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Bill Nowlin - The Boston Globe back to top 'Fenway' is an enjoyable study of an 'average' Daniel Okrent's "Nine Innings" looked at one typical game in detail. There have been other books that attempted a detailed look at a single ballgame. Kettmann has produced another variation. "One Day at Fenway" lets us hear some of what Red Sox principal owner John Henry has to say during the course of the game. One writer sat with Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein and took down his midgame remarks. Another writer sat with New York GM Brian Cashman and did the same. Others quoted include Sox scoreboard operator Rich Maloney, Fenway head groundskeeper David Mellor, former senator George Mitchell, managers Joe Torre and Grady Little, Little's wife, Debi, filmmakers Spike Lee and Peter Farrelly, American League umpire Mark Carlson, four of the ballplayers, and a few fans. One writer watched the game from the Dominican Republic, sitting with retired baseball executive Rafael Avila, and another followed the game in South Korea with Heo Sae-Hwan, a coach who had worked with Sox pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim. It was an ambitious and challenging effort, and the final product offers a number of rewards. It also leaves us a bit discomfited. Being brought close to so many figures lets us learn a number of trivial facts: Hideki Matsui sleeps in pajamas and carries his own pillow when he travels; Epstein played guitar the night before the game until his fingers bled; Lou Merloni had a sesame bagel with cream cheese at a Dunkin' Donuts in Framingham before he drove into the game in an Altima. We read that Farrelly gave Henry a bear hug for saving Fenway Park, Mariano Rivera plans to become a minister after his baseball career, Bill Mueller signed with the Red Sox on the very day his daughter was born, and Debi and Grady Little would sometimes come out and sit in the stands at Fenway long after everyone else had departed "just so they could soak up the feel of the place." The reader gleans the information that different types of clay were used in the left-handed batter's box and the right-handed side so that Trot Nixon could secure a firmer foothold. Before this particular game, scoreboard operator Maloney saw two doves touch down on the warning track, glance at each other, then fly away. There is a fair amount of detail. It's not until page 46 that we learn the game itself could prove a pitchers' duel, with Andy Pettitte facing Pedro Martinez. It wasn't. The Red Sox started the scoring with three runs in the bottom of the first, but Torre didn't panic. He let Pettitte work his way through a rocky start and settle down. New York got two off Pedro in the top of the third. Boston came back with one immediately, but the Yankees put three up on the board, taking a 5-4 lead in the top of the fourth. So the score stood until the eighth, when New York took what looked like an insurmountable 8-4 advantage. Refusing to bow, the Sox bounced back with three of their own to make it 8-7. But they didn't come all the way back. The Evil Empire added two insurance runs in the ninth and held on to win the game. For Red Sox fans, this was, at the time, an all-too-familiar story of too little, too late. Though the Red Sox had won the night before, they were defeated again the next night. By season's end, Boston won only nine games to New York's 10. And the Red Sox lost the American League Championship Series to the Yankees in the final game, having blown a 4-0 lead. Kettmann's book is enjoyable to read. He sometimes has a pleasing economy with his words, and as an experienced sportswriter it should be no surprise that he does well in his description of the events on the field. The reader often feels a sense of candor from the personalities to which Kettmann's contributing researchers attached themselves. When Epstein expresses dismay at the seemingly obligatory (and offensive) anti-Yankees chant and distances himself from Colleen Reilly's sweeping the bases midgame while wearing her replica All-American Girls Professional Baseball League outfit, one has the sense that he's talking outside the company line. Epstein also shares how he tries to remain passive and professional while seated in the stands among often very demonstrative Boston rooters, despite having grown up in the area as a Red Sox fan. Troubling, however, are some false notes that lead one to wonder about the veracity of the rest. Was it really true that Epstein "pauses during the game, as early as the sixth inning, to count how many outs they had in the game"? Most veteran fans do this subconsciously without having to pause to think about it. Surely the Red Sox general manager does not need to pause to count the number of outs remaining at any point in the game. There was no claim to have ever spoken with Martinez. Is Kettmann truly able to read his mind as Martinez stands on the mound? After a pitch was called a ball, Kettmann tells us, "Martinez was infuriated. Had they forgotten who he was? Was he no longer Pedro Martinez?" Was Kettmann truly able to record Torre's mound conversation with umpire Paul Nauert? Direct quotations are provided, but can we have confidence in their accuracy? When Kettmann sees a beach ball in the stands, he laments that this was a happenstance he thought "one had a right to hope and expect would never happen at Fenway." Clearly, he hasn't been to many Boston ballgames to write something like that. Reading "One Day at Fenway" after the 2004 American League Championship Series allows one to view the book with perspective. Though the Yankees won, a Red Sox rooter can say, with some generosity of spirit, "Well, they got that one, but we came back a year later and came out on top." Qualms aside, the book can be an enjoyable way to while away an evening as we await the onslaught of books sure to emerge from the 2004 season. Bill Nowlin is editor, along with Cecilia Tan, of "The Fenway Project" (Rounder Books), 64 essays chronicling a Boston-Atlanta baseball game in 2002. © Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company Rod Beaton - USA Today back to top Red Sox-Yankees rivalry plays out again on TV and in new book 'One Day at Fenway' Kettmann has authored a new release, One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America. (Simon & Schuster, $25). He gets access to just about everyone of importance involved in a New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park on Aug. 30, 2003. "This could be like the Moneyball of this year," Kettmann said. Last year Moneyball, by Michael Lewis, gave an insiders' look at the Oakland A's winning ways and bruised some egos in the process. In Fenway, the real time, in-game quotes help establish again the intensity of the rivalry. He takes in an inning with Red Sox President Larry Lucchino, who has called the Yankees "the evil empire," and another stretch with Sox general manager Theo Epstein. He's with Spike Lee, the visionary director and New York fan, he has reporters with Debi Little, wife of under-fire Sox manager Grady Little, and has follow-up interviews with Yankees manager Joe Torre, Japanese outfielder Hideki Matsui, sure-thing closer Mariano Rivera and many more. Kettmann is an award-winning journalist and baseball beat writer (Oakland, 1994-98). He has the timing of slugger Manny Ramirez, issuing this innovative book in time for the Yankees and Red Sox to renew their rivalry in the playoffs. "The timing couldn't have ended up better," said Kettmann, who had planned the September release since last year. John McMurtrie - San Francisco Chronicle back to top America's best rivalry, in detail
