The Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox: Birth of Red Sox Nation

by Herb Crehan

The Impossible Dream 1967 Red Sox is the story of the incredible team that captured the heart of New England and give birth to Red Sox Nation. Herb Crehan's intimate and detailed account of that wonderful season could not have been written without the author's unparalleled access to the 1967 players during more than 20 years as a regular contributor to Red Sox Magazine, the team s official program. In all, Crehan has conducted in-depth interviews with 20 members of the Impossible Dream team, plus Dick Williams and coach Bobby Doerr. He was also able to sit with Billy and Richie Conigliaro to gather their memories of their brother Tony C. The result is 14 chapters of classic Red Sox history, each including an interview and profile of a key member of the team, supplemented by the description of a critical game from 1967 that featured the player. Interspersed through the chapters is a running account of the season as it progressed, with snapshots of player stats and team standings from what may have been the most exciting pennant race of all time. Learn fresh new details about the Impossible Dream season. Get inside Young (but intense) Dick Williams Spring Training culture change Bill Rohr s near no-hitter in his first big league game in April The 10,000 fans (including the author) who mobbed Logan Airport to greet the team in July The tragic beaning in August of star right fielder Tony Conigliaro The superhuman efforts of Carl Yastrzemski that led to a pennant and a Triple Crown Winning the pennant on the last day of the season, and taking the mighty Cardinals to 7 games in the World Series The book also includes a heart-felt foreword by Cy Young winner, World Series star, and New England local hero Jim Lonborg. Long-time Red Sox fans will love reliving the once-in-a-lifetime season. Younger fans will enjoy learning about the beginnings of Red Sox Nation. And all fans will appreciate the scholarship and lively writing on a magical team from a beloved era of baseball history.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

302 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2016

Reviews

[Frank Carroccino · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crehan does a pretty good job of creating the feeling that was around at the time of the 1967 season. I was 9 and a diehard fan already. I came from the North shore of Ma. My father brought me to 2 games that year. I still remember listening to the games on my transistor radio on Cape Cod where we spent parts of July and August of that year. Great team and I do remember it being up and down ride all year. The Red Sox were the main topic of discussion everywhere .Crehan does a good job keeping the flow of the season with individual stories mixed in. A truly magical time.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great memories of a fantastic season but the structure of the book was distracting at times. The author attempted a chronological recap of the season within chapters devoted to mini-bios of key players. This led to repetition and a lack of logical sequencing. For example, in chapter 8 on Dalton Jones, we get an overview of the last two games of the season against the Twins. The same games are covered in the Yaz and Lonborg chapters later in the book. It's as if the player profiles were written as feature articles and later combined in book form.

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Red Sox Nation” is a term that has recently come into wide-spread use when one talks about the legion of Boston Red Sox fans. While it has grown in recent years thanks to the team’s three World Series titles, the idea of a “Red Sox Nation” really began in 1967, when the team made an improbable one year turnaround from ninth place to an American League pennant.

That magical season for the Red Sox and their fans is captured in this book by long time Red Sox Magazine writer Herb Crehan. Drawing from his experience with the team, Crehan relives that “Impossible Dream” season through interviews with 14 key members of the team. Some will be familiar names to all baseball fans, such as Carl Yastremski and Dick Williams. Others not as familiar except to Red Sox fans such as Joe Foy and Russ Gibson. Each player interviewed has his own chapter, in which there is plenty of recaps of key games and moments of the 1967 season.

The writing is of the style that shows mostly knowledge but also a touch of bias toward the Red Sox. That is to be expected from an author who has covered the franchise for a long time and would have some bias toward the team. There is some sadness on the chapter about Tony Conigliaro, a lot of excitement in the chapter on Jim Lonberg as that one covers the final two games of the season in which the Red Sox had to defeat the Minnesota Twins in order to win the pennant. The best chapter was the last one, however, when Crehan brought the reader into the mind of manager Dick Williams and the highs and lows of the memorable seven game World Series won by the St. Louis Cardinals.

Red Sox fans in particular will love this book as it recaptures the joy they felt during that summer or in the case of younger Red Sox fans, they can learn about that team that they have heard about for nearly 50 years. Even if one is not a Red Sox fan, it is a good addition to the library of any baseball fan.

I wish to thank Summer Game Books for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic book for the Red Sox fan!

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is full of memories from the magical 1967 Red Sox season. The author interviewed all of the key members of the team who are still living (sadly, too many have already left us). A wonderful book for the true Red Sox fan.

[Joel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 1967 "Impossible Dream" Red Sox were before my time and (i'm ashamed to admit as a Red Sox fan) the source of a gap in my knowledge on the history of the team. I obviously knew about Carl "Yaz" Yastrzemski's magic MVP triple crown season. I knew the Pennant came down to the final game with 4 teams vying for it in the American League in the last week (no playoffs in those days; just the regular season and then World Series) and I knew the sad tragic story of Tony Conigliaro. I did not know that the modern fascination with the Red Sox and "Red Sox Nation" started because of this team. With one bad season after another and no superstar like Ted Williams (Yaz was a decent but not yet superstar player), attendance and interest was down. That all changed with the Impossible Dream Team.
This book was great for learning about some of the other players. Beyond Yaz, there is obviously Dr. (since he is a practicing dentist) Jim Longborg who won the Cy Young award that year, but also Reggie Smith (who should be in the Hall of Fame), Rico Petrocelli, Mike Andrews and others, each of whom gets their own chapter which highlights a game where they shined and its context in the whole season. The author does this while moving chronologically. Some of the reviews found that difficult to follow or "clunky". I personally did not.
As a Sox fan, this book accomplished exactly what I wanted it to, helping me understand one of the greatest Red Sox seasons and the birth of Red Sox Nation.

[robert sullivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still live it

I was 11 years old that year in 1967 my oldest sister took me to 32 games thats counting double headers which they don't have anymore running home from school to watch the rest of the first game of the world series and disappointed they lost this book brings back a lot memory s to this day I still talk about the cultch hitting of Dalton Jones while everyone talks about yaz I learned something new about that season Dalton batting over 400 the last few months .thank you for the good read its a hobby I have to read old baseball books this is one of the best of many I have read