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Two Sides of Glory: The 1986 Boston Red Sox in Their Own Words
Following an epic American League Championship Series win over the California Angels and just one out from winning their first World Series in sixty-eight years, the 1986 Boston Red Sox lost Game Six to the New York Mets in unforgettable and devastating fashion. Then they lost Game Seven and the Series itself. Two Sides of Glory portrays the losing side of the story about one of baseball’s most riveting World Series match-ups. With the benefit of years of reflection from the men who made up the ’86 Sox, this will be the definitive book on this iconic yet most Shakespearian of Boston teams for years to come.
After telling the Mets’ side of the story, Erik Sherman turns here to the Red Sox’s version, with recollections from players that are both insightful and surprisingly emotional. Bill Buckner, whose name became synonymous with a muffed grounder, speaks openly about the cruel aftermath. Pitcher Bruce Hurst broke down three times while being interviewed. Dwight Evans confesses in his interview that he had never before talked at length about the ’86 team. And Roger Clemens talks candidly not only about the ’86 squad but also accusations of alleged steroid abuse later in his career and the toll it has taken on his family.
In each player’s retelling, there is the excitement of history never told and old mysteries answered. The story of the ’86 Red Sox is well known, but now, after thirty years, the players have opened up to Sherman like never before. It’s an in-depth, first-person account with the intriguing key players who made up this once-in-a-generation Boston team, and also a look at how the extremes of tantalizing victory and heart-wrenching failure shaped and influenced their lives—both on the field and off.
After telling the Mets’ side of the story, Erik Sherman turns here to the Red Sox’s version, with recollections from players that are both insightful and surprisingly emotional. Bill Buckner, whose name became synonymous with a muffed grounder, speaks openly about the cruel aftermath. Pitcher Bruce Hurst broke down three times while being interviewed. Dwight Evans confesses in his interview that he had never before talked at length about the ’86 team. And Roger Clemens talks candidly not only about the ’86 squad but also accusations of alleged steroid abuse later in his career and the toll it has taken on his family.
In each player’s retelling, there is the excitement of history never told and old mysteries answered. The story of the ’86 Red Sox is well known, but now, after thirty years, the players have opened up to Sherman like never before. It’s an in-depth, first-person account with the intriguing key players who made up this once-in-a-generation Boston team, and also a look at how the extremes of tantalizing victory and heart-wrenching failure shaped and influenced their lives—both on the field and off.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published April 1, 2021
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105 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 28, 2023
Hello goodreads friends. I am about five books behind on reviews. The school year is over. This year I found a new position and that meant full time work plus errands and running the house and all my fur babies at home. So this week the plan is to decompress and read and catch up on reviews. I do enjoy writing reviews which is why in the past when I didn’t work as much I would speed through books rather than savor them just so I could write a review. That time has past but I still will write when I have the time.
Anyway, my co-mod at the baseball book club here on goodreads and my myself decided that we wanted to book the book back into the club. Chatting about baseball is great but the whole point is discussing baseball books too. For June we selected Two Sides of Glory about the 1986 Boston Red Sox. This team was the one that was supposed to break Boston’s curse until they unraveled in the last two games. Since Boston has won four World Series in the 21st century, the 1986 team has been forgiven. Journalist Erik Sherman sought out members of that team to reminisce about the season through high points and the lowest of lows. I do enjoy quality baseball journalism and sadly most of the reporting giants of old are no longer with us. Sherman is a throwback. He interviews these players, now in their late 50s to early 60s, at home, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, setting up candid and sometimes painful recollections about the series that got away. Resulting is a poignant collection.
Until 2004/2016, as a Cubs fan I felt much solidarity with Red Sox nation. As fans we experienced jubilation in 2003 until both teams fell victim to their “curses” once again. The Red Sox prevailed first and have since experienced more success than the Cubs. Because of their shared hardships, it is easier for me to empathize with Red Sox fans and players of old than say a franchise like the now Los Angeles Dodgers that experiences constant success. A Cubs-Red Sox World Series now that curses are water under the bridge, now that would be epic. Today the 1986 Red Sox are remembered as heroes of yesterday rather than goats. Bill Buckner before his passing was feted for his achievements, and deservingly so for the 2715 hits he amassed in his career. I experienced heartache of the Evans and Henderson families and wonder how those men were able to play at such a high level with all they had going on at home. As one looking from the outside, I guess I will leave that to my imagination.
