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The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78
An insider's account of the pivotal playoff game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox traces the season leading up to the game; the contributions of such figures as Carlton Fish, Reggie Jackson, and Carl Yastrzemski; and the stakes that rendered the contest of particular significance. 60,000 first printing.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Richard Bradley
2 books3 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Bradley's first book, American Son, was published under the name Richard Blow.
Bradley's first book, American Son, was published under the name Richard Blow.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 19, 2026
Remember this game and the 78 season. Red Sox started off great and built a huge lead in division, but the Yankees being the Yankees caught the Sox and eventually won the World Series. Very detailed book about the season for both teams. Very good and interesting read.
December 3, 2019
This book elegantly interweaves the history of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, the stories of the key characters, and a dramatic recollection of the ups and downs of the season with a vivid retelling of the game that, despite the known ending, still takes the reader on an anxiety-ridden ride and adds to the lore of the 1978 season.
May 26, 2020
The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78 is about one of the iconic baseball seasons in history, let alone in the history of this rivalry. An incredible run for the first two thirds of the season by the Boston Red Sox seemed to put the American League East out of reach for the talented but bickering New York Yankees who were hampered by injuries and playing mediocre (though not bad) baseball. Then the Sox had a string of bad breaks and began playing poorly. The Yankees recovered and played even better in the last third of the season than the Sox had in the first two thirds. Inevitably, the teams ended up tied and had to play a playoff game just to make the post-season. Bradley capably recounts the events of the season in a way that brings it back to life. He intersperses the innings of the playoff game with the portions of the season as a whole, telling both stories at the same time. He made me feel that this time the Sox would not collapse, that the Yankees might not sweep the Sox in a September series known as the Boston Massacre, that Billy Martin would stay on and badger the Yankees into continued mediocre baseball, that Bucky Dent might not get that famous hit, and that the impossible actually would have happened. Alas, it did not.
This is a must read for fans of both teams and for lovers of baseball lore. It belongs on the shelf next to "The Glory of their Times," "Summer of '49," "Wait Till Next Year," "October, 1964," "Feeding the Monster," and the other great baseball books. If I was going to be picky, the historian in me would like to have had more political and social history thrown in, a-la David Halberstam or Doris Kearns Goodwin, just to show how this rivalry and America's love of baseball transcended the turmoil of those days. However, that complaint is picayune. The book transported me back to the summer of 1978. I gave it four stars. Maybe it should have earned five. I would have given it a five if the outcome had been different. ;-)
This is a must read for fans of both teams and for lovers of baseball lore. It belongs on the shelf next to "The Glory of their Times," "Summer of '49," "Wait Till Next Year," "October, 1964," "Feeding the Monster," and the other great baseball books. If I was going to be picky, the historian in me would like to have had more political and social history thrown in, a-la David Halberstam or Doris Kearns Goodwin, just to show how this rivalry and America's love of baseball transcended the turmoil of those days. However, that complaint is picayune. The book transported me back to the summer of 1978. I gave it four stars. Maybe it should have earned five. I would have given it a five if the outcome had been different. ;-)
July 1, 2008
A blow-by-blow account of the [rare] tie-breaking playoff game on October 2, 1978 between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees is threaded through an in-depth look at the various players and forces that made the 1978 season, and especially the Sox/Yanks rivalry, so unforgettable.
This book was very hard for me to put down. In 1978 I was an impressionable 13-year-old Red Sox fan, and of the 163 games played that season I believe I watched, saw or attended at least 130. October 2 found me about a dozen rows back from the first base line at Fenway Park. I recall the game with great clarity, especially Dent's impossible home run (it just never stopped going up!), but this book brought back to me the entire summer of baseball that made the playoff game so electric. It really was something.
Interviews with the key players provide psychological insight (who knew that Gossage and Yastrzemski each lay awake the night before, both sure of a scenario that would pit the two against one another in the at-bat that would decide the game - AND DID!). Character sketches and career trajectories are offered up to paint a vivid picture and put a high shine on what was at stake in the '78 AL East race. Lots of technical talk about pitching fascinated me. The impact of free-agency on the sport is in high gear at this point in baseball history, as evidenced by the difference between two of the most famous participants of the October 2 game, Carl Yastrzemski and Reggie Jackson.
