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Red Sox Threads: Odds and Ends from Red Sox History
Red Sox Threads is Bill Nowlin's collection of tangents and tidbits assembled while working on a dozen books about Boston's team. The first Native American, players who were stabbed or shot or committed suicide, the only Red Sox player to play before the King of England. Stats and streaks and hidden ball tricks, the time the team traveled to the wrong city.think of a thread to follow and there's a good chance it's unraveled here.
545 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 2008
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December 25, 2022
When I set out to read this book from cover to cover, I wasn't truly aware of what it is. The subtitle is accurate. It is, literally, "odds & ends from Red Sox history." And one should most definitely not be encouraged to read it from cover to cover.
This is a compilation of some of the most trivial trivia that one could ever imagine. There are statistics in this book that I never would have thought to enquire about. Pitchers, batters, coaches, all of them are in here. Included is an almost-twenty-page list of every single player who has ever been on the Red Sox, from their inaugural 1901 season (even though they weren't officially the Red Sox, yet), through the opening day in Japan, of the 2008 season.
Every player. That's a lot of players.
There's a section of players who only played one game for the Sox. Then a section of players who only played two games, then three games. There is a section on foreign born players, Latino players, Jewish players, Native American players. Did you know Ted Williams had Latino roots? I didn't. African-American players (sadly, the Red Sox were, I believe the last team to contract an African-American . . . Mr. Yawkey was quite the racist, apparently), Asian players.
There are funny stories in here. It's not all stats. There was a pitcher who once played for the Red Sox, "Oil Can" Boyd. "Barry Singer remembers a summer evening in the mid-1980s, when there was a free screening of the Wizard of Oz at the Hatch Shell, along side the River Charles in Boston. In the scene where Dorothy meets the tin man, he labors to whisper, 'Oil can.' She says, 'Oil can what?' 1000 people on the lawn shouted in unison, 'Oil Can Boyd.'"
The greatest hitter of all time, Ted Williams, played a great career with the Sox. He was known for his great vision, a really good eye for pitches. Once, when a catcher questioned a call by the umpire, the umpire was quoted as saying, "If Mr. Williams did not swing it's not a strike."
One of the many things I learned while slogging through this book (and yes, I will confess, if you try to read it the way I did, it is most definitely a slog) was that there used to be a bowling alley under Fenway Park. In fact, I believe it was there even into this century! I wish I had known that when I visited there in 2007 and 2008!
The funniest story in the book comes on page 329, when, because of scheduling mixup, the Red Sox showed up to play the Philadelphia Athletics . . . to an empty stadium. It wasn't just them, though, because the umpire showed up, too. The Athletics, however, were in Washington, playing the Senators. The Sox were supposed to be in Baltimore, where the Orioles were waiting for them to arrive. As part of the mixup, the White Sox showed up in Baltimore, but the Orioles manager, at that time, John McGraw, refused to play the White Sox, because his schedule said he was supposed to play the Red Sox.
The longest game played by the Red Sox was against the Texas Rangers, and lasted 6 hours and 35 minutes, on 8/25/2001!
I learned that Rogers Hornsby, one of the most famous ballplayers of all, managed the Fort Worth Cats, at one time.
On page 56, there's a list of Red Sox players named Joe. That is immediately followed by a seven-page list of nicknames of Red Sox players.
No-hitters, shutouts, perfect games, best batting averages, worst batting averages, times when players on the team had a better batting average than the team's winning percentage (those were some BAD years). Seriously, pretty much every statistic you can think of is in the book, and probably some you would never think of.
It's a fantastic book for the most faithful Red Sox fan. But I highly discourage anyone from trying to read it straight through, like I did. If you can see it, I started this book on October 30, and it took me until December 24 to finish. That's because I took multiple breaks from it, to read other books.
This is a compilation of some of the most trivial trivia that one could ever imagine. There are statistics in this book that I never would have thought to enquire about. Pitchers, batters, coaches, all of them are in here. Included is an almost-twenty-page list of every single player who has ever been on the Red Sox, from their inaugural 1901 season (even though they weren't officially the Red Sox, yet), through the opening day in Japan, of the 2008 season.
Every player. That's a lot of players.
There's a section of players who only played one game for the Sox. Then a section of players who only played two games, then three games. There is a section on foreign born players, Latino players, Jewish players, Native American players. Did you know Ted Williams had Latino roots? I didn't. African-American players (sadly, the Red Sox were, I believe the last team to contract an African-American . . . Mr. Yawkey was quite the racist, apparently), Asian players.
There are funny stories in here. It's not all stats. There was a pitcher who once played for the Red Sox, "Oil Can" Boyd. "Barry Singer remembers a summer evening in the mid-1980s, when there was a free screening of the Wizard of Oz at the Hatch Shell, along side the River Charles in Boston. In the scene where Dorothy meets the tin man, he labors to whisper, 'Oil can.' She says, 'Oil can what?' 1000 people on the lawn shouted in unison, 'Oil Can Boyd.'"
The greatest hitter of all time, Ted Williams, played a great career with the Sox. He was known for his great vision, a really good eye for pitches. Once, when a catcher questioned a call by the umpire, the umpire was quoted as saying, "If Mr. Williams did not swing it's not a strike."
One of the many things I learned while slogging through this book (and yes, I will confess, if you try to read it the way I did, it is most definitely a slog) was that there used to be a bowling alley under Fenway Park. In fact, I believe it was there even into this century! I wish I had known that when I visited there in 2007 and 2008!
The funniest story in the book comes on page 329, when, because of scheduling mixup, the Red Sox showed up to play the Philadelphia Athletics . . . to an empty stadium. It wasn't just them, though, because the umpire showed up, too. The Athletics, however, were in Washington, playing the Senators. The Sox were supposed to be in Baltimore, where the Orioles were waiting for them to arrive. As part of the mixup, the White Sox showed up in Baltimore, but the Orioles manager, at that time, John McGraw, refused to play the White Sox, because his schedule said he was supposed to play the Red Sox.
The longest game played by the Red Sox was against the Texas Rangers, and lasted 6 hours and 35 minutes, on 8/25/2001!
I learned that Rogers Hornsby, one of the most famous ballplayers of all, managed the Fort Worth Cats, at one time.
On page 56, there's a list of Red Sox players named Joe. That is immediately followed by a seven-page list of nicknames of Red Sox players.
No-hitters, shutouts, perfect games, best batting averages, worst batting averages, times when players on the team had a better batting average than the team's winning percentage (those were some BAD years). Seriously, pretty much every statistic you can think of is in the book, and probably some you would never think of.
It's a fantastic book for the most faithful Red Sox fan. But I highly discourage anyone from trying to read it straight through, like I did. If you can see it, I started this book on October 30, and it took me until December 24 to finish. That's because I took multiple breaks from it, to read other books.
Displaying 1 of 1 review