Recently someone in a different book club asked me if I have read a variety of baseball fiction books. The answer is no because baseball history is a story. It is the story of America and to read the stories of teams past us better than reading fiction. Baseball creates its own stories. Now that the season is in full swing and I can devote more time to it with school being out, I don’t crave the stories of yesteryear quite as much. The players today can weave their own tales for fans to read about years from now. Erik Sherman has changed the narrative of the 1986 Red Sox. I am glad that he gave the deserving players their due.
4 stars
Anyway, my co-mod at the baseball book club here on goodreads and my myself decided that we wanted to book the book back into the club. Chatting about baseball is great but the whole point is discussing baseball books too. For June we selected Two Sides of Glory about the 1986 Boston Red Sox. This team was the one that was supposed to break Boston’s curse until they unraveled in the last two games. Since Boston has won four World Series in the 21st century, the 1986 team has been forgiven. Journalist Erik Sherman sought out members of that team to reminisce about the season through high points and the lowest of lows. I do enjoy quality baseball journalism and sadly most of the reporting giants of old are no longer with us. Sherman is a throwback. He interviews these players, now in their late 50s to early 60s, at home, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, setting up candid and sometimes painful recollections about the series that got away. Resulting is a poignant collection.
Until 2004/2016, as a Cubs fan I felt much solidarity with Red Sox nation. As fans we experienced jubilation in 2003 until both teams fell victim to their “curses” once again. The Red Sox prevailed first and have since experienced more success than the Cubs. Because of their shared hardships, it is easier for me to empathize with Red Sox fans and players of old than say a franchise like the now Los Angeles Dodgers that experiences constant success. A Cubs-Red Sox World Series now that curses are water under the bridge, now that would be epic. Today the 1986 Red Sox are remembered as heroes of yesterday rather than goats. Bill Buckner before his passing was feted for his achievements, and deservingly so for the 2715 hits he amassed in his career. I experienced heartache of the Evans and Henderson families and wonder how those men were able to play at such a high level with all they had going on at home. As one looking from the outside, I guess I will leave that to my imagination.
Recently someone in a different book club asked me if I have read a variety of baseball fiction books. The answer is no because baseball history is a story. It is the story of America and to read the stories of teams past us better than reading fiction. Baseball creates its own stories. Now that the season is in full swing and I can devote more time to it with school being out, I don’t crave the stories of yesteryear quite as much. The players today can weave their own tales for fans to read about years from now. Erik Sherman has changed the narrative of the 1986 Red Sox. I am glad that he gave the deserving players their due.
4 stars
January 16, 2021
It isn’t often that the losing team in the World Series is fondly remembered for decades. Even though since the Boston Red Sox have since won four World Series titles since then, their 1986 team is considered to be one of their best despite losing to the New York Mets in an epic seven game World Series. Author Erik Sherman, who published a book on that Mets team in 2016, now turns his attention to their vanquished foes, the Red Sox. His interviews with thirteen of that team’s players reveals how much that season means to them all these years later.
Each chapter covers an interview with the players, starting with Bill Buckner. After his error in the tenth inning of Game Six allowed the winning run to score for New York, keeping the series alive for a Game Seven that the Mets eventually won, Buckner was subjected to criticism, ridicule and even death threats to him and his family. His interview was moving, at times heartening and at times melancholy as well. It was clear that the reaction he got to that fateful moment has bothered him for many years. The statement he made to Sherman about being “forgiven” by fans after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 was telling as Buckner said that made him angry – realizing that was what some people now thought.
As good as that interview was, each one thereafter was just as good and revealed much about each man as Sherman asked excellent questions that could not be answered with the same statements and clichés that you hear in postgame or press conference interviews. Usually when an author puts himself in the book when it is not a memoir, I find it self-serving, but that is not the case here as Sherman’s questions needed to be stated and his banter with the subject enhanced the stories they told.