I guess, strictly speaking, if you don't care for baseball, you should skip this book. But of course, if you don't care for baseball I imagine you are dead and don't do a lot of reading anyway. Might be kind of old-fashioned and boring for anyone under 40 - I don't know. All I know is this felt like my story while I was reading it and I'd recommend it to any hardcore Sox fan in my age group.
This book was very hard for me to put down. In 1978 I was an impressionable 13-year-old Red Sox fan, and of the 163 games played that season I believe I watched, saw or attended at least 130. October 2 found me about a dozen rows back from the first base line at Fenway Park. I recall the game with great clarity, especially Dent's impossible home run (it just never stopped going up!), but this book brought back to me the entire summer of baseball that made the playoff game so electric. It really was something.
Interviews with the key players provide psychological insight (who knew that Gossage and Yastrzemski each lay awake the night before, both sure of a scenario that would pit the two against one another in the at-bat that would decide the game - AND DID!). Character sketches and career trajectories are offered up to paint a vivid picture and put a high shine on what was at stake in the '78 AL East race. Lots of technical talk about pitching fascinated me. The impact of free-agency on the sport is in high gear at this point in baseball history, as evidenced by the difference between two of the most famous participants of the October 2 game, Carl Yastrzemski and Reggie Jackson.
I guess, strictly speaking, if you don't care for baseball, you should skip this book. But of course, if you don't care for baseball I imagine you are dead and don't do a lot of reading anyway. Might be kind of old-fashioned and boring for anyone under 40 - I don't know. All I know is this felt like my story while I was reading it and I'd recommend it to any hardcore Sox fan in my age group.
June 15, 2015
The story of the Red Sox and Yankees 1978 season and the one-game playoff that broke the hearts of Sox fans everywhere and gave rise to the expression "Bucky F***** Dent". A couple things differentiated this from other baseball books - the author really dug into the game behind the game, especially the psychology of Billy Martin and what that did to the team. It was also during the early years of free agency and Steinbrenner's tenure as owner of the Yankees. As a Sox fan I truly hated the ending, but sadly, I don't think the author could have done much about it. I would have enjoyed more writing about what was going on in Boston and NY in 1978 as they were tumultuous years in both places and reflected their teams. It was touched on, but given the level of research and analysis of the players and the season, this additional context would have been welcomed.
May 10, 2020
As a Yankee fan who watched this game on a portable B&W TV is his boss's (also a Yankee fan) office, this was almost an automatic five star review. But Bradley earned the stars, recounting the game and season in detail, and just as I remembered it. Excellent job!
The only thing missing was that I always heard a story about Graig Nettles and the final out. Supposedly Nettles was staring down at Yaz and thinking, "Pop it up, pop it up!" When Yaz did pop up down the third base line, Nettles supposedly thought, "Not to ME!" The story is missing (maybe apocryphal) from the book but Bradley informs us that Nettles, a Gold Glove third baseman, DID have trouble with popups!
The only thing missing was that I always heard a story about Graig Nettles and the final out. Supposedly Nettles was staring down at Yaz and thinking, "Pop it up, pop it up!" When Yaz did pop up down the third base line, Nettles supposedly thought, "Not to ME!" The story is missing (maybe apocryphal) from the book but Bradley informs us that Nettles, a Gold Glove third baseman, DID have trouble with popups!
January 29, 2022
This is a good idea for a book - a pitch-by-pitch account of the 1978 Yankees/Red Sox playoff, with biographical background of the key players and the managers and an account of the season leading up to the playoff woven through.
Unfortunately, it is marred by a number of basic factual errors that should have been caught by reviewers even remotely knowledgeable about baseball. If the examples below strike you as trivial, note that these are only statements that were obviously factually wrong. I did not attempt to track down every fact, but in my opinion there is more than enough to be skeptical of the entire book.
* In relation to Billy Martin's infamous Copacabana incident: "[Yogi] Berra was turning twenty-two, Martin twenty-nine." (pg 10). Yogi Berra was born in 1925, so in fact he would have been turning 32.
* "[The Red Sox] could end their seventy-year World Series drought" (pg 98). 1978 was sixty years after 1918, not seventy.
* "The pitch was heading across the plate when Yastrzemski swung and connected. The ball rocketed off the bat, a line drive pulled sharply down the left field line". (pg 99). Yaz was a left-handed hitter, so he pulled the ball to the opposite field?
* "Trotting out into right field toward the third base line, Rick Burleson made the catch, the second time he'd done so against Nettles." (pg 150). Huh?
* "Then in the third, Jackson had smashed a hard line drive to left field that might also have landed for a home run but for the fact that it was a low line drive, and the perfectly positioned Jim Rice had to move only steps to catch it." (pg 192). Both the field the ball was hit to (right, where Rice was playing in the playoff) and the inning in which it occurred (the fourth, rather than the third as Bradley would have it) are wrong.
* It's hard to cite one sentence that makes the error plain, but on pg 206 a date that clearly should be September 19 is given as "August 19".
Unfortunately, it is marred by a number of basic factual errors that should have been caught by reviewers even remotely knowledgeable about baseball. If the examples below strike you as trivial, note that these are only statements that were obviously factually wrong. I did not attempt to track down every fact, but in my opinion there is more than enough to be skeptical of the entire book.
* In relation to Billy Martin's infamous Copacabana incident: "[Yogi] Berra was turning twenty-two, Martin twenty-nine." (pg 10). Yogi Berra was born in 1925, so in fact he would have been turning 32.
* "[The Red Sox] could end their seventy-year World Series drought" (pg 98). 1978 was sixty years after 1918, not seventy.
* "The pitch was heading across the plate when Yastrzemski swung and connected. The ball rocketed off the bat, a line drive pulled sharply down the left field line". (pg 99). Yaz was a left-handed hitter, so he pulled the ball to the opposite field?
* "Trotting out into right field toward the third base line, Rick Burleson made the catch, the second time he'd done so against Nettles." (pg 150). Huh?
* "Then in the third, Jackson had smashed a hard line drive to left field that might also have landed for a home run but for the fact that it was a low line drive, and the perfectly positioned Jim Rice had to move only steps to catch it." (pg 192). Both the field the ball was hit to (right, where Rice was playing in the playoff) and the inning in which it occurred (the fourth, rather than the third as Bradley would have it) are wrong.
* It's hard to cite one sentence that makes the error plain, but on pg 206 a date that clearly should be September 19 is given as "August 19".
July 26, 2025
This book was very enjoyable. Bradley did a great job of detailing the events of October 2, 1978, as well as the details leading up to the event. He gave background information about key players that was helpful for understanding the importance of the October 2 game. Whether someone is a baseball fan who knows about the game or someone who knows nothing about the event, readers will enjoy this retelling. Someone like me, who was not alive in 1978, but knows the feel of a Yankees-Red Sox rivalry game, could almost feel transported back to this crucial game. The reader can feel the excitement, anticipation, heartbreak, and other emotions, even if they already knew how the game turned out before reading this book.
June 22, 2020
Bradley does a great job of describing the 1978 playoff between the Red Sox and the Yankees in pitch-by-pitch detail, supplemented by interviews with some of the players involved to get background about what they were thinking about and feeling that day. Interspersed between game chapters are chapters that add context and background, about the history of the rivalry, the character of the major players and managers, and the advent of free agency and how much that had changed baseball in the 1970s.
The book is a fun, deep dive into a great day in baseball history.
The book is a fun, deep dive into a great day in baseball history.
April 12, 2013
I am not a Yankee or a Red Sox fan. I believe the DH is an affront to the Laws of Man and Nature. Yet, I still liked this book. As Dan Okrent once said, "miles of Canadian forest have been sacrificed to the glory that is Fenway Park" but this book is an admirable exception to most of the stuff written about these two teams.
