Dan Shaughnessy

By Matthew W. Moran

Dan Shaughnessy has been a lightning rod for controversy in his many years as a Boston-area sportswriter. This time, however, the best-selling author takes a break from the vitriol with “Senior Year” – an ode to his son’s final season of high school baseball.

“Sports connect generations,” notes Shaughnessy. “Parents and children don’t go to rock concerts together. They are obligated to disagree about politics, religion, fashion, food, hair, and morality. But show more they still gather to watch the Red Sox in the family room, even when they can’t find common ground anywhere else.”

Ironically, it is the father who always wished he could play with the big boys who finds himself as the parent of a bona fide star. Sam Shaughnessy is a power-hitting first baseman for Newton North High School who finds himself being recruited for his skills on the diamond by schools like Notre Dame and Boston College.

A feel-good story, “Senior Year” is more an elegy to the game that both father and son love, than it is a pitch-by-pitch recap. The author writes engagingly throughout keenly observes the pleasures and heartaches of parenting teens in the 21st century. At times both Shaughnessy the father and the author come off as a bit self-indulgent and the book has more than a minor tendency to ramble. Nonetheless, “Senior Year” makes for an excellent gift for fathers and sons to share. show less

Bought this on a whim, willing to read almost anything about those 2004 Red Sox. Shaughnessy has inside connections that provide him with a little more knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes and that made it an interesting viewpoint. I had read King and O'Nan's book that they were writing during the season and that was from a fan's perspective. The emotional roller coaster of being a Red Sox fan bled from that book. This one was a but more detached - the journalism professional telling show more it like it is with just a bit of the fanatic coming out here and there. show less

This book is a Boston sportswriter (from the Boston Glob, a pretty lame paper all told) heaping more praise upon the much-loved Red Sox. Shaughnessy is a good writer, but I didn't grow up a Sox fan and so ultimately this book entertained me without moving me.

Since marrying a Red Sox fan, I've been becoming more famliar with the team so when I saw this book, I thought I should read it. It tells about the curse people believe to have been placed on the Red Sox when they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees. I love the illustrations and how babe's presence is in each picture. This is a great book to share about sports and America's history of entertainment.