For Boston Red Sox fans, the 2018 was truly an unbelievable season. From start to finish, the team was a machine rolling over every challenge in its way to a team-record 108 victories in the regular season and 11 more in the post season for their fourth World Series championship this century.
For the front office and on-field personnel of the Boston Red Sox, it wasn't unbelievable at all. Maybe the exaggerated win total caused some mouths to drop, but the way that this particular Red Sox team dismantled and destroyed every major league team was not unexpected.
In "Homegrown", Boston Globe baseball writer Alex Speier goes into great detail about the 2018 team, but also widens the lens to determine how the team was created. Through in-depth profiles on stars such as 2018 American League most valuable player Mookie Betts, 2018 ALCS MVP Jackie Bradley Jr., outfielder Andrew Benintendi, shortstop Xander Bogaerts, third baseman Rafael Devers and more, Speier chronicles how each of the Red Sox heroes were drafted, came up through the minor leagues and became MLB stars.
He contrasts the Boston drafted hitters with the pitchers who seemed to be found on the trade market and free agent pool but also the nooks and crannies of baseball. You read about how the deal for Chris Sale came into being and how (now former) Sox President Dave Dombrowski was able to target who he wanted and crafted a deal that allowed him to get it. Free agent acquisition David Price, sometimes maligned by the Boston fans for a number of reasons, goes through his thought process when he chose the Sox over the Cardinals in the winter of 2016.
You also get a view into a lesser-known, but important pitcher, Ryan Brasier and how his baseball journey included a stop in Japan before being one of rookie manager's Alex Cora's most trusted October firemen. Cora also goes into detail about he handled perennial All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel's hot-and-cold appearances in the postseason and how a former teammate of Cora's was able to alert the manager that his relief ace was tipping his pitches.
Speier is a new kind of baseball writer in that he's unafraid of statistics that are a bit more complex than wins and losses, batting average and RBIs, so he goes into great detail about the numbers behind what the Sox brain trust was thinking in key moments of the 2018 season. However, this is not a numbers books as Speier made sure to do his homework by talking to the grizzled scouts of the team who are more apt to use other less scientific methods to evaluate a player.
If you're a fan of the Boston Red Sox, you should have this book in your library. It's a compelling and quick read that's almost impossible to put down. I've followed the Red Sox since I was nine-years-old and last season was the most fun that I've had watching a Boston team--they were a wagon that would not slow down. So having a smart and talented writer like Speier chronicle the ups and (few) downs of my favorite team as they marched their way to the division title, the American League pennant and ultimately the World Series championship is perfect as far as I'm concerned.
Also, reading this book during a disappointing 2019 made me a little nostalgic for a team that still had most of the same cast, but was missing that 2018 pizazz.
If you're a fan of the Red Sox, this is definitely a must-have, but even if you're a fan of a well-written book on professional athletes, this is a great book to get too. There's a lot of behind-the-scenes access that Speier is granted and interviews with a lot of the people who make the most important decisions for a professional ball club. You'll be intrigued into their thought processes and how some moves worked and others did not. Also, there is a few interesting stories about the player who got away and a peek down the road not travelled.
Check it out and keep warm reading it this winter!
BTW, the picture that was used as the front cover for the book might be one of my favorite baseball images ever. Benitendi is poetry in motion there and if that was a picture of me, it would be plastered on every wall in my home.
I was sent Homegrown free to review and comment on. This did not have any effect on my review.
