May 7, 2014

Two More Reviews Of "Don't Let Us Win Tonight"

Pete Chianca, Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle (Danvers, Mass.):
Lovingly constructed ... quotes that get into the heads of the players and manager – not to mention the GM, owners, medical staff and even the bat boy.

Through their testimony, the smaller dramas behind the series all coalesce into a broader overarching story about grit, determination and sheer boneheaded luck. You know exactly what's going to happen, and yet you still feel the bumps rise on the back of your neck. ...

[E]xtra kudos to the authors for devoting an entire chapter to the jeering sportswriters who piled on when the Sox were down 0-3. ...

[M]uch more than a souvenir for Sox fans. It's a historical document that, behind all the game-time drama, reverberates with a love of the sport that would resonate with any baseball lover. Maybe even a Yankee fan.
I'm extremely pleased with this review, as happy with it as I was for the Globe's rave. It's obvious that Pete read the entire book and then gave it a good deal of thought before writing his review. I'm thrilled that he noticed that the older quotes we used were devoid of puffery and I'm pleased that he enjoyed the many sportswriters' quotes from after ALCS 3!
The Feathered Quill has also reviewed the book:
Allan Wood and Bill Nowlin have put together a minute-by-minute playback of a Red Sox win that diehard fans had waited far too long to see. ...

Why are there so many endnotes? The reason is simple and is why this book is so good. Rather than simply write a dry synopsis of each game, the authors chose to incorporate a vast quantity of quotes by those who were there; the players, coaches, front office, the medical staff, and members of both the Yankees and the Cardinals. A few paragraphs of text, then it’s on to the comments from those who lived each moment. ...

The reader comes away with a true sense of the strategies behind various decisions, what the players were thinking, play by play, the tension, stress, anxiety, and best of all, the relief and elation. Don’t Let Us Win Tonight should be added to every Sox fan's library!

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