Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season

Did you know that I like the Red Sox? I like the Red Sox. Did you know we won the World Series recently? Twice! But the first time was the best. After that first time, I did the following:

- Wept
- Drank several beers
- Several is an approximation
- Jumped out of my cab in the middle of the street to hug a total stranger
- Like three times, seriously
- Bought the entire postseason on DVD so I could watch The Steal again and again
- Wept while watching The Steal again and again
- Read several books by crazy people who are Red Sox fans.

And here's what sucks about this particular book by crazy people (Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King wrote it together): the 2004 ALCS was one of the most terrifying things that've ever happened. (If you don't know show more why, you don't need to read this review.) It's a crime against posterity that Stephen King - Stephen King! - wrote about this exact series...and didn't do it justice. I'm mystified and deeply saddened, because there's literally no one better in the history of the world to describe that exact series than Stephen King. And he blew it.

Tempted to click the "this review contains spoilers" box. Spoiler: we totally won the World Series. Spoiler 2: I wept. show less

Written in diary style, Faithful is Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King's view of the 2004 Boston Red Sox season. O'Nan contributes the most to the book, especially at the beginning of the season, while Stephen King writes more about the middle and second half of the season. Their styles are quite different - O'Nan, who became a Red Sox fan as an adult, is more analytical about the game, yet at time is almost childlike in his attempts to catch balls at batting practice or get players autographs. King, a lifelong Red Sox fan, has experienced all the joy and heartbreak of being a member of Red Sox nation and it comes through in his writing. Some of his writing is memorable, especially the part where he throws out the first pitch, which had me show more laughing, and when he takes his mother-in-law to a playoff game, which brought tears to my eyes.

As both a Red Sox and Stephen King fan, I really enjoyed reading this book. It was fun reliving certain games (including a few I'd like to forget about!). O'Nan and King not only talk about the games, but their own lives, in such a way that I felt like I was sitting next to them at Fenway Park, rather than reading a book!

Red Sox fans will enjoy this book. After all, it has the perfect ending! show less

First off, awesome cover!!! F U A-Rod! Secondly, this is really a book for Red Sox fans, which I am not. I am a major Stephen King fan, but that didn't matter for this, except we get to see the early germination of the idea for "A Face In The Crowd". The first 320+ pages are tedious, and could only appeal to a Sox fanatic. It's almost a game by game break down of the friggin season! When it finally gets to the playoffs, I felt like it picked up. Both authors trash manager Terry Francona throughout, which is funny, considering the outcome. My favorite part is O'Nan's last entry. His team has won the whole thing, and like a true fan, his eye turns to next year. I can totally relate! As Ole Case used to say,"You could look it up."

Two writers take on a day-by-day (mostly) diary of the 2004 Red Sox season, one which ends in the franchise's first World Series championship in 86 years (which certainly will boost book sales). The less well-known writer O'Nan writes about 2/3's of the book with King chipping in here and there, the latter being the more entertaining and insightful. They work like a broadcast team with O'Nan providing the dull day-by-day play-by-play and King providing the color commentary. O'Nan also tends to be a bit whiny and comes up with annoying nicknames for the players. King uses a lot of profanities. It's a good companion to my own memories and emotions of the up and down Red Sox season (I used a lot of profanities too). I especially appreciate show more how the authors take on the jackals of the Boston sports media and expose the falsity of their effort to vilify Nomar Garciparra (ah Nomah, if only you could have stayed a few more months), with the loathsome Dan Shaugnessy getting a good dressing down. Yay, the Red Sox won the World Series, and I have proof thanks to Jim & Amy.

"I happened to watch one of those ads for Foxwoods Casino with the sound turned off and had a revelation: all of those people in the ad - gamblers, entertainers, cooks, waiters, and waitresses -- look like utter lunatics.

We must go there Stewart.

We must go there soon." - SK, 99

Good observations on "Sweet Caroline". SK, 126

"And why are the Boston sportswriters this way during baseball season - so angry; so downright cat-dirt mean … sportswriters want winners, … this eighty-six year dry spell just … makes … them …. FURIOUS." SK, 246 show less

Read during Spring 2006

I didn't plan to read this but ended up reading it while watching this season's Red Sox. It started out a bit slow and I was in fear of reading about every single Red Sox game from Spring Training onward, plus lots of Stewart O'Nan going to BP and catching balls to be signed (I don't get that mindset) but it caught hold of me. I've never read Stephen King (not a horror fan) but I appreciated his writing style more than O'Nan's, whom I'd never heard of. As the season picked up, the book did as well and it was alot more about riding the wave of emotions in a very long baseball season, esp. as a long suffering Red Sox fan. That summer and fall are bit of a blur for me so it was, well, perhaps not good but show more interesting to go back and read and see what came through my memory. I ended up enjoying it more than I expected. Next, it goes to Argentina to a bookcrosser who is looking forward to it. show less

Although the subject is one about which I feel passionate, this collection of diary entries an email exchanges through one of the greatest seasons of Boston baseball is too varied in its quality to be as satisfying as I wished.

Ah, 2004, a time when the Devil Rays were the Devil Rays, and when the current generation, my generation had just had one of it's most crushing blows ever (Sure, I was alive in '86 when that happened, but also, I was not really watching TV at that point, or, ya know, putting together terribly complicated sentences yet).

At the beginning of the season two writers, Stewart O'Nan, and Stephen King, started diaries, planning to make them into a book. They didn't know that '04 would be the year the Red Sox finally won their first World Series since 1918 (Spoiler Alert....) And so the book is the same ride that most of us Red Sox fans rode that seasons. The ups, the downs, the really downs, and then the emotion when Foulke underhanded the ball show more to first Baseman Doug M. (the authors may have been able to spell First Baseman Doug M's last name, but I still can't).

Within the book O'Nan is more the play by play guy, while King is the color commentator. Still, I went through the emotions myself that year, so I didn't really need King's interpretation, but, O'Nan had some interesting insights. (Plus, O'Nan totally referenced Star Trek, kudos).

Unfortunately a lot of the book is a bit dry, so, if you didn't live through the '04 Red Sox season, or are a die hard (really really die hard) baseball fan, it may seem stilted. I think the reason why the book worked for me and so many Red Sox fans was because, as I've said up above, we lived through it too. The book was just confirmation and a reassurance that we're not the only crazies who still get emotional when we see or hear the final out of the '04 ALCS and '04 World Series. show less