For what is generally a semi-literate group (kidding!), Sox fans have, interestingly, probably been more supportive of The Greatest Game than have Yankees fans.

Maybe Yank fans take that season for granted; maybe Sox fans appreciate that the book reinterprets the narrative of that season in a way that is generally favorable for Boston.

Or maybe it’s just easier to be generous when your team is kicking ass this decade.

In any case, the blog Fenway West has some nice words to say about TGG.

As a Sox fan*, I don’t agree with the title of the book because no game can be the greatest if the Yankees come out on top. However, Bradley reminds us that the 1978 playoff game was not just Bucky F’n Dent’s home run nor Yaz’s pop up for the third out in the ninth anymore than the ’86 World Series was just about Buckner. There were so many other storylines to the season and the game like Matin and Jackson’s relationship or Mike Torrez on the mound for the Sox to face his former team that he believed never appreciated him.

The Greatest Game is a good read and something Red Sox and Yankee fans could enjoy as we get closer to the 30th anniversary of the game.

Thanks, Sox fans!

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* Virtually no one who’s read the book has picked up on the fact that I don’t argue that the 1978 playoff was baseball’s greatest single game; what I do argue is that baseball itself is the greatest game. Okay, it’s subtle. But the theme of the tension between playing baseball for the love of the game and the way free agency was changing the sport is probably the book’s dominant thematic storyline.