It's this fierce generation-to-generation struggle that Steve Kettmann captures the essence of, as few other writers have, by devoting an entire book to a single game. "One Day at Fenway" is a fun, detail-rich and often riveting account of a Sox-Yankees game that not only gets to the heart of the teams' rivalry but is also a rare, inning-to-inning insight into the sport. With help from a team of reporters posted at various points in the venerable and creaky ballpark, Kettmann, a former Chronicle sportswriter, constructs a narrative that pulls the reader along as the critical, late-in- the-season game from last year unfolds. The cast of characters includes Lucchino and Sox owner John Henry, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and director Peter Farrelly (both Sox fans), director Spike Lee (who throws out the first pitch, despite being a petulant Sox hater), a first-time spectator and the scoreboard operator. Not all their observations add excitement to the proceedings. For instance, having Mitchell state the obvious, that a single can score a man on second, doesn't make it more compelling. But for the most part, the reactions Kettmann relies on are vivid enough to conjure the smell of overpriced Fenway Franks. Rich Maloney, the scorekeeper (who, it so happens, grew up two houses away from — full disclosure! — this Sox die-hard) is one of the livelier people at Fenway, both rooting for the Sox over a beer and loudly venting his dismay. His outbursts, however, go unheard since he is hidden behind the Green Monster. The actual game doesn't start until a third of the way through the book; Kettmann sets the scene beforehand, providing such interesting behind-the- scenes snippets as how the infield grass is left unmowed before sinkerballer Derek Lowe starts a game, or how Yankees slugger Hideki Matsui, who travels with his pajamas and pillow, eats fried pork for good luck. Once the game starts, each chapter covers a half-inning, which makes sense. For a book that focuses on just one game, though, what is lacking is a box score. As for who wins the game? You'll just have to read the book to find out. Oh, but go on, take a guess. Of course, the game was played last year; this year, both the Red Sox and Yankees are again in the playoffs and stand a good chance of meeting next week. If they do, it'll probably be worthy of another book — regardless of the outcome. Publishers Weekly back to top (September 8, 2004) — A book about a year-old, regular-season baseball game doesn’t seem like it would contain much suspense, but Kettmann’s account of the August 30, 2003 contest between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees is engrossing. With help from a team of researchers who watched the game alongside selected fans, players and front-office personnel from both ballclubs, Kettmann presents the action from multiple points of view, cutting around Fenway Park in an almost cinematic fashion and drawing readers in even though the outcome is foregone (10-7 Yankees). As the game unfolds, readers meet famous people and ordinary fans, among them former Senator George Mitchell, film directors Spike Lee and Peter Farrelly, Boston general manager Theo Epstein, Sox owner John Henry, Fenway Park scoreboard operator Rich Maloney and a Yankee rooter who plans to propose to his girlfriend on the giant video screen. Not all the commentary offered by these observers is insightful, but it makes for a remarkably vivid recreation of a day at Fenway. Thanks to the diverse cast, readers also learn fascinating tidbits about everything from grounds keeping, to Japanese superstitions, to the methods outfielders use to track fly balls. It helps that this game has a great back-story—two rival teams playing in a historic ballpark with a pennant on the line—and Kettmann, a sportswriter and Red Sox fan, has a knack for conveying the tensions that build throughout the afternoon. He also has a great eye for detail, describing the way pitcher Andy Pettitte wipes his face with his shoulder and the laughter that erupts when hulking outfielder Ruben Sierra jokingly works out at shortstop. Though Kettmann’s smug, innuendo-laced comments about certain players’ alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs are off-putting, this is a small flaw in an otherwise riveting book. Dave Newhouse - Oakland Tribune back to top 'One Day at Fenway' hits a 550-foot homer Michael Lewis' solid read, "Moneyball," was about Billy Beane's uncanny ability to turn the dollar-squeezing Oakland A's into pennant contenders annually. But to discuss real money in baseball, match the New York Yankees' $190 million player budget against the Boston Red Sox's $160 million budget. Only the Yankees and the Red Sox could fight over Alex Rodriguez, baseball's $25 million man. The Yankees, of course, won that fight. However, that gets ahead of Kettmann's unique concept, which was to take a day of baseball in 2003, recruit a body of reporters, and trail the participants through nine innings to capture the full emotions. Then Kettmann put it all together, and wrote it beautifully. Truly to understand how emotional baseball can get, it takes a Yankees-Red Sox game, for this is baseball's most heated rivalry, regardless of what Giants and Dodgers fans think about their rivalry. There is no "curse" on the Giants, Dodgers or any other big-league team outside of Boston and Chicago. The Cubs haven't won a World Series since 1908, the Red Sox since 1918. But since Babe Ruth carries more weight, literally, than a billy goat, the Bambino's curse means more. Kettmann understood that difference, and that is why this former San Francisco Chronicle A's beat writer picked a Yankees-Red Sox game in Boston on Aug. 30 of last year to show how some regular-season games are magic just by who's playing. The Yankees became baseball's most dominant franchise at the same time the Red Sox relinquished that role by selling Ruth to the Yankees, who've been laughing at Boston ever since -- until Wednesday. When Red Sox owner John Henry called the Yankees the "evil empire," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner reacted properly, for once, by saying Henry was eating "sour grapes." The grapes are much sweeter in Boston now. This is Kettmann's first trip to the plate as an author (Atria Books), and he has knocked out a 550-foot homer. The book's humanness is its strong point as it embodies a wide range of baseball's angst, descending from the owner down to the general manager, the manager, the players, the fans, the groundskeeper and the scoreboard operator. Two important elements, though, are missing: personal touches on Steinbrenner and the angst-ridden Boston media, possibly Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy who wrote "The Curse of the Bambino." Spike Lee, a passionate New York fan, gives the book bite. The book helps us get to know the general managers, Brian Cashman of the Yankees and Theo Epstein of the Red Sox, who are interesting human beings in spite of the Niagara Falls-like cash flow under which they operate. But the parts about Grady and Debi Little steal the book as convincingly as a Rickey Henderson steal. Their togetherness really comes through, something essential for any Red Sox manager, who gets fired regularly for making the playoffs. Talk about a curse! Kettmann is as bold as a Pedro Martinez's 95 mph heater under the chin. "Everyone in the game knew," Kettmann wrote, "that Mark McGwire taught (Jason) Giambi tricks about how to get bigger and stronger back when they were teammates in Oakland." And when Ruben Sierra "ballooned up to ridiculous proportions..." you get the picture. Hope Kettmann has a good lawyer. Nevertheless, Kettmann "cowboyed up" on the literary front and conceived a book, as baseball books go, that is a unanimous, first-ballot hall of fame selection. John Dobosz - Forbes.com back to top Remaking The Red Sox "The Henry-Lucchino group did not pay $700 million for the Red Sox so they could half-ass it as owners. They were men used to getting their way, and having their way work out just fine, thank you ... Henry and Lucchino decided to go to war. No one needed reminding about who the enemy was in this war. His name was George, and he lived in Florida," writes sportswriter Steve Kettmann in One Day at Fenway (Atria Books, $25), a 300-page account of the Yankees-Red Sox clash at Boston's Fenway Park on August 30, 2003. Kettman, a California native who grew up as a fan of the San Francisco Giants, was a sports reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle and cultivated a fondness for Fenway Park and the Red Sox while covering the Oakland A's for four years in the 1990s. In One Day at Fenway, Kettmann uses a single Saturday afternoon game from last summer to illustrate the intensity of the Yankees-Sox rivalry. To accomplish the desired effect, he