Well, I do like two people in this book. The stories about Bucky Dent (not being from the Northeast I can't say Bucky F. Dent) were for me the heart and soul of the book. Second to that is Billy Martin, who comes through as a liquor soaked thug. Bradley uses a quote from Martin's successor as Yankee manager, Bob Lemon, which is quite telling on baseball and alcohol. Lemon once said that "I never took a loss home with me. I always left it in some bar."
While both men were probably alcoholics, it is the alkies like Martin who get all the attention for their violent and rowdy behavior. Lemon was a "mellow and jovial" drunk, far more acceptable in society. I can't really tell which one is worse, or if one has to be. In any event, Martin never could leave his losses behind in a bar. I know there is a lesson somewhere at the bottom of this, but I cannot figure out what it is.
Richard Bradley manages to (GASP!) find things out about the particulars of this game that I have never seen anywhere else. Each inning of the game gets its own treatment. Each inning also gets its own build up with a chapter focusing in on the players coming to bat in that inning. It works very well, and Bradley does an excellent job of keeping the suspense up throughout. His writing picks up speed at the end of the text, which is an excellent editorial choice. A good read for a weekend.
Well, I do like two people in this book. The stories about Bucky Dent (not being from the Northeast I can't say Bucky F. Dent) were for me the heart and soul of the book. Second to that is Billy Martin, who comes through as a liquor soaked thug. Bradley uses a quote from Martin's successor as Yankee manager, Bob Lemon, which is quite telling on baseball and alcohol. Lemon once said that "I never took a loss home with me. I always left it in some bar."
While both men were probably alcoholics, it is the alkies like Martin who get all the attention for their violent and rowdy behavior. Lemon was a "mellow and jovial" drunk, far more acceptable in society. I can't really tell which one is worse, or if one has to be. In any event, Martin never could leave his losses behind in a bar. I know there is a lesson somewhere at the bottom of this, but I cannot figure out what it is.
Richard Bradley manages to (GASP!) find things out about the particulars of this game that I have never seen anywhere else. Each inning of the game gets its own treatment. Each inning also gets its own build up with a chapter focusing in on the players coming to bat in that inning. It works very well, and Bradley does an excellent job of keeping the suspense up throughout. His writing picks up speed at the end of the text, which is an excellent editorial choice. A good read for a weekend.
April 28, 2008
Holy crap, Richard Bradley, stop making me like Yankees!
Confession time: I didn't finish the book. I'm not going to finish the book. I read up to Bucky Dent's seventh inning at-bat, just as he steps back into the box to take his next pitch - and I just can't read on. I know how it ends, and I can't read about Yaz failing to win a World Series again. I can't do it.
As for the 218 pages I did read: Bradley is an extremely talented writer. He did, as I said above at 30 pages in, make me like some of the Yankees - but not Steinbrenner, as not even the talented Mr. Bradley can make George Steinbrenner likable. (Whew!) He's a gifted storyteller, and has a way with words - but, most importantly, his love and appreciation for the game of baseball comes through in every sentence. This is a baseball book. It's his writing that's keeping me from finishing, really - if he were less of a writer, it would hurt less to read his recounting of the final innings.
He presents a very balanced and unbiased look at both teams during the tumultuous 1978 season. He tells the life story of every major player, on and off the field, and alternates chapters between innings of the playoff game and parts of the season that lead up to it. I like his take on the turning points of the season - Billy Martin's drunken, profane rant and subsequent resignation, of course, but also how the dual introduction of both free agency and the designated hitter affected the season, and even the one Sox-Yankees game rained out early in the season, when the Sox were handily defeating anyone they came up against (that is, the game that could have prevented the game of the title).
Confession time: I didn't finish the book. I'm not going to finish the book. I read up to Bucky Dent's seventh inning at-bat, just as he steps back into the box to take his next pitch - and I just can't read on. I know how it ends, and I can't read about Yaz failing to win a World Series again. I can't do it.
As for the 218 pages I did read: Bradley is an extremely talented writer. He did, as I said above at 30 pages in, make me like some of the Yankees - but not Steinbrenner, as not even the talented Mr. Bradley can make George Steinbrenner likable. (Whew!) He's a gifted storyteller, and has a way with words - but, most importantly, his love and appreciation for the game of baseball comes through in every sentence. This is a baseball book. It's his writing that's keeping me from finishing, really - if he were less of a writer, it would hurt less to read his recounting of the final innings.
He presents a very balanced and unbiased look at both teams during the tumultuous 1978 season. He tells the life story of every major player, on and off the field, and alternates chapters between innings of the playoff game and parts of the season that lead up to it. I like his take on the turning points of the season - Billy Martin's drunken, profane rant and subsequent resignation, of course, but also how the dual introduction of both free agency and the designated hitter affected the season, and even the one Sox-Yankees game rained out early in the season, when the Sox were handily defeating anyone they came up against (that is, the game that could have prevented the game of the title).
July 2, 2010
This is a pretty good book on the 1978 game between the Yankees and Red Sox to decide the AL East flag. I would possibly give this book a higher rating because it was well-written and very well researched, but I'm bias because I've read too much on this subject lately, and there wasn't really anything in this book that wasn't in either of the following--78 by Bill Reynolds, Munson by Marty Appel, or October Men by Roger Kahn. I've read all of those books in the last three years or so, and three of these books in the last year. So I thnk it has just been overkill on the subject. I bought 78 for three bucks a few months ago, and I bought The Greatest Game in the used section for a buck. So this book was well worth the price. What I really liked about this book is that it never strayed too far from the game, and unlike 78, it talked about the Yankees and the Red Sox. I sometimes forget that the Red Sox didn't actually win this game. To the Red Sox, this was a huge game because they hadn't won anything in about 60 years and have only won two World Series since. The Yankees meanwhile, had won their share of titles (including that season, which has almost become an afterthought) before and after this game. A lot of great players and characters in this book such as Bucky "F-ing" Dent, Reggie, Yaz, Bill Lee, Jim Rice, Craig Nettles, Goose Gossage, Billy Martin, Don Zimmer and Carlton Fisk just to name a few. I recommend this book to any baseball fan, but probably not to Red Sox fans since it will cause too much heartache.
July 30, 2011
Brings back a memorable day in my life. It was my second year in a new town/school. Nick B.and myself ran home after school to watch the game (found my dad already home with it on). Some have posted this book being too pro-sox ---so What! Yankees won! Hey Red Sox Nation! I have three words for you "Bucky *#%$@^$ Dent"
December 19, 2012
Very good book on the 1978 one game playoff between the Red Sox and Yankees. Spent more time describing that day at Fenway instead of recapping the season, which was a plus to me. While I am not a fan of either team, it certainly did go down as one of the best games played...and this book was one of the better baseball books I have read. 4 1/2 stars.
April 2, 2008
Great in-depth look at one of the greatest baseball games ever played. I was 7 when this game was played, so I only remember bits and pieces. Last year, I downloaded this game from iTunes and enjoyed it. This book is a perfect complement.
March 31, 2012
This was a great baseball book and a great game. Took me back in time and talked about the things fans did not know about. Living on the west coast routing for the yankees there really was not that much information like today.
June 10, 2015
A decent-enough recap of the '78 playoff, and the circumstances leading up to it, but Bradley's prose lacks the zip you'd hope he'd bring to such a tense and important game. The overall effect is to flatten the book somewhat.
April 9, 2008
There's barely a New Englander alive in '78 who doesn't remember this one and I'm no exception! More information than I could handle though and I have to relegate it to my Skim shelf.
May 2, 2008
Read my review of this one here.
November 18, 2009
great book. wonderful to read about a game played 31 years ago, that still resonates to this day.
August 31, 2012
If you are a Yankees fan it is a must read!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews