"Don't Let Us Win Tonight": A Paperback Edition Arrives May 21

A paperback edition of Don't Let Us Win Tonight arrives from Triumph Books in less than three months, on May 21.

I had hoped to expand the narrative, restoring some of the cuts we were forced to make back in 2013 to get the word count down, but that was always a long shot. In almost every instance, the cuts were made to shorten existing quotes as opposed to deleting them entirely. Back in November 2014, I shared an example of this pruning, posting the longer version of Curt Schilling's recollection of the Thanksgiving 2003 meeting with Theo Epstein, et al.

In addition to revised covers, this "20th anniversary" edition includes personal memories of 2004 and the seasons that followed from both myself and co-author Bill Nowlin (2,500 words each). Mine begins: "The 2004 Red Sox rewired my brain." We fixed a few typos, added a blurb from the legendary Peter Gammons, and made minor edits to smooth out some rough spots.

This fucking awesome book (now even better!) can be pre-ordered at Triumph, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indigo, or (presumably) from your local book store.

Don't Let Us Win Tonight: Thanksgiving Outtake

In the early drafts of Don't Let Us Win Tonight, the quote from Curt Schilling talking about his November 2003 Thanksgiving meetings with Larry Lucchino, Theo Epstein, and Jed Hoyer was part of the off-season prologue in the front part of the book - and was much longer. It was eventually shortened and moved to before Game 1 of the 2004 ALCS.

On the two-year anniversary of those important meetings in Arizona - essential steps towards what happened 11 months later - I'm posting the longer quote:

Curt Schilling:

When I found out about the Diamondbacks wanting to trade me, there were only two places I had interest in going: Philadelphia and New York. I found out through the grapevine that Ruben Amaro, Sr., had no interest in bringing me back to Philly, so I figured if I was going to leave Arizona, it would be for New York and New York only. We were actually doing a charity event at my house in Arizona for the SHADE Foundation and Mr. Colangelo and Joe Garagiola, Jr., were both at the house. Sometime that day, I heard that Tito was interviewing in Boston. During the night, there was some small talk with Joe and I said, "Listen, I heard that Tito was interviewing in Boston. If that actually happens, I would probably be interested in the Red Sox as well." He left and went to talk to Mr. Colangelo and came back about ten minutes later and said, "Actually, we have a deal in principle with the Red Sox already. They're going to fly out and they'll be here on Wednesday to talk to you." I was like, ". . . OK." This was Monday or Tuesday; Thanksgiving was Thursday. It happened that fast. I told Shonda, "They're not kidding. Boston's a legitimate possibility." Then the whirlwind started.

Off the top of my head, I had pitched in Fenway before. After I'd become established I came there in interleague play one time. I don't remember the game. I threw like eight innings and gave up seven or eight runs one night and ended up getting the win. I remember the park feeling incredibly small. Being a fly-ball pitcher, that's generally not a good mix.

Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer came to the house the night before the meeting and dropped off a note from Bill James, with a statistical breakdown on how I would have fared in Fenway given my spray charts and hitting charts from the year before. And Fenway was actually better than Bank One. That was the first time that I realized that Bank One truly was a hitter's park. That was clearly part of the sales pitch.

We started off the discussions and it was Larry Lucchino, Jed, and Theo. That was Wednesday. We talked and made some overtures about potential salary and things like that. There was concern about salary and the fact that they weren't going to be able to pay me more than Pedro. I didn't care about that. I was going to be paid well no matter what. Larry actually made the first offer. I remember him pushing over a document and it said "Plan A" on it, or something like that. I looked at the numbers for about five seconds and I said, "Oh, that's nice. Can I see Plan B?"

Theo kind of chuckled and Larry looked at me like, "We really don't have . . ." and it was kind of awkward. We broke for a little while and we came back and they made another offer and it was not even remotely do-able. We talked, and kept talking, and talked into the evening. I remember calling Joe Garagiola that evening and saying, "I don't think this is going to work and I don't want you to be pissed if I end up coming back there to Arizona." He said, "If the worst case is that you're our #2 next year, I can deal with that." He was very cool. It made it very easy for me. He was awesome about it.

In the background, at the same time, I got a call from a person locally who was well-connected with the Yankees and that person informed me that Brian [Cashman] was going to be calling me in the near future and that they were interested. Very interested. I ended up having a couple of conversations along those lines, in which I was told if I let a certain window run out, I could basically fill out a blank check. Which was obviously interesting. That was a nice fallback, if it didn't work out with the Red Sox.

The problem was that at this point, I had sat with Theo and Jed long enough to really like both of them, and so I started to kind of want to go to Boston. Wednesday night, we were disappointed. My wife and I were talking and we really didn't think that this was going to work because they were nowhere near the number that we needed to be at.

Larry left. We talked to Theo and Jed that night and found out that they had nowhere to go for Thanksgiving, so we invited them over. They were adamantly trying to say "no" [to decline the invitation] and I said, "These contract discussions are completely off if you guys don't show up." So they came over. Jed was really sick that day and we spent most of the day watching football, talking. Not about baseball. Just talking. I really liked both of them and I could see that from an analytical standpoint Theo and I were birds of a feather. He believed in the things I believed in to be a good pitcher. We believed in data and stats the same way. There was a lot of common ground. We talked through the night. We parted ways on Thursday and felt this was not going to happen. That's when I talked to Joe [Garagiola] and said I don't see this as a possibility.

But then, as I understand it, Theo made a call to John [Henry] and Tom [Werner] and spoke to them about it. I think that I had given them a ballpark number that I was going to need. The big number for them was the AAV – the average annual value of the contract. They needed it to be under X and in my mind – given where I sat in the marketplace – I was already taking an under-market contract. Which was fine, again, but I wasn't going to take too under-market, just because I knew that I was going to have a lot of bearing on the free-agency that winter, on players that were out in the market. I had a number in mind, but they weren't anywhere near it.

Theo went home and got Mr. Henry to change his mind and then came