Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #226345 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Funny stuff from the Spaceman...
I'm not a Red Sox fan, so I can't really identify with long-suffering Boston baseball fans, to whom this book is really directed. I can, however, appreciate the history of baseball, good humor and the occasional satire, all of which Bill Lee provides in his tongue-in-cheek revision of the history of the Boston Red Sox.

From the Ho Chi Minh Trial to Ted Williams' saving of the free world to "Bucky freuging Dent": concert pianist, this book is filled with wonderfully silly speculations of what might have been, had the episodes that have caused so much heartbreak for Boston baseball fans not occurred. Lee takes aim at several of his most despised adversaries, including the Yankees and Don Zimmer (whom he referred to as a "Gerbil" during his career), and never lets up. The fall of New York and the rise of Boston are directly linked to the fate of the Babe, as Yankee fans become the embittered and cynical of the two, and Boston becomes the Baseball capital of the world.

What would have happened if the Red Sox would not have traded Babe Ruth? If Ted Williams hadn't lost 5 years to war? If Jackie Robinson had been signed by the Bosox? If Bucky Dent had become a concert pianist instead of a baseball player? Probably not Lee's revised version of events, but that doesn't make the book any less enjoyable, it managed to keep a smile on my face throughout.

A good, funny, fanciful baseball story.

a real lift for downcast Sox fans
Ever wonder how things might have been different if the Red Sox had not sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees? There might have been Red Sox players walking around with more World Series rings than they could wear on ten fingers.

Bill Lee and Jim Prime float some flights of fancy here - suppose Harry Frazee didn't buy the Sox and Joseph P. Kennedy had. Suppose Ruth stayed put in Boston. Suppose the Red Sox actually signed Jackie Robinson at that infamous tryout he had in Boston. Suppose Ted Williams really had killed Adolf Hitler with a line drive. What?? You have to read the book to find out.

You'll be entertained with the photo of Bucky Dent as the concert pianist he became, when he chose the keyboards over the ballfield. You'll see Bill Lee conferring with Albert Einstein. Jackie Robinson becomes President of the US.

Bill Lee is one of the more fertile minds in baseball, and Jim Prime a skillful writer who had helped corral some of "The Spaceman's" ideas and added more than a few of his own.

Any Red Sox fan who needs to have their spirits lifted momentarily will find this an easy, fun read.

Glowing Review from Tampa Tribune
Preserving The Fun In The Game

Published: Mar 30, 2003

THE LITTLE RED (SOX) BOOK: A Revisionist Red Sox History.By Bill ``Spaceman'' Lee with Jim Prime. Triumph Books. 256 pages...BY: By BOB D'ANGELO
Forget the future, Boston fans. Your past is finally glorious. Bill Lee has rewritten the history of the Red Sox, and it is a rollicking ride."
-"filled with great moments and World Series victories. No anguished moments flow from Lee's fertile brain."

- "the ``Spaceman'' has concocted a fictionalized, but screamingly funny look at the Red Sox nation."

-"He refers to his career in movie form - ``A Farewell To Arm,'' subtitled, ``Oh Fastball, Where Art Thou?''

-"The stories Lee writes are marvelous. The best one has the Red Sox defying baseball's unwritten ``Jim Crow'' rule by signing Jackie Robinson."
-"The writing is crisp and carefree, and it is apparent that Lee enjoyed himself while writing, Even the photo captions crackle with humor and sarcasm."
(Bob D'Angelo is a copy editor in the Tribune's sports news department.)