Review of "Where Have You Gone? Catching Up With Billy Rohr, Earl Wilson, Oil Can Boyd and Other Red Sox Favorites," by Steve Buckley

 Review of

Where Have You Gone? Catching Up With Billy Rohr, Earl Wilson, Oil Can Boyd and Other Red Sox Favorites, by Steve Buckley, ISBN 1582619611

Five out of five stars

Recap of players, not all legends

 What makes this book more interesting than other books about past players for a team is that not all the profiled players were stars. Some of them had very little history while wearing a Red Sox uniform. For each player there is a page with a photo as well as a summary of his best season with the Red Sox. 

 For example, a profile of Don Gile begins on page 96. During his best season with the Red Sox, he appeared in 8 games and had 18 at bats. In his best season with the Red Sox, Jack Baker appeared in 12 games and had a batting average of .130. The most interesting profile of the men that were not stars is that of Carroll Hardy. He has the unique distinction of being the only man to pinch hit for Ted Williams. 

The emphasis is on players that were still alive when the book was published in 2005. If you are a fan of the Boston Red Sox, this collection of summaries of the after baseball lives of some of the Red Sox players is interesting. What is refreshing about the profiles is that there is no real bitterness regarding their careers and there were no tales of struggling to survive after their baseball careers were over. 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review of "The Autumn Dead," by Ed Gorman

Review of "The Forty-Minute War," by Janet and Chris Morris

Review of "Heat," by Mike Lupica