While this book lists Terry Francona as an author, this isn't really true. While most books 'written' by non-author celebrities are ghostwritten, this book does not even try to make an attempt to show Tito as an author. Instead, it is a Dan Shaughnessy (CHB) book, and Tito is always referred to in the third person. I might not have read this book if I had known this going in, as I really hate CHB's as a writer and a personality. I would have preferred the pretense afforded by the usual ghostwriting arrangement.
I finished this book because the story was engaging, but the writing was infuriating. Unless you're a big Sox fan, you would never want to read this book. In fact, I can't really recommend it to sox fans either.
This book is unfortunately much more of a Shaughnessy book than a Francona book. It is told by Shaughnessy, with liberal sprinkles of quotes by Francona. It tells of Francona's rise in the major leagues, what he learned from having a life in the big leagues (as his dad was a big leaguer too), and as a manager for the Phillies.
Then it gets to the "Red Sox Years" and tells of the magical 2004 season, through the last ugly year of 2011, at a chapter a year clip. Shaughnessy tells of the machinations and perturbations behind the scenes, and Francona chips in with quotes about how he saw things.
Unfortunately, it all ends badly and Shaughnessy isn't afraid to revel in it. He loves to say things like "and they wouldn't be back in the playoffs for the rest of Tito's time there" and other such portents. The last …
This book is unfortunately much more of a Shaughnessy book than a Francona book. It is told by Shaughnessy, with liberal sprinkles of quotes by Francona. It tells of Francona's rise in the major leagues, what he learned from having a life in the big leagues (as his dad was a big leaguer too), and as a manager for the Phillies.
Then it gets to the "Red Sox Years" and tells of the magical 2004 season, through the last ugly year of 2011, at a chapter a year clip. Shaughnessy tells of the machinations and perturbations behind the scenes, and Francona chips in with quotes about how he saw things.
Unfortunately, it all ends badly and Shaughnessy isn't afraid to revel in it. He loves to say things like "and they wouldn't be back in the playoffs for the rest of Tito's time there" and other such portents. The last year, as any Red Sox fan is all too familiar with, was an ugly one of the inmates running the asylum and Francona just hoping they would figure it out before it all blew up on them. Well, they didn't, being the spoiled brats that most professional athletes are. They began to worry more about themselves than the team and it all fell apart.
Basically, there was absolutely nothing in here than any even reasonably attentive Red Sox fan wouldn't already know. In fact, again in what I feel like is the Shaughnessy way, it glosses over the good times, speeding right by the World Championships, and revels in the bad times. And even in the good times, Shaughnessy can't help but put in little digs at whoever is a convenient target. Like when they had Yastrzemski throw out the first ball on Opening Day after winning the World Series the year before, he can't resist throwing it out that "he was gone before the first pitch of the game", digging at Yaz's purported lack of interest in the game of baseball.
There were, of course, many other examples and even by the end, Francona started coming off as a whiner. Due to physical ailments like blood clots and bad knees, he was taking Percocet and when that fact became public, Francona was absolutely determined to get to the bottom of who "spilled the beans" about this supposedly private admission he made to the major league front office. He becomes obsessed with getting the management trio of John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Luchino to track down the perp (as if there might only be one) and punish him appropriately. And when that doesn't happen, he whines.
He also whines about interviewing for new managerial jobs and how they would always ask him about the September collapse, like that wouldn't be topic #1 of any owner looking to hire him. Yeah, you did plenty of good, but a historic collapse also deserves investigation, wouldn't you say?
So I wasn't really that impressed. I didn't really get too much of a feel of being "behind the scenes" (besides images like Francona conducting strategy sessions from the toilet in the manager's office - ugh). It also glossed over things I would like to know or at least have discussed. Like during the 2004 ALCS, what affect did the rainout of Game 3 have on everything? In the end, it was more meh than anything else.
