Bill Lee was one of those larger than life baseball players who were my heros in the mid 70's. He is one of the stars that helped me become a Red Sox fan. Fred Lynn, Rick Burleson, Yaz, Dewey, Jim Rice, Louis Tiant, Eck, Fisk, Denny Doyle, Butch Hobson, Rico Petrocelli, Bernie Carbo, Bob Stanley, etc etc. I loved those guys...they thrilled me...and they broke my heart (along with a million other fans over many many decades.)
So, Bill Lee rewrote history in this book. It is full of what-ifs. What if Babe Ruth never left Boston? What if Jackie Robinson was signed by Boston? What if Ted Williams didn't go off to war? What if Bucky Dent was a pianist rather than a baseball player? What if Buckner wasn't on the field in '86? What if the Green Monster was in right field? What if Conigliaro didn't get beaned in '67? What if the Rocket stayed in Boston? What if, what if, what if?
Lee has written history the way Boston fans would prefer things happened. New York ending up a cesspool with a team that struggles to even maintain itself in MLB. Boston winning again, and again...and it is awesome!
What fun. Especially now that the Red Sox have actually won a few World Series and it makes the whole thing easier to laugh about. ;-)
The stories of the perpetually hapless Yankees are funny. The rewrites of the story lines for the '75 Reds, '78 Yankees and '86 Mets are especially touching to me.
The funniest "revision" was how Ted Williams killed Hitler with a line drive and thereby prevented World War II (at least in Europe).
The Spaceman cracks me up.
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