Richard Bradley: The Greatest Game

 It is certainly the most famous game from the most famous rivalry in baseball history. Any sports fan can tell you that Bucky Dent earned a "special" middle name when he launched an improbable home run on a crisp October afternoon in Boston, and most would also tell you that the story ended with more sorrow for the Red Sox and another World Series championship for the Yankees. Richard Bradley's recent book, The Greatest Game, not only tells the story we know but also digs beneath the service to give us what we don't. (Click here for an excerpt.) Bradley interviewed dozens of players, coaches, and other personnel connected with both teams in order to give a complete picture of the game and all that led up to it.

He reminds us that although the Yankees made an historic comeback, the Red Sox (who won ninety-nine games, afterall) didn't collapse. We meet Bob Lemon, the mild baseball lifer who replaced Billy Martin, the volatile alcoholic who nearly piloted a championship team into the ground. And, of course, we're reintroduced to George Steinbrenner when he was at the peak of his manipulative powers, nothing like the mild patriarch (relatively speaking, at least) that he's become today.

Perhaps most interesting, though, are the players. Bradley intertwines two separate narratives throughout the length of the book, one following the season from spring training to its eventual conclusion, the other detailing each at bat of the playoff game. As he tells these two stories, Bradley includes brief biographical sketches of the key players on both sides. We read about Reggie Jackson's struggles with Martin's caustic, dictatorial style, and Carl Yastrzemski's desperate search for a championship. Jim Rice's MVP season is balanced nicely against Ron Guidry's Cy Young campaign. Most compellingly, Carlton Fisk's polished athleticism stands as a stark contrast against Thurman Munson's scruffy competitiveness.

The Red Sox and the Yankees, it seems, could not have been more different in 1978, and so it makes perfect sense that these two opposites would have come together to produce one of the most memorable games of the past half century. Bradley's book captures the rivalry, the season, and the game perfectly. It appeals to fans of both teams, as well as baseball fans in general, and whether they were born after the game was played or were sitting in the stands that afternoon, readers will revel in the details Bradley uncovers.

Recently Bradley was generous enough to spend part of his morning talking with me about his book. Check it out...