Those stories were quite revealing, no matter who was doing the talking and many of them would run against the personality one would immediately think of when mentioning that player’s name. The two players who exhibited this trait the most were Roger Clemens and Jim Rice. Both of them had reputations for angry personalities, but both of them were as nice as possible to not only Sherman, but to their Red Sox teammates as well, which was bore out in the interviews with others. Clemens talks about the allegations of his use of performance enhancing drugs, Rice about his relationship with the media. Other player interviews revealed other touching stories, such as Dwight Evans losing two sons to brain cancer, Marty Barrett getting choked up when speaking about his former teammates and nearly everyone who had something to share about two teammates who passed away before Sherman began the interviews, Don Baylor and Dave Henderson. It should also be noted that after being interviewed for the book, two additional 1986 Red Sox players passed – Buckner and Tom Seaver.
One other quality that makes this book a page-turner is that the players are genuine with Sherman. None of them seem to be phony or trying to sound like someone they aren’t, even if that didn’t match their persona when playing. This has already been mentioned for Rice and Clemens, but the one interview that struck me as the best one in the entire collection - and they were all excellent - was the one with Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd. He not only shares his thoughts on the 1986 team and World Series (he is still upset that he was passed over to start Game Seven and instead Bruce Hurst was given the ball), but he also tells of his reverence for the Negro Leagues, why he believes that Jackie Robinson may not have been the best thing to happen to Black ballplayers and his thoughts on why the number of Black players has dropped so much in recent years. Through all those, he still had the outspoken and larger-than-life personality that he had while pitching for the 1986 Red Sox.
Whether or not a reader is a Red Sox fan, a Mets fan, or a neutral observer for that epic showdown, this book is one that every reader who has any interest in the sport should read. Sherman became a best-selling author with his book on the 1986 Mets and this one should become another one.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
Each chapter covers an interview with the players, starting with Bill Buckner. After his error in the tenth inning of Game Six allowed the winning run to score for New York, keeping the series alive for a Game Seven that the Mets eventually won, Buckner was subjected to criticism, ridicule and even death threats to him and his family. His interview was moving, at times heartening and at times melancholy as well. It was clear that the reaction he got to that fateful moment has bothered him for many years. The statement he made to Sherman about being “forgiven” by fans after the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004 was telling as Buckner said that made him angry – realizing that was what some people now thought.
As good as that interview was, each one thereafter was just as good and revealed much about each man as Sherman asked excellent questions that could not be answered with the same statements and clichés that you hear in postgame or press conference interviews. Usually when an author puts himself in the book when it is not a memoir, I find it self-serving, but that is not the case here as Sherman’s questions needed to be stated and his banter with the subject enhanced the stories they told.
Those stories were quite revealing, no matter who was doing the talking and many of them would run against the personality one would immediately think of when mentioning that player’s name. The two players who exhibited this trait the most were Roger Clemens and Jim Rice. Both of them had reputations for angry personalities, but both of them were as nice as possible to not only Sherman, but to their Red Sox teammates as well, which was bore out in the interviews with others. Clemens talks about the allegations of his use of performance enhancing drugs, Rice about his relationship with the media. Other player interviews revealed other touching stories, such as Dwight Evans losing two sons to brain cancer, Marty Barrett getting choked up when speaking about his former teammates and nearly everyone who had something to share about two teammates who passed away before Sherman began the interviews, Don Baylor and Dave Henderson. It should also be noted that after being interviewed for the book, two additional 1986 Red Sox players passed – Buckner and Tom Seaver.
One other quality that makes this book a page-turner is that the players are genuine with Sherman. None of them seem to be phony or trying to sound like someone they aren’t, even if that didn’t match their persona when playing. This has already been mentioned for Rice and Clemens, but the one interview that struck me as the best one in the entire collection - and they were all excellent - was the one with Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd. He not only shares his thoughts on the 1986 team and World Series (he is still upset that he was passed over to start Game Seven and instead Bruce Hurst was given the ball), but he also tells of his reverence for the Negro Leagues, why he believes that Jackie Robinson may not have been the best thing to happen to Black ballplayers and his thoughts on why the number of Black players has dropped so much in recent years. Through all those, he still had the outspoken and larger-than-life personality that he had while pitching for the 1986 Red Sox.
Whether or not a reader is a Red Sox fan, a Mets fan, or a neutral observer for that epic showdown, this book is one that every reader who has any interest in the sport should read. Sherman became a best-selling author with his book on the 1986 Mets and this one should become another one.
I wish to thank University of Nebraska Press for providing a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
May 21, 2023
This book focuses exclusively on one side of the 1986 World Series: namely the heartbreaking losing Boston Red Sox. The narrative is comprised of interviews with all the primary position players, and several key pitchers. The interviews are relatively recent (the book was published in 2022), and the interviews are, for the most part, interesting and revealing-in the sense that the sores from that loss still scar the hearts of the participants. While there are glimpses of their current lives, most of the interviews dwell on game five of the ALCS and games six and seven of the World Series. And why not! Those games and series were arguably the best in modern history. I was struck by the universal recollection of how the Boston players vividly pictured Reggie Jackson hugging Gene Mauch as the Sox were down to their last strike in the ninth inning at Anaheim. Then, as the saying goes, they went from agony to ecstasy. And ironically, Bob Boone would remind Rich Gedman after the World Series loss that now Gedman could understand how Boone and Donnie Moore et.al felt after the ALCS. A few interviews were extremely poignant, especially those of Dwight Evans, Bob Stanley, and Bill Buckner. I won't detail their personal anecdotes, but they brought me to tears. The one chapter I disliked was the Oil Can Boyd one. He seems to continue to be angry and bitter even to this day-similar to his playing days. And I must confess, I came away with a new perspective about The Rocket Roger Clemens. He gave a great interview and seemed like he has his head on straight. There is a great anecdote he tells about Don Drysdale when he appeared as a guest on Don's radio show which typifies how Drysdale pitched. Unfortunately, two other players died before the book was in progress, and I really wish they could have contributed- Don Baylor and Dave Henderson. One negative is the lack of an index. So, this is a 4.5 rating for me.
January 20, 2025
Erik Sherman has written extensively about the 1986 New York Mets -- three books on the subject, and a fourth on the 1969 World Series. For "Two Sides of Glory" he sets his sights instead on the team that the Mets defeated in the eventful '86 World Series: the Boston Red Sox. The book features personal interviews with 14 players from that team, including three who were, unfairly, writes Sherman, labeled as goats of the fateful Game Six. A 15th chapter discusses two players no longer with us; an epilogue very briefly summarizes the other players from the World Series roster (with excerpts from an interview with Joe Sambito, which does not seem to have made the cut for its own chapter). Sherman does not shy away from controversy -- each chapter relives the same painful moments from the end of the Series -- but also gives his subjects room to explain their own sides of personal scandals, mostly notably Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, and Steve Lyons. Several players make remarks critical of the '86 Sox's manager, John McNamara, who was still alive as the book was being researched and written but who died soon thereafter. I would have been interested in hearing Mac's voice in the book, too, but sadly that was not to be. Each interview is warm and in-depth, from players who still make their primary living from baseball, to whose who haven't spoken about 1986 in years. Sherman makes it easy to root for these players as they open up to him, and, as Bill Buckner and Tom Seaver died soon after their interviews, the book serves as their fitting final testament.
July 6, 2023
Sherman inexplicably inserts his questions into the narrative of this story, which would probably be okay if he'd decided to just transcribe the interviews as interviews, with the questions in bold black print and the responses rendered as given. Instead, you get a book filled with synonyms for the word "said" and a host of described asides that do nothing to add to or enhance the stories being told. Had Sherman made the choice to tell the story that way, or to edit and transcribe the interviews omitting the questions the way Lawrence Ritter did in The Glory of Their Times, this would have been a far better book to read. The players make Two Sides of Glory a compelling read despite the clunky way it is delivered by the author.
