The Fenway Project

Rating:
Summary: An Interesting Concept But...
Review: This book, a collection of sixty-four essays by members of the Society for the Advancement of Baseball Research (SABR), chronicles sixty-four different perspectives on one baseball game between the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves during the 2002 season. While not the first book of its kind (that would be Facets of the Diamond), it is the first to target and reach a wider audience.

Let me begin by saying that this is a fantastic concept for a book. SABR is an organization composed of baseball fans of various backgrounds - casual fans, historians, statisticians, sociologists, etc. - and as such this book provides a very unique opportunity to view a baseball game at Fenway Park from many different viewpoints. In addition, the editors did a very good job at ensuring that the authors were able to cover the game from as many vantage points as possible. SABR members were granted access to the clubhouse, the press box, inside the Green Monster, and every other possible place to watch or hear the game in Fenway Park, Boston, and worldwide (via the Internet). If I were giving a grade for this book for concept and planning it would definitely receive five stars.

The bad part is that the writers, as a group, are not talented enough to carry out writing sixty-four essays on what is, essentially, one baseball game. For example, hearing several of the writers talk about their interpretation of "The Wave" as practiced in Fenway was tedious. In my opinion, only about half of the essays were worth the time it took to read them. To this reader it was clear that the goal of the project (an inclusive look at all facets of a particular baseball game experience) got in the way of creating a truly wonderful read. This result was probably inevitable given the desire to be, in part, a reference document.

It should not be taken from my three star rating that I think this book should not be purchased. I would certainly consider giving this book as a gift to any Red Sox fan and probably to most baseball fans.