The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Pandemonium on the Field (The SABR Digital Library)

If Home Box Office is looking for a subject for another in its series of superb sports documentaries (it really has little competition in the field, although NBC has done some good work lately), the 1967 Boston Red Sox is a great candidate.The Red Sox of '67 changed baseball forever. The team went from ninth to first and came within a game of winning the World Series. More importantly, it rejuvenated interest in baseball throughout New England -- we are still feeling the effects of that today -- and probably saved Fenway Park from the wrecking ball. The rivalry against the Yankees probably never gets going again without that '67 team.A few books have been written on that team over the years. "The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox" certainly is the most comprehensive. It was written by the Boston members of the Society for American Baseball Research.The centerpiece of the book consists of mini-biographies of every player who took part in a game in 1967 for the Red Sox. There are seven pages on Carl Yastrzemski, as you might expect. There are five pages on Ken Poulsen, as you might not expect. Poulsen was called up for two weeks, had a hit and then went back to Single A, never to return to the majors. The tough part was finding him; Bill Nowlin did, as Poulsen turned up in California.The biographies have several different authors but are written in exactly the same style. That gets a little old by player number 28, but it's fun to read about the contributions of each player and what happened to them before and after 1967. From there, the manager, coaches and general manager get biographies. That's followed by a series of articles on the team, including looks at spring training, broadcasters, and the Jimmy Fund (the team's traditional charity). A day-by-day account of the season is also included, but it's almost redundant after all of the material that comes before it.Boston's SABR chapter obviously is an active one, with a book on various viewpoints of a Red Sox game being published a few years back. "The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox" is a better effort than that one. If you want to learn more about that team because it rekindled your interest in baseball (guilty) or you merely want to know what all the fuss is about, this will do the job.

This was the first season that I, then nine years old, seriously followed baseball. It's the season that changed everything in Boston. And this book has it all, including profiles of even the most obscure layers who made only minor contributions to the team (Jim Landis, Ken Poulsen). Great bio sketches on everyone and some other pieces of interest. If you want to read a day-by-day account of the season, this book is NOT the right choice. If you want to gain insight on the men who made this team special, it's a very good read.

Oh, I don't know. It's great reading about the individual histories of the players comprising that storied '67 BoSox team, but the book is a bit tedious. You want to pick it up and read a few pages and then come back later. I was 12 in the summer and fall of 1967 and I was with the Red Sox the entire way, as they battled the Twins, White Sox, and Tigers all the way to the last game, then won the pennant on the final day of the regular season. Broke my heart when the Cardinals won the 7th and deciding game in October 1967. Very poignant memories, cast against the background of race riots in Boston and Providence and Detroit and Chicago that summer. The book itself is clunky and not particularly well written. But I will keep it on my shelf just because it's about the IMPOSSIBLE DREAM season. Boomer Scott, Yaz, Tony C., Joe Foy, Mike Andrews, Reggie Smith, Jim Lomborg, Dalton Jones, Rico Petrocelli, manager Dick Williams, and all the rest live once again here. Great memories. RH

GREAT

An excellent comprehensive review of the players, management, & even the broadcast team who painted the picture for fans in the '67 season. I find it intriguing to read not only about the star players (Lonborg & Yaz) also the fringe players (Joe Foy, Dan Osinski, Don McMahon, etc.)whose journey in their baseball career enabled them to play on the'Impossible Dream'. The members of SABR (Society of American Research)hit a homer on this product!I'm a Yankee fan & I recommend this to any1!

This is not only a great companion to the recently released Impossible To Forget DVD, but it also puts every other book on the 1967 Red Sox, and there are many, to shame. The best part for me are the individual biographies of every player who played that historic season; even the ones who only got into a few games. The book proves that every single player on the team contributed to the pennant. Put another way, when you win by one game, take one player away, no matter how insignificant, and the team would have ended up in second place. A remarkable team. A remarkable book.

1967 marks the first year that I really became a baseball fan, and the first year I saw Fenway Park. I remember my first sight of the storied Green Monster as if it were yesterday. As much as I am enjoying the more recent success of the Red Sox, there will never be another year like '67.I do not exagerate and I say in confidence that I enjoyed this book more than any sports book that I have ever read. It brought back 1967, and some of my best childhood memories. It also preserves a great time in baseball history, along with the stories of the young men who comprised this team, hero and benchwarmer alike. I, along with Red Sox (and baseball) fans everywhere owe the authors a debt of gratitude. One can sense the dedication of the editors in compiling this great volume.Especially if you are a Red Sox fan and remember '67, but even if you are a casual baseball fan, this is an unbelievable bargain - at this price you simply must get this book.

This was one of the best books I have ever read. The book goes into great detail about every member on the '67 team. All the contributors of the book should be commended for brining 1967 back to life. I wasn't born in '67 but by reading the book I felt like I was there.I really enjoyed the chapter about Tony Conigliaro, my favorite member of the team. It's terrible what happened to him. God bless your soul Tony C.