May 3, 2025
This is a beautiful, very human, portrait of the some of the central Red Sox players from the 1986 team. This team, once vilified and now largely appreciated for how great they were, knew both the highest of highs and one of the lowest, most crushing moments in baseball history. Erik Sherman interviews the players and he lets them speak. They share their memories and emotions allowing us to see how this near story-book season marked each man forever. There is a bond between them. It is fascinating how each man dealt with the losing one of the most famous World Series in baseball. It will be appreciated by any baseball fan, but for those of a certain age, and those who root for the Red Sox or Mets, it is a must read.
December 4, 2023
A lot of times the type of format that Erik Sherman uses in this book doesn't work. By talking to each player separately and then doing a chapter on each, you get stories repeated numerous times. That happens here a little with his book on the 1986 Red Sox, but not too much and Sherman finds a work to wove all the stories together a little better then previously done in this format. I really liked the stories told by Buckner, Jim Rice, Bruce Hurst, Wade Boggs, Rich Gedman, Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd and Dwight Evans to name a few. I think this book could have used Dave Stapleton's story to get both sides of things, but for the most part it was a nice reflective look back on the 86 BoSox.
December 17, 2022
Not up to expectations, which were admittedly high, as this was THE milestone Red Sox season for me. The book is organized as a series of player profiles, so the same events are revisited again and again, as each player tells his own version. It would have been so much better organized chronologically, with a multitude of voices describing each moment as the season builds. My favorite part of the book was the last chapter, in which many players' reminiscences of Dave Henderson and Don Baylor were played off against each other. If only the rest of the book were so compelling.
April 30, 2021
Top notch book that brings wonderful memories back from that magical 1986 Boston Red Sox season. You won't be disappointed with this baseball book. Erik Sherman, the author, interviews all the key players on that 1986 team, including the last interview given by Bill Buckner. It is hard to believe that season is now 35 years ago as it seems to this baseball fan like it was yesterday. Read and enjoy.
January 10, 2026
Great premise...terrible execution.
Sherman's idea to consider the losers' p.o.v from one of the most memorable World Series of all time is a great concept for a book. The book suffers badly due to his obsequiousness to the athletes, insistence on inserting himself into the story, and excuse-making for some of the more problematic among them (Clemens, Steve Lyons).
Skip it unless you're a hard core Sox fan.
Sherman's idea to consider the losers' p.o.v from one of the most memorable World Series of all time is a great concept for a book. The book suffers badly due to his obsequiousness to the athletes, insistence on inserting himself into the story, and excuse-making for some of the more problematic among them (Clemens, Steve Lyons).
Skip it unless you're a hard core Sox fan.
June 28, 2021
A Fond Look Back at some old friends and heroes
These great interviews humanize the heroes, victims and improperly-designated villains of the 1986 World Series, and remind us that they were the same group of guys who were on the winning side only a week earlier in a great ALCS matchup.
These great interviews humanize the heroes, victims and improperly-designated villains of the 1986 World Series, and remind us that they were the same group of guys who were on the winning side only a week earlier in a great ALCS matchup.
February 18, 2022
Appreciate the in-depth interviews and probing questions by the author. The players' personalities were portrayed perfectly as the author did an excellent job coaxing out candor and their personal thoughts on one of the greatest Red Sox teams. Too bad Johnny Mac passed away... his perspective on the 86' Season would have been a nice touch to this book.
July 11, 2021
If you are a Red Sox fan and have finally gotten over cringing when you watch replays of the ball going between Bill Buckner's legs, then I highly recommend this book. Some wonderfully insightful and in many cases moving interviews.
September 28, 2021
This was an enjoyable book for a Sox fan. I was 25 when this all happened and have vivid memories of where Ivy and I were on the night of game 6. We also were fortunate to be at the game 5 ALCS game in Anaheim.
The interviews with the players were very interesting.
The interviews with the players were very interesting.
December 27, 2023
Wonderful look back on the 86 Sox team and what happened to the everyone. Highly recommended
March 9, 2024
Great stories of the 86 Sox.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews