The Legend of the Curse of the Bambino Hardcover – March 1, 2005

This is a good book for anyone just diving into Red Socks history. It may not include everything, but it has all the great (but more often not so great) moments that makes the Red Socks club so interesting. I would only recommend that the author update his book (or if he already has that you buy his update) to include the 2004 World Series win.

GOOD

Great story.

The book "The Curse of The Bambino" is a great read full of colorful stories about baseball and the men who promoted and played the game. Sure I come to the book after the Boston Red Sox have won two modern day World Series, but good stories cannot be erased by events that occur after the fact. In fact, I'd say the story of the Bambino Curse was put in a time-capsule the moment the Sox finally won it all in 2004. And who doesn't like opening up a time-capsule and peering into a time and place that once was? Based on many reviews of this book I'd say there is one group unwilling or unable to look back; Red Sox fans.I think what author Dan Shaughnessy did with the Sox curse is give a reader the full unbiased story from beginning to end. As a baseball fan you'll enjoy reading not only about Babe Ruth and owner Harry Frazee, but the many many ball players and incidents that mysteriously kept the curse going for over 90 years. I do feel for those Red Sox fans who lived and died during the era of the curse, never seeing their beloved Sox win it all. I believe this book is a tribute to those fans as well as fans of all sports who know the heartbreak of being close to winning it all only to have it snatched away in the blink of a interception, a three pointer, a goal, a putt or a sure out ground ball mysteriously rolling between two Buckner legs. Sorry Sox fans, it couldn't be avoided.Dan writes like few other sports writers reporting on baseball. He mixes the old with the new, the facts with the myths and the heroics with the heart breaks. He's a reporter who isn't afraid to give his take on why the unexpected in sports can so easily become the expected. He gives us also a glimpse into the ever growing history of baseball, even throwing in the Jackie Robinson story. I never knew that Robinson's first tryout in the majors was with the Boston Red Sox, did you?I really enjoyed reading my 2000 Penguin Edition of "The Curse of The Bambino," which features a picture of Bill Buckner's blunder on the cover. I refused to put it down at a time when my San Francisco Giants were exorcising demons of their own on the way to a Giants World Series Championship, their first in San Francisco ever. It was a season full of torture as well as triumph and it had a sort of unexplainable redemptive spiritual essence to it. Call it a reverse of a curse if you will, it was amazing. Mesmerizing right through to the victory parade down San Francisco's Market Street.If you love the game of baseball, you'll appreciate the incredible stories that come with it. The Curse of The Bambino is one of those incredible stories that must be chewed on like tobacco in order to savor the juices, even if those juices are known to be hazardous to your health.Great Job Dan!9-4-1-8

One of the best baseball books ever about the greatest baseball figure ever and the snake-bitten team that sold him to the Yankees a hundred years ago. My favorite part of the book is when Shaughnessy describes how Pete Rose slid in second base in the 1975 World Series. It is worth the price of the book alone.

A troubled book by an apparently troubled journalist. A truncated account of the world's most famous baseball team. The author relies on rehashed articles to create an unwanted myth. Under the 1st Amendment, censorship isn't allowed but the Red Sox Nation has other ideas and is watching.

Being a Red Sox fan is like going to a back room peep show with a pocket full of coins. You sit through the initial flirting and drop more money to get to the good part. And just as you are about to reap the benefits, the curtain comes flying down and you're left with no more quarters.The Sox lead you to the precipice of joy, only to be yanked back to bridesmaid reality. Time after time after time after time.We all know the story. The Red Sox sell Babe Ruth (the best player who ever lived) to the Yankees, yadda, yadda, yadda...Boston never wins another World Series again. Dan Shaughnessy tackles the unenviable task of documenting the circumstances behind the mind-boggling losses. He highlights stories of the '46, '48, '67, '75, '78, and of course, one strike away in '86.It's impossible for one to understand what it means to be a Red Sox fan if you don't live in New England. You may think you do, but trust me, you have no clue. Reading Shaughnessy's book will give you an inside track into the pure and utter anguish we've felt all these years.But...you won't really know what it's like. I can read books all day about how to be a dairy farmer in Wisconsin, but that doesn't mean I can milk a cow. I wouldn't know the first thing about how to extract milk from a dangling teet, anymore than you'll know how it feels to hear the words of Vin Scully, "...here comes Knight and the Mets win it."As I write this the Red Sox are warming up in the house that Ruth built for game 1 of the 2004 ALCS. Is there going to be another chapter in Shaughnessy's book or can we finally burn every copy of "The Curse of the Bambino" in celebration as if we were at a 1960 peace rally?Either way, I figure I'd cover all my bases and recommend "The Curse of the Bambino". It truly is a well researched book. You know it's good reading when Red Sox fans would look in the horror section to find a copy, and the casual observer would think to search in fiction.This review is my way of being in the good graces of Dan Shaughnessy, the Bambino and the ghost of Grady Little.

Admittedly I am a Yankees fan, but I still thought--at first--this seemed like a cute book. Indeed, I even gave it as a gift to expectant parent friends from New England.But if I'm honest, I have three problems with it.1a: First and foremost, it perpetuates a "Curse" which was simply a face-saving method of making excuses. As better writers have said, it rationalized--even justified--ineptitude, making losing a badge of honor for Red Sox fans.1b: The basis for said "curse" does indeed appear to be anti-Semitic in nature. (A 'Curse' born of hate, by Glenn Stout/ESPN).2: Finally, and especially on subsequent re-readings, the book seems light. I understand it is a book for young readers, but where is the explanation for how the Sox won in 2004, other than a full moon? If there was such a "curse," how was it finally reversed?