthusiastic but not eccentric Red Sox fan, I enjoyed this book, but it could have been much better simply by changing the structure.
This book is written the way most newspaper sports articles are structured. (Considering the author is a NYT columnist, this shouldn't be a surprise.) Vaccaro ropes you in with the denouement up front, then steps back and starts filling in the details. That's a perfectly good approach to start with -- the problem is that, it's not laid out chronologically. Throughout the 13 plus hours, we jump repeated back and forth countless times like a game of pong, trying to keep tabs on what decade we're in and which generation of Sox and Yankees players we're talking about. Even for someone who knows the back story, it's hard to follow, there's no flow, and the herky-jerk approach really makes it hard to get fully invested in the book.
I've never been a fan of this sort of writing in newspapers in the first place, and it really doesn't translate to a work of this length. It's like the author doesn't respect the audience enough to trust that he can hold our attention. All the while, he's forgetting that we aren't skimming newspaper headlines -- we're reading a book and he shouldn't feel the need to keep waving something new at us to keep us engaged.
Also, as others have pointed out, the book doesn't finish the story of the 2004 season. Yes, I realize the Cardinals aren't the subject of this book, but that year was chosen as the end point of the book for good reason. Without the Red Sox world series victory, the 'curse' doesn't end. This feels like a natural part of the book and is strangely missing.
Simply put, if the book was exactly the same, except re-edited to lay it out chronologically like a conventional biography or history, the experience would be much better. If you can get past that issue and let Scott Brick work with what's given to him, you can still enjoy this book. It's a great effort, but manages to stumble somewhere between third base and home plate.
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Overall
- Richard
- 04-28-05
Not complete!
This book told me some things I didn't know about the Yankees/Red Soxs rivalry. But it really wasn't about the end of the curse. The curse wasn't beating the Yankees for the American League Title, it was beating the St Louis Cardinals and actually winning the World Series. If the Cardinals hadn't been defeated, the curse would have still existed. After all, the Red Soxs had been to the World Series before, only to lose. This book didn't talk about the World Series at all, leaving me disappointed in the book. I wanted to know the skinny about that series too. I feel like a person who had a good meal, but didn't get the dessert too!
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Overall
- Sotired
- 04-18-05
A mess
This book goes back and forth way too much. Its hard to keep up with the narrative string. It would have been a much better book if it had any organization.
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1 person found this helpful