Emperors and Idiots

Vaccaro chronicles the rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox, a conflict made more intense by Boston's failure to win a World Series from 1918 through 2003. Vaccaro ignores no details in his lengthy, yet surprisingly entertaining, chronicle, which ends in 2004, when the Sox win the Series and rid themselves of "The Curse." As always, Scott Brick's reading is excellent. He exudes empathy for the frustrations of Red Sox fans, yet he also appreciates the sense of entitlement surrounding the Yankees. Brick switches gears smoothly when quoting players or coaches, and his game accounts sound like they emanate from a seasoned announcer. Even casual baseball fans will find Vaccaro's painstakingly researched story interesting, although the shifts between current and historic events can be distracting. D.J.S. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

March 1, 2005
The C-word. Curse. Spell. Hex. However you say it, from 1918-the infamous year the Boston Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to their southern rivals-until the 2004 playoffs, the curse brought the Red Sox Nation to its knees and supplied New York Yankees fans with an unswerving level of confidence. For 86 years, the Curse of the Bambino fell upon Boston, blocking the plate on their slide into World Series success. Hundreds of heated games packed those decades, but few seasons compare to those of 2003 and 2004, when the Sox came this close to crushing the curse and, against all odds, not only crushed it, but knocked it out of the park. Vaccaro, a senior sports columnist for the New York Post, recounts those two most recent seasons while peppering his storytelling with colorful anecdotes from the ghosts of Red Sox-Yankees past-from Williams-DiMaggio to Jeter-Garciaparra. Few of today's fans know how truly deep the most heated rivalry in sports cuts (yes, even the most fervid fan can learn something here) or how thick the roster of athletes, coaches and fans involved in it flows. The author gives equal time to the players and their fans, going grassroots and seeking out the most dedicated followers to best illustrate the highlights of those seasons, and the emotions that accompanied each moment. Remembers Sox fan Mike Carey: "I was more nervous for game seven than I was for my wedding or the birth of my daughter." But by the end of that game, the curse was broken.

Starred review from November 15, 2005
This is an exceptional audio presentation, not just another sports book and not just for Red Sox or Yankee fans, or Yankee haters, either. Vaccaro weaves together the various strands of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry from 1903 through the seven games of the American League Championship Series in 2004 in masterful fashion. Some strands are repeated and nuanced to emphasize their interrelationships in this drama of day-in/day-out, in-season and off-season competition and individual and team mutual hatred society. Scott Brick reads the story with such enthusiasm and feeling that even though we know the ending, even though we know "the curse of the Bambino" was broken after 76 years of Sox frustration and pain, we begin to feel the depths of the dedication of fans on both sides. And may it continue; baseball needs something other than steroid scandals to keep up its pretense of being a "national pastime" for anyone but the players, owners, and sportswriters. Very highly recommended for sports collections. - Cliff Glaviano, Bowling Green State Univ. Libs., OH

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.