assigned a dozen reporters (and himself) to chronicle the game-day activities of an eclectic collection of individuals, from Henry, Lucchino and Epstein to such players as Boston's Bill Mueller and Lou Merloni and New York's Hideki Matsui and Mariano Rivera--and even the guy who's been working the centerfield scoreboard at Fenway for the past dozen years. Former U.S. senator and lifelong Sox fan George Mitchell also is featured, along with filmmaker Spike Lee, a rabid Sox-hater and Yankee fan, and also filmmaker Peter Farrelly, a diehard Bosox partisan. Both filmmakers take their sons to the game. Lee, amazingly, was chosen by the Red Sox to throw out the first pitch, despite wearing a Derek Jeter jersey and Yankees cap in the sacred confines of Fenway Park--atop the pitcher's mound no less. Kettmann also takes the reader to Santo Domingo, where Pedro Martinez's former coach watches the action from a sports bar, and to Kwangju, South Korea, where former Sox reliever Byung-Hyun Kim's old high school coach is watching the game at two in the morning. Kim is the Korean pitcher who gave up game-losing home runs to the Yankees in two games of the 2001 World Series while he was an Arizona Diamondback. Just viewing the game from multiple viewpoints could make for a fairly dry reading experience, but Kettmann manages to pull this off in fine fashion by imparting a bit of history to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, and by giving the reader a chance to know some of the subjects as real people. The unique narrative approach also gives away some secrets, like the way the groundskeeper at Fenway cuts the grass or packs the clay in the batters' box differently for particular Sox hitters. And who knew that Hideki Matsui eats fried pork before games for good luck? One of the fans profiled by Kettman came to the game from Bristol, Conn., and sat in the right field bleachers. Incredibly, this guy caught a home-run ball from Yankee catcher Jorge Posada. Since it was his first day at Fenway, he had no idea why the entire ballpark was screaming at him afterward, but quickly caught on and threw the ball back. Within minutes, he was kicked out for throwing an object onto the field, but was treated as a hero by the Fenway faithful. The game itself doesn't start until more than a third of the way through the book, so the there's plenty of room for Kettmann's set-up, before he goes into a virtual box score in the remaining chapters. Even then, his descriptions of the players' idiosyncrasies are apt and observant: the way Andy Pettitte pulls down his visor and brings his glove up to the bridge of his nose before a pitch, or the way Derek Jeter lifts his right hand before batting, as if he were asking the crowd for silence before taking his stance. Since many of the players from both teams remained with their respective clubs and played big roles in this year's American League Championship Series, it's interesting to learn more about each one and to read about their feats in hardbound print. There are accounts of heroics by such Red Sox standouts as Johnny Damon and David Ortiz, and there's no shortage of space devoted to Martinez, the pitcher Yankee fans love to hate. Sadly, the taunts of "Who's Your Daddy" by Yankee fans to Pedro sound especially cruel in light of information supplied here by Kettman about Martinez's parents' divorce when he was a child and his subsequent guilt over their break-up. One image that sticks: Pedro and his brother using one of their sister's doll heads as a baseball during their impoverished childhood in the Dominican Republic. One Day at Fenway is educational and entertaining, and it gives fans of the game the chance to meet the owners, players and fellow fans, and to learn something about each. Particularly interesting is the palpable intensity of Boston's ownership and management team. Says Kettmann: "Their verbal sparring and their Steinbrenner-like spending have helped turn this rivalry into something it never was before: a national happening. Fans in other markets may get tired of the unfairness of it all, but everyone senses that this is building toward a fascinating conclusion. The twists and turns in the rivalry have an off-the-map feel to them, and anything seems possible." Regrettably for Yankee fans, the idea of the Sox coming back from the brink--down three games to none--to win the pennant is more than possible. It just happened, and Kettmann--perhaps presciently, since he wrote this book long before this year's American League Championship Series--has a hunch that John Henry's Red Sox will break the 86-year-old Curse of the Bambino sooner rather than later. "I'm willing to say it here in black and white: The Red Sox will win a World Series on Henry's watch. It may be this October. It may be next October. It may take several more years. But it will happen." John Dobosz is a Forbes associate editor. Bob Young - The Arizona Republic back to top 'Fenway' a literary monster COOL (Sept. 8, 2004) — In Steve Kettmann's new book, One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America, baseball physics expert and author Bob Adair remembers what Yankees pitcher Lefty Gomez once said when asked for the secrets to his success: "Clean living and a fast outfield." After reading One Day at Fenway, we're figuring that Kettmann has been living clean and has fast editors, because he couldn't have timed the book's release any better. The book (Atria Books, $25) gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at one game between the Yankees and Red Sox played last season. Maybe more important, it offers a unique look at the most passionate rivalry in sports. And it doesn't hurt for Kettmann that it comes with the Red Sox closing in on the Yankees in the AL East so quickly that the Yankees tried to argue the Tampa Bay Devil Rays ought to forfeit a game to which they arrived late because of travel delays caused by Hurricane Frances. Kettmann, a lifelong Giants fan and former Oakland A's beat writer at the San Francisco Chronicle, spent two months planning and hired more than a dozen reporters to examine one game - the Aug. 30, 2003, contest between the Yankees and Red Sox at Fenway Park - from as many different perspectives as possible. The Yankees won that day 10-7 when our old friend Byung-Hyun Kim gave up a two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning. What else would you expect from Kim in a ninth inning against the Yankees? Anyway, lots of sports books promise to take you beyond the score, but Kettmann literally delivers. One of the perspectives is that of Rich Maloney, the scoreboard operator at Fenway, who watches the game unfold through an opening in the Green Monster, where he is stationed. You'll go inside the lines to find out what the players were thinking and saying. You'll sit with Red Sox whiz-kid GM Theo Epstein, and listen in as Red Sox owner John Henry and CEO Larry Lucchino wonder what the heck manager Grady Little is thinking. But you also know what Little and New York manager Joe Torre are thinking, because you're in the dugout. You'll hear from Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman, who is strangely directed by Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to sit where the New York players can see him - but defies the order. You'll hear from fans, such as Adair and actor/filmmaker Spike Lee, who was enlisted at the last minute to throw out the first pitch - wearing his Derek Jeter jersey and Yankees cap right in the middle of Red Sox Nation. Kettmann even takes you to South Korea, where Kim's old coach is watching his pupil come apart on television. It all comes together, but Kettmann admits he worried that he might go through all the preparation and then end up with a lousy game. "Let me be clear about this," he told the Heat Index. "I was terrified of that - visceral, to-the-bones terrified." However, he also suspected that, whenever the Red Sox and Yankees are involved, there would be a story. As it turns out, he got his story and a great game that proved to be pivotal in Boston's season, which ended in a Game 7 loss to the Yankees in the AL Championship Series. If you love baseball, this is a book you'll want to have. If you're a lover of pinstripes or a hater of Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone, then we're declaring this required reading. Ed Odeven - The Arizona Daily Star back to top Book on Yanks-Sox rivalry a hit Veteran sportswriter Steve Kettmann's new book, "One Day At Fenway: A Day In The Life Of Baseball In America," is a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at this rivalry. It's a refreshing portrait of pure Americana. The book, which is focused on Aug. 30, 2003, at the famous Boston ballyard, doesn't stick to one writer's insights or one veteran player's perspective. Instead, Kettmann has assembled a cast of reporters from around the country and world to compile this project -- he credits a team of 14 contributors as being "more coauthors than researchers." This column won't detail the play-by-play of that late-season encounter between New York and Boston, an afternoon game in which, you guessed it, the Yankees were in first place and the Sox were trying to close the gap in the AL East. 'Twas a game pitting Yankees southpaw Andy Pettitte against Red Sox hurler Pedro Martinez (in the pre-"Who's Your Daddy? days"). It's a great read, to be sure, but even more enjoyable is discovering, page after page, a gold mine of details about what makes people on both sides of this rivalry tick. Several fans from different backgrounds, a scoreboard operator, an umpire, a groundskeeper, a former U.S. senator, famous movie directors ... they're all covered in this book. Same goes for players and coaches from both ballclubs. The story takes us on a step-by-step tour of this day's routines of several people as they prepare for this second game in a weekend series in Beantown. The dawn of the day signals another busy day of work at Fenway. "The sun first showed itself over the right-field stands at 6:12 this morning," Kettmann reports. Moments later, David Mellor, Boston's head groundskeeper who has endured 19 knee operations, and his crew begin patching up spotty areas of the outfield grass. (It takes them five tons of a special red clay from New Jersey to build the pitching mound.) This book, like thousands of other pieces of literature, validates the claim that Yankee owner George Steinbrenner is a megalomaniac. The bigger the game, the more irritable The Boss becomes. There's an entertaining exchange of words between Yankee general manager Brian Cashman and David Szen, the team's traveling secretary. Szen reminds Cashman that The Boss wants him to sit right behind the Yankee dugout in one of his personal seats. The reason? "I want you to be where I can see you," The Boss instructs him. "I want the players to see you as they come off the field if they're doing badly." Cashman dislikes this idea. He enjoys watching games from box seats behind home plate. There's a third element thrown in the mix that complicates things: Szen had already given Steinbrenner's tickets to film director Spike Lee, who is taking his son, Jackson, to the game. "I'm not going to get them back from Spike," Szen says. So Lee keeps the seats. He later throws out the first pitch because somebody else, a Sox supporter, couldn't attend the game. Lee, ever the quintessential New Yorker, shows up on the mound wearing his Derek Jeter jersey, refusing to don a BoSox cap like some had suggested. He's booed back to his seat. We learn that Red Sox GM Theo Epstein is a rock-guitar fiend ("If I get fired or win the World Series, whichever comes first, it has definitely crossed my mind to grow an Afro and become a roadie," he says.) We find out that George Mitchell, a former Democratic senator from Maine, is one of the more eloquent of long suffering Sox fans. ("Every year of my life I've been saying, 'This is the year.' I'm still saying it," he says.) We also discover that Martinez and his older brothers used to rip the heads off their sisters' dolls and use them as baseballs while growing up in the Dominican Republic town of Manoguayabo. Good stuff. We are informed that the reason Japanese ballplayers eat fried pork before a game is because the Japanese word for fried pork, "katsu," also means "to win." So, yes, Hideki Matsui munches on fried pork many a time before games. Though Yankee skipper Joe Torre never seems overjoyed with his daily interview sessions with the press, he's engaging and easygoing nonetheless. Red Sox field pilot Grady Little, on the other hand "looked as relaxed and carefree as a man waiting to get socked in the gut," Kettmann writes. Those types of observation propel this book into the upper stratosphere of sports classics. There are no pictures in this book save for the front cover shot of Bernie Williams and the back cover image of Martinez. They aren't needed. Kettmann's words clearly, and cleverly, produce crystal-clear image after image in our heads. This is a page-turner that baseball fans, like myself, cannot put down. It's a fitting tribute to the great Yankees-Red Sox rivalry. But will today's game be any good? Who knows, but it'll be memorable. Readers can reach Ed at 556-2251 or by e-mail at eodeven@azdailysun.com Mike DiGiovanna - The Los Angeles Times back to top THE INSIDE TRACK - Hot Corner The Yankees won the Aug. 30, 2003 game, 10-7, but the on-field action, while dramatic at times, is merely a vehicle into the minds of such characters as Red Sox owner John Henry, managers Joe Torre and Grady Little, general managers Brian Cashman and Theo Epstein, writer/director Peter Farrelly, film director Spike Lee and former Senate majority leader George Mitchell. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner declined to participate, but several anecdotes about him, as told by Cashman, the Yankee GM, and Torre, are among the most entertaining passages. When Boston's David Ortiz hits a homer in the third inning, Cashman recalls how Steinbrenner fumed the previous January when the Red Sox signed Ortiz. It didn't matter to Steinbrenner that the Yankees had Jason Giambi and Nick Johnson to play first base and designated hitter. "Why didn't we get him?" Steinbrenner asked Cashman. "Because we have Nick and Giambi," Cashman told him. "Well, I still wanted him," Steinbrenner said. "Where are you going to play him?" Cashman said. "You can't have them all." Torre and Cashman recalled a day in 1996 when the pitching staff had been hit by injuries and the club had two rookies scheduled to start a doubleheader at Cleveland. When informed that Torre was playing golf that morning in Ohio, a furious Steinbrenner demanded that Cashman get Torre on his cellphone. "Well, I don't know what the [heck] we're doing," Steinbrenner said to Torre. "While you're out in the … woods, we're here trying to figure out how to fix this club." There was a very brief pause. "How the [heck] did you know my ball was in the woods?" Torre asked. "I can't keep the … thing in the fairway." Ethan Stewart - The Santa Barbara Independent (CA) back to top Out to the Ballgame This clash of good versus evil, David versus Goliath, has been thrust upon the national scene, and with good reason: the Red Sox have not won a World Series since they sold the greatest ball player of all time, Babe Ruth, to their dreaded rivals from the Bronx; and the Yankees have been winning ever since. The teams and cities loath each other; children are raised in the narrow winding cobblestone streets of Boston to curse all things Yankee. Similarly, the youth of Yankee nation come out of the womb precociously chanting "1918!" (the year in which the Sox last managed to win a World Series). It is this long and fabled rivalry that is the subject of former San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter Steve Kettmann's new book, One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America. The book is a narrative menagerie that tells the tale of Saturday, August 30, 2003: Yankees against Red Sox at Fenway Park. With the aid of reporters from both cities Kettmann was able to capture and chronicle everything that happened that day from the perspectives of all involved. His team of reporters followed the likes Yankee skipper Joe Torre, Sox owner John Henry, celebrity Yankee fan Spike Lee, Sox fan and film director Peter Farrelly, former Senate Majority Leader and lifelong Sox fan George Mitchell, as well as several players from both teams and a dozen or so fans at the ballpark. The result of this