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The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78 Author: Richard Bradley Binding: Hardcover ISBN: 1416534385 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours from Free Press Price: $16.50 Editorial Review: In this spellbinding book, Richard Bradley tells the story of what was surely the greatest major league game of our lifetime and perhaps in the history of professional baseball. That game, played at Fenway Park on the afternoon of October 4, 1978, was the culmination of one of the most tense, emotionally wrought seasons ever, between baseball's two most bitter rivals, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Both teams finished this tumultuous season with identical 99-64 records, forcing a one-game playoff. With a one-run lead and two outs, with the tying run in scoring position in the bottom of the ninth, the entire season came down to one at-bat and to one swing of the bat. It came down, as both men eerily predicted to themselves the night before, to the aging Red Sox legend, Carl Yastrzemski, and the Yankees' free-agent power reliever, Rich "Goose" Gossage. Anyone who calls himself a baseball fan knows the outcome of that confrontation. And yet such are the literary powers of the author that we are pulled back in time to that late-afternoon moment and become filled anew with all the taut sense of drama that sports has to offer, as if we don't know what happened. As if the thoughts swirling around in the heads of pitcher and hitter are still fresh, both still hopeful of controlling events. That climactic game occurred thirty seasons ago and yet it still captures our imagination. In this delightful work of sports literature, we watch the game unfold pitch by pitch, inning by inning, but Bradley is up to something more ambitious than just recounting this wonderful game. He also tells us the stories of the participants -- how they got to that moment in their lives and careers, what was at stake for them personally -- including the rivalries within the rivalry, such as catcher Carlton Fisk versus catcher Thurman Munson,and Billy Martin versus everyone. Using a narrative that alternates points of view between the teams, Bradley reacquaints us with a rich roster of characters -- Freddy Lynn, Ron Guidry, Catfish Hunter, Mike Torrez, Jerry Remy, Lou Piniella, George Scott, and Reggie Jackson. And, of course, Bucky Dent, who craved just such a moment in the sun -- a validation he had vainly sought from the father he barely knew. Not a book intended to celebrate a triumph or lament a loss, The Greatest Game will be embraced in both Boston and New York, with fans of both teams recalling again the talented young men they once gave their hearts to. And fans everywhere will be reminded how utterly gripping a single baseball game can be and that the rewards of being a fan lie not in victory but in caring beyond reason, even decades after the fact. Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0 "Did this book have an editor?" "The Greatest Game Still" "Numerous Errors" "Poetic as the game itself!"   Ready to buy? Price: $16.50 List Price: $25.00 You save: $8.50 (34%)

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Did this book have an editor?
  What's the deal with the errors. Did the author watch the game?
  Where did he get his facts? Why weren't they checked?
  A mediocre book on a game that has achieved mythic propotions.
  If your looking for a book on the 1978 season that is mainly about the Sox check out, The Year of the Gerbil.
  You don't really need to know what went on with the Yankees, we read about it every day during the '78 season.

• The Greatest Game Still
  This book was well researched. It brought to life the players of the time, then and now in their reflections. Bucky Dent may have only hit a weak homerun, but it has reverberated through the years and grown in mystique and folklore among the New York and Boston fan-base. The players' view from both sides in retrospect is something to be read and cherished. It makes one believe that this game was bigger than the game itself in the end. A time when baseball still had a few shreads of innocence before the... more info

• Numerous Errors
  Trip to Copacabana was to celebrate Berra's 32nd birthday, not 22nd page 10).
  Mickey Rivers hit .326 in his second season with the Yanks, not over his first two seasons with them (page 34).
  Rivers also had 557 AB coming into the game, not 555 (to nitpick, I also wouldn't say he had "27 walks in 555 at bats", as walks don't count as an at bat - should have been 27 walks in 600 plate appearances)(page 34).
  Reggie Jackson came into the game with 96 RBIs, not 90 (page 39).
  From 1967 to... more info

• Poetic as the game itself!
  I was a 22 year old African American Yankee fan (attending college in Vermont) when this game was played. This book captures both the drama of that season, and the deep, abiding love New England had ( and still has) for The Red Sox. I've yet to see that degree of affection/devotion elsewhere, and it has been a long time since I have read a book this fine.
  

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