kaleidoscoping tale is a truly unique and captivating examination of our nation's pastime. With its quirky cast of characters, One Day at Fenway is a treat for even the most uninformed of baseball fans. This is not a book solely about baseball - the outcome of the game is mentioned only as an afterthought - it is a story about people and their passions. The storytelling forces the reader to choose a side in this epic rivalry. It is a glimpse of something beautiful and pure. As the author puts it: Red Sox fans who talk about the decades of pain and disappointment they have suffered are really talking about something else. They are talking about caring about something deeply. Nowhere has a deep and abiding attachment to a team been passed from generation to generation the way it has been in Boston ... Passion like that has become rare in American life, where allegiances tend to last weeks or months. By the time you read this, the latest chapter in this age-old rivalry will have come to a close. For the sake of my fellow fan living in Red Sox nation I hope the cozy confines of Fenway Park have delivered us to a better place. A place where the dreaded chant of "1918!" falls upon deaf ears. The time has come to reverse the curse. Reviewed by Ethan Stewart Elliott Smith - The Olympian (WA) back to top TIME OUT Even if you are not a fan of these two teams — and many of us are not — the intensity of their battles are enough to engross even the most casual of observers. Last year's playoff showdown between the teams was downright thrilling, and it looks like this year's edition of Yankees-Sox will be just as riveting. Already, the teams have played some classic games, including the July brouhaha when Jason Veritek mooshed Alex Rodriguez in the face, living out the fantasy that many Mariners fans secretly hold. Thus, it's the perfect time for the release of an excellent new book that takes a look at this phenomenon, Steve Kettmann's "One Day At Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America," a fascinating tale of one regular season contest between the two teams. At first blush, it would seem that a book about one game — especially a game that wasn't a playoff or World Series contest — would seem irrelevant, but Kettmann and his team of researchers approach it with a fresh look that will keep readers on the hook. At its core, "One Day" is the tale of the Aug. 30 contest between New York and Boston, played at venerable Fenway Park. But the way it's presented — from the perspectives of those in and around the game — that gives readers the chance to see how this rivalry affects players, executives and fans alike. From Yankees manager Joe Torre, to the guy that operates the scoreboard in the Green Monster, to Red Sox owner John Henry, to regular fan Marty Martin, the book presents the game through their eyes. From the pregame to the bottom of the ninth inning, we take a look at how this one game — and in the larger context, the history between these two teams — is so ingrained into everyone that participates. Take uber-N.Y. fan Spike Lee, who relishes the thought of dressing up in full Yankees regalia and having Boston fans boo him, only to be presented with a chance to throw out the first pitch before the game and showered with cheers after he throws a strike. Or Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein, who approaches this game with such an intensity, you wonder if his hair won't start turning gray, despite being only 30 years old. Perhaps the most intriguing story in the book rests on the shoulders of Martin, a man who has lived a hard life, but takes comfort in baseball, making one yearly trip to Fenway to enjoy the game he loves. So it's almost heartbreaking when, during a traditional baseball rite of passage, that Martin is ejected from the game. Martin handles it a lot better than I would have, I'll tell you that. Even though I knew who won the game from the beginning, the way things are played out, I found myself reading through each chapter — cleverly presented as each of the half-innings — with a vigor, trying to find out what would happen next. Credit has to go to Kettmann and a team of a dozen reporters who followed their subjects around thoughout the day for making a seamless reading experience. There's nary a false note, even though some people are speaking from the Dominican Republic or South Korea. While not as in-depth as say, "Moneyball," "One Day" is about something different — something that we all understand — passion. Elliott Smith covers sports for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5473 or ejsmith1@olympia.gannett.com David B. Offer - Kennebec Journal (Maine) back to top Kettmann spins good tale in Fenway book More than any other sport, baseball seems to inspire good - sometimes great - writing. Or maybe it's that the game draws the attention of excellent writers whose love of the sport inspires their work. It can not be an accident that David Halberstam, who has won acclaim for writing about wars, the civil rights movement and political subjects, has also written two of my favorite baseball books: "Summer of '49" and "October of '64." The late Red Smith, who won a Pulitzer Prize, was a brilliant baseball writer, but that was certainly not all he wrote about. The collection of his columns released as "Red Smith on Baseball" after his death is a wonderful example of great writing. Good baseball books make for pleasant summertime reading, so I was delighted when I received a copy of a newly published book that promised to interest any Red Sox fan. The book, "One Day at Fenway" by Steve Kettmann, proved to be everything I had hoped. Kettmann uses the Red Sox-Yankees game of Aug. 30, 2003 as the device for telling the story not only of that game but of the many people - players, managers, owners, fans and others - who were affected and involved. It doesn't matter that the Red Sox lost that game (well, it does matter, but not to the book). It's the story about the team, the ballpark and the men and women usually in the background, from before Fenway opened until long after it closed. Kettmann arranged for more than a dozen friends and colleagues to shadow these people, to conduct interviews, collect details, and feed it all to him to put together. He added his own interviews and wove it all together into a fascinating tale. They were given complete access. Kettmann spent the day with Red Sox owner John Henry. Others were assigned to be with the young man who runs the scoreboard in the Green Monster, with general manager Theo Epstein, Sox fan (and part owner) Sen. George Mitchell, and Spike Lee, who threw out the first pitch. Lee, a devoted Yankees fan was at Fenway with his 6-year-old son, Jackson. He was sitting in a box seat when Red Sox executive Charles Steinberg approached him. "Spike, we want you to throw out the first pitch today," he said. Lee did a double take. He couldn't believe they were seriously asking him to throw out the first pitch. Had they looked at him? He was wearing a Derek Jeter jersey and a Yankee cap. "You want me to do what?" Lee asked Steinberg. "Do you know who I am?" "Yes," Steinberg said, smiling. "We know who you are." "All right," Lee said. "I can't guarantee that you won't get booed," Steinberg added. Lee laughed that off. Kettmann reports that Lee was amazed. He could not imagine the Yankees asking a Red Sox fan to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium. The crowd booed as Lee walked out and stood on the mound. Kettmann described Lee's pitch this way: "He let fly with a pitch that had something on it and caught the corner of the plate for a strike. The crowd cheered. That was how it was with the fans in Boston. If you earned their respect, they let you know." "I appreciated that," Lee said. Lee returned to his seat, where his son said: "Daddy, they were booing you." Lee told him it was all good. The boy decided it was fine with him if the Boston fans wanted to boo his daddy. Details like this make the book a treat. Kettmann talked in depth to umpires, the groundskeeper, manager Grady Little, and others, including a young fan who arranged to propose to his girlfriend at the game. Each offers details that go far beyond the normal reports we read in newspapers or magazines. As it must, the tale focuses on the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, and how it affects all involved. Kettmann is an experienced sportswriter. He covered the Oakland A's for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1994 to 1998 and has written for other newspapers including the New York Times, and for several magazines. He spins a good tale, worth reading as this season comes to an end. Will McCahill - San Jose Mercury News back to top Book on Red Sox - Yankees rivalry a hit With help from a bevy of reporters, Kettmann chronicles the Red Sox-Yankees game of Aug. 30, 2003. Though I knew how the game would end, the pregame scene-setting kept me flipping into the wee hours. The tales include the inevitable lifelong fans (smug New Yorker; resigned New Englander). But what really gets to the crux of it all are the perspectives of insiders such as Boston General Manager Theo Epstein and his New York counterpart Brian Cashman; Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui and Red Sox utilityman Lou Merloni; Rich Maloney, who operates the scoreboard from inside the Green Monster; and Debi Little, wife of then-Sox Manager Grady Little. We even get dueling film directors Spike Lee ("Do The Right Thing") and Peter Farrelly ("There's Something About Mary"), bringing sons to the game for a first taste of the feud. Any fan whose eyes narrow at the sight of the rival's colors — a Giants fan grimacing at Dodger blue, say — will find the book plenty interesting. And if nothing else, it's sure to get the juices flowing as the baseball season hits its final month. Next stop, October. Neil Hayes - Contra Costa Times (CA) back to top READERS' CORNER Kettmann, a former San Francisco sportswriter, employed a team of more than 14 topnotch journalists to provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of unfolding stories from every nook and cranny of Boston's fabled ballpark. You spend time in Red Sox owner John Henry's private suite, in filmmaker and noted New York Yankees fan Spike Lee's box seat and in the limousine that whisks former Senate Majority Leader and lifelong Red Sox fan George Mitchell from the game, albeit reluctantly, at a crucial moment. That's the beauty of this book. It takes you places you don't expect to go. It focuses on players such as Boston's Bill Mueller and Pedro Martinez and the Yankees' Hideki Matsui and Mariano Rivera, sure, but gives equal time to everybody from the groundskeeper, to the manual scoreboard operator, to a potential groom who drops to one knee as his marriage proposal is broadcast on the scoreboard above center field. By the time you've finished reading, you can smell the chowder and sausages on Yawkey Way, hear the ball crash into the Green Monster and see the dark circles under former Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte's eyes. You know the old baseball axiom that claims you see something new every time you go to the ballpark? After reading "One Day at Fenway" you won't believe how much you miss. New York Daily News back to top One for the books With Andy Pettitte facing Pedro Martinez at Fenway Park, Kettmann and crew happened upon one of the most remarkable games in a year of memorable contests between the two clubs. The Yankees won this one, by the way, 10-7. Below are some of the more notable exchanges and observations: Copyright © 2004 by Steve Kettmann. Printed by permission. Excerpted from the forthcoming book "One Day at Fenway" by Steve Kettmann to be published by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc. (Available Tuesday) * * *
"The game had gotten to Joe Torre. He sat in the visitors' dugout at Fenway Park and watched Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek ground out to end the thing, then turned to hawkeyed pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre, because Torre always turned to Stottlemyre after a game and shook his hand. "Should we sit here for a minute just to make sure the game is over?" Torre asked Stottlemyre. Torre did not mention it to the reporters who asked afterward about Mariano Rivera almost self-destructing in the 8th inning, but the kind of exhaustion Torre felt that day in Boston reminded him of what it had been like four years earlier, going through his fight with prostate cancer. "That 8th inning was probably the toughest I've ever had to endure," Torre confided the next morning. "We have the best closer in baseball. Once I get Rivera in the game, there is no other strategic thing I can do. I have to sit and watch. It's like sitting at home waiting for the doctor to call and tell you you're all right."
Red Sox owner John Henry had written the game off in the top of the 9th, and his thoughts went to his counterpart, (George) Steinbrenner, who earlier that season had cried after the Yankees came out on top in another wild Yanks-Sox game. "You think George will cry after this one?" Henry asked. He directed the question to Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino, sitting nearby in Henry's nearly empty luxury box behind home plate. Lucchino, notorious for his "Evil Empire" taunting of Steinbrenner and the Yankees the previous off-season, could only muster a tight smile. Lucchino squeezed an empty plastic water bottle so hard it cracked, and finally stood up slowly, as if he were testing his joints.
Brian Cashman wrestled constantly with the Steinbrenner Question. He asked himself again and again: Was the price too high? Did he put up with too much? Joe Torre says: "If you're gonna take his money, you gotta take his (bleep),' " Cashman said. "He says that all the time." Back in 1998 at his first press conference as Yankee general manager, Cashman had been asked what it would take to keep the Boss off his back. "I think only going 162-0 would do that," he said.
They had shouting matches all the time. Steinbrenner had hung up on Cashman. And Cashman had hung up on Steinbrenner. "I've had a chance to leave here on a few contracts now," Cashman said. "I've had a chance to jump ship. Then you go back and think, 'You know what? Look what he's done for you. Look where you've been and who you are today.' "Somebody asked me who had the biggest impact on my life. George might be a close second after my mom and dad."
The night before, (Cashman) had left Fenway Park after the Red Sox soundly thrashed the Yankees and fielded a phone call from Steinbrenner. The owner wanted to know if his general manager was really at the game. "I didn't see you," Steinbrenner said. "Well, I was behind home plate," Cashman said. That was not good enough for Steinbrenner. He wanted Cashman to sit right by the Yankee dugout so the players would be reminded every time they ran back in from the field that he was there keeping an eye on them. "I want you where I can see you! Steinbrenner said. "I want you by the dugout! You sit in my seats!" Cashman still chuckled when he thought about a night years ago when he was an assistant general manager. He and Mary were not married yet, and Cashman lived on 92nd Street, near 3rd Ave., with two roommates, Doug Smith and Tim Kaufman. One night the phone rang very late, around 1:30 a.m. The Yankees were playing in Anaheim, and Cashman was in his room with the lights off, watching the game on TV. He figured Doug or Tim was getting a call from a woman he was dating, and did not answer. A minute later, someone knocked on his door. "Hey, Cash, some dude who says his name is George is on the phone," Doug called through the closed door. "George?" Cashman called back. "He says his name is Steinbrenner." The roommate thought it had to be a gag. But the game was going badly. Jack McDowell was pitching for the Yanks against the Angels and the umpire behind home plate was screwing them. So Cashman hurried toward the phone, just in case. "Aren't you watching this (bleeping) game?" Steinbrenner complained loudly as soon as he picked up. "Yeah, why?" Cashman said, and gave him the inning and the score and a few other details to prove he was watching. 'Well your roommate said you were (bleeping) asleep!' Steinbrenner said. "Well he's not in my room!" Cashman said. "I've got the lights out and I'm watching the game." Salon.com (Subscription only) back to top The last great American rivalry Editor's note: "One Day at Fenway" tells the story of the dramatic Aug. 30, 2003, Yankees-Red Sox game at Fenway Park.... Click here for whole article. Ellis Henican - Newsday.com back to top COMMENTARY Some people were calling this a Yankee hangover. But hangover wasn't the right image at all. This was unlike any hangover that I'd ever experienced. Hangovers imply that fun was had the night before. And I don't remember anything resembling fun. What I remember were nine full innings of baseball misery, slow, excruciating, torturously tense, unbroken almost from the opening pitch. Leading, finally, to this: Now every New Yorker, regardless of age, grade or reading score, can spell the words H-I-S-T-O-R-I-C C-O-L-L-A-P-S-E. And feel them, too. I probably should have found a decent New York psychiatrist to help work through these feelings of humiliation and defeat. But chances are, whatever shrink I called would have been as despondent as I was. And I wasn't about to lie on some Boston shrink's couch, assuming they even have shrinks in Boston. He'd be doing his little Red Sox victory dance and trying to explain how curses are only in the mind. I did the next best thing. I tracked down Steve Kettmann. Kettmann has some solid New York credentials, even though he's basically a Red Sox fan. He comes from California, but he lives in Brooklyn now. Back in the late 1980s, he was a baby reporter for this very newspaper before leaving us to wander the world as foreign correspondent and then write sports for the San Francisco Chronicle. He finally returned to New York to edit a collection of baseball essays by the erudite Roger Angell, and he just came out with his own first book. "One Day at Fenway" chronicles every single thing that happened in one Yankees-Red Sox game last summer from the perspective of every single person involved - or damned close to it, anyway. Kettmann has thought more about the psychology of these two baseball teams - and the psychology of their respective fans - than any other person alive. He was just waking up in Brooklyn with his own kind of baseball hangover when I got him on the phone. He has deep respect, he said, for the fans of both teams. "They are similar in a lot of ways," Kettmann said. "They are definitely the most intense, most knowledgeable fans in baseball. The main difference is that Red Sox fans, real Red Sox fans, can try emotionally to distance themselves from the team when things go badly. But they just can't. They are devastated." It's Red Sox history. It's all the time in the wilderness. It's the long, dark shadow of the Yankees. In defeat, Red Sox fans are never free. "They go completely nuts, wallowing in their misery," Kettmann said. Not that Yankees fans aren't feeling miserable now. "They are serious and passionate about their baseball team," Kettmann said. "But when things go badly, they tend to take a step back. They say to themselves, 'How are the Knicks looking?' Or, 'Do you have theater tickets? What are we gonna think about now?' Or even, 'Who's gonna win the World Series?'" In New York, after all, even for Yankees fans, there is something beyond baseball. In Boston, well, there's college - and that's about it. "Stepping back is a capacity that, basically, Red Sox fans don't have." Partly, Kettmann postulated, the Yankees fans do this by burying their natural frustration in delusion and red-hot anger. Not that Yankees fans always display such great perspective. We learned that in Game 6 with a couple of unpopular calls. "Littering the field with debris and forcing a lineup of riot police, there's a blinding kind of Yankee-fan anger that is really misdirected," Kettmann said. But even that can be seen as a cry for help. So what's a distraught Yankees fan to do? Well, how 'bout root for the Sox? "Yankee fans have to be rooting for the Red Sox to win a memorable World Series and go down as one of the great teams of all times," Steve Kettmann said. "Obviously, it took one of the great teams of all time to embarrass the Yankees in the ALCS in the way that the Yankees were embarrassed. If the Red Sox get swept in the Series - wait, I can't say that." Kettmann stopped himself right there. "Can I retract that?" he asked. Superstitions die hard for anyone who follows the Red Sox as carefully as Kettmann has. "As a Red Sox fan, I cannot utter those words." He took a breath and tried again. "I do think these Red Sox are one of the best teams ever put together in baseball history." They beat the Yankees, after all, leaving New York with something even worse than a hangover. They must be pretty good. Peter Gammons - ESPN back to top Four books I enjoyed immensely this summer. Gordon Edes - Boston Globe back to top A Day in the Park Carol Beggy and Mark Shanahan - Boston Globe back to top (September 27, 2004) — GOING FOR THE SWEEP We're told that Red Sox flack Charles Steinberg has taken to calling Bosox broom girl Colleen Reilly a "bawdy Dublin barmaid." But not everyone's crazy about having a ponytailed lass running around the bases in a "League of Their Own" outfit. According to Steve Kettmann's new book, "One Day at Fenway," Sox GM Theo Epstein "squirmed noticeably" when Reilly first appeared on the field. "Don't ask," Epstein told Harvard prof Samantha Power, a contributor to the book. "It's a long story. It's brutal. It wasn't my idea." Tony Massarotti - Boston Herald back to top With rivalry heating up, fans can read all about it Authors Steve Kettmann ("One Day at Fenway") and Buster Olney ("The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty") will be in town today to discuss their recently published books at Boston University Barnes and Noble in Kenmore Square. The event begins at noon, providing fans attending today's series finale between the Sox and Yankees with a nice option before the scheduled 2:05 first pitch. Kettmann, a former baseball beat reporter who covered the Oakland A's, created a work that details an entire game between the Sox and Yanks late last season. Olney, meanwhile, covered the Yankees dynasty for the New York Times and now works for ESPN publications. Jeff Horrigan - Boston Herald back to top (Wednesday, September 8, 2004) — A couple of recent book releases are must-reads for Sox fans. Rob Bradford's "Chasing Steinbrenner" examines the Sox' and Blue Jays' attempts to keep up with the Yankees. Steve Kettmann's "One Day At Fenway" offers a thorough look at the Red Sox-Yankees game of Aug. 30, 2003, one of the most exciting games of last season. Bruce Jenkins - San Francisco Chronicle back to top (September 18, 2004) — Get in the mood for Red Sox-Yankees with "One Day at Fenway," by former Chronicle beat writer Steve Kettmann. Focusing on a single game between the heated rivals last season, Kettmann used on-the-spot reportage from a dozen- odd sources around the ballpark, giving fans insight from the groundskeeper, the scoreboard operator, particularly enlightened fans and club executives. Theo Epstein, Boston's GM, comes off as one of the game's most interesting people... Leah Garchik - San Francisco Chronicle back to top (October 15, 2004) — Fritz Frisbie, owner of Connecticut Yankee, a Red Sox (and New England Patriots) bar on Connecticut Street, bought a case of Steve Kettmann's new book, "One Day at Fenway, A Day in the Life of Baseball in America," to hand out to loyal customers. The book's about a single Red Sox/Yankees game. On Tuesday, before the start of the Boston-New York ALCS, Frisbie told me he was "battening down the hatches, duct taping everything to the floor." Leigh Weimers - San Jose Mercury News back to top (September 29) — Steve Kettmann, a third-generation San Josean and the son of Judge Gerard and Nancy Kettmann, turns his attention to the other coast with "One Day at Fenway" (Atria Books), a behind-the-scenes look at one game last season between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. It's full of fascinating perspectives, from managers to fans to lowly clubhouse staffers, and, obviously, is wonderfully timed. Who won the game? Kettmann has a reading/signing session set for Friday night at the Stevens Creek Barnes & Noble, so you could ask him. Or guess. John Hickey - Seattle Post Intelligencer back to top (Friday, September 17, 2004) — In a new book that explores the psyche of the Red Sox and their fans, New York-based baseball writer Steve Kettmann makes the intriguing suggestion that the 2003 season, even though it ended in a gut-wrenching Game 7 loss to the Yankees, gives promise that a Boston World Series title is near. This is saying something, given that Babe Ruth pitched the Red Sox to their last title in 1918. But Kettmann, writing in "One Day At Fenway: A Day In The Life Of Baseball In America," says Boston's new ownership group of John Henry and Larry Lucchino, "has shown an inspired understanding of what the George Steinbrenner-era Yankees are all about (and what it will take to beat them)." Since that was written, the Red Sox lost out to the Yankees in trying to add Alex Rodriguez. But general manager Theo Epstein pulled the trigger at midseason, trading shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and bringing the Red Sox a starting shortstop in Orlando Cabrera and a defensive whiz first baseman in Doug Mientkiewicz. Suddenly, the Sox soared. Melvin, who played for both the Yankees and the Red Sox at the end of his playing career, says the difference in the Red Sox now — Boston's winning streak started shortly after the trade — can scarcely be missed. "The changes with Mientkiewicz and Cabrera have really shored up the defense," Melvin said. "And you can seen that the players have gotten the idea that the organization will do its best so that the club can win." No one, Kettmann suggests, has quite ever been willing to stand up to the Yankees and slug it out, dollar for dollar. Will it work? No one can say for sure. But the games this weekend in Yankee Stadium and next weekend in Fenway Park are sure to be wars. That much seems certain. Drew Olson - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel back to top "... "One Day at Fenway" (Atria, $25) by Steve Kettmann. Using more than a dozen correspondents, Kettmann tells the story of a game between the Yankees and Red Sox on Aug. 30, 2003. In addition to detailing the action on the field, Kettmann and his crew follow a cast of characters through the day, with views from Red Sox President John Henry and general manager Theo Epstein and even the guy who flipped the scoreboard numbers inside the Green Monster." Chris Ulbrich - East Bay Express back to top "In America, nobody understands that sentiment better than the long-suffering fans of the Boston Red Sox. As Sox fans will tell you — at length — the team is cursed. Literally. For 85 excruciating years, the Sox have gone without a World Series while their divisional archrivals, the strutting, preening New York Yankees, have taken home sixteen. But would the Red Sox be the Red Sox if they finally won a series? That is the question that hangs over One Day at Fenway, Steve Kettmann's kaleidoscopic portrait of a Sox-Yankees day game at Boston's Fenway Park. To capture the game from multiple angles, San Francisco Chronicle sportswriter Kettmann organized a team of reporters who tagged along with players, groundkeepers, team executives, and a motley assortment of fans, ranging from the author of a book on the physics of baseball to There's Something About Mary director Peter Farrelly. Ex-US Senator George Mitchell, dropping by on his way to negotiating a Northern Ireland peace agreement, offers this explanation of Sox fan devotion: "You have to believe in something to feel fully committed and fully alive." " Bill Reynolds - The Providence Journal back to top (Saturday, August 28, 2004) — One Day at Fenway, a new book by Steve Kettmann, is an interesting read for any Sox fan. Dan Greenfield - The Journal News (NY) back to top (October 14, 2004) - "One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America," by Steve Kettmann. This newly published narrative looks at the Yankees and Red Sox through one late-summer game played in Boston last season. Steve Kettmann for the New York Times back to top Look Who Has the Bully Pulpit Now A year and four days earlier, over on the other side of Yankee Stadium, the mood of despair was palpable in the Red Sox' clubhouse after Aaron Boone's extra-inning homer won that A.L.C.S. Game 7 for the Yankees. But as gut-wrenchingly raw as the emotions were that night in the visitors' clubhouse, it's clear in retrospect that in facing up to their disappointment squarely and purposefully, the Red Sox laid the foundation for this year's history-making A.L.C.S. victory. The Red Sox' principal owner, John Henry, a painfully shy man, walked around the clubhouse that night, thanking each player for a great season, hugging one tearful millionaire after another and making clear to everyone that he was a long way from done, and would keep doing his best to measure up to the Yankees in October. Henry was so overcome, he tried to talk and his jaw moved, but no sound came out. Yet, if anything, his determination kicked up a notch. To some, it seemed like wishful thinking, Henry's brave talk of shaking off the Aaron Boone disaster and moving on, but one October later, the results speak for themselves. Henry has usurped George Steinbrenner's longtime role as baseball's owner to watch. Steinbrenner and Henry are natural foils. The one is famously gruff and profane, the other has an altar boy voice. The one has made an art form of commanding the back page of the New York tabloids, the other tends to fade into the woodwork. As a boy, Henry was so shy that when the neighborhood kids came over to play ball on his family's lawn, he would sit inside, peering out, too shy to ask if he could take part. If there is one magic ingredient to identify in the recipe that finally carried the Red Sox past the Yankees, it is boldness, and that boldness starts with Henry. During a game on Aug. 30, 2003, Henry took a shot at Steinbrenner, who earlier that season made headlines by crying after the Yankees pulled out a victory over the Red Sox. "You think George will cry after this one?" Henry asked Larry Lucchino, chief executive of the Red Sox, as they watched in Henry's private box. Henry and Lucchino had brilliantly sized up Steinbrenner as a foe: they had come to understand that the way to beat him, the way to rob him of his mantle of invincibility, was not only to compete with him for every free agent of note, not only to put a better team on the field, but also to revel in public confrontation, the way Steinbrenner always has, and to snarl and spit and be just as arrogant as Steinbrenner. This "evil empire" strategy, as I came to think of it, reflected an adult awareness that bullies always win, unless they are confronted with another bully. Lucchino called the Yankees the evil empire, and there he was last Wednesday night, shaking the Champagne out of his hair after General Manager Theo Epstein doused him on the podium, and telling the live television audience, "All empires fall sooner or later." It was a line Lucchino must have been saving a long time, and he took sweet pleasure in twisting the knife, but it should not be dismissed as a random comment. Again and again, Henry and his lieutenants had signaled that they viewed this fight as the sports version of a holy war. After Don Zimmer, then the Yankees' bench coach, charged Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martínez in Game 3 of the 2003 A.L.C.S., Henry and Lucchino defied an order from Commissioner Bud Selig and held a news conference so they could rip Randy Levine, the Yankees' president, for complaining about lawlessness that night at Fenway Park. Many sportswriters and broadcasters treated the Henry-Lucchino news conference as a fiasco, but it served notice that at every opportunity the Red Sox' leadership was going to turn up the heat on this rivalry. As Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said in the spring, it was an awfully risky strategy. "I wouldn't turn up the heat," he said. "You mess with a beehive, you're going to get stung." But in the end, it was the Yankees who were stung, and stung deeply. John Henry, once too shy to ask if he could play with the neighbors, rolled up his sleeves and got down and dirty with a street fighter. That was surprise enough, but even more remarkable: he came out ahead. Steve Kettmann is the author of "One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America" (Atria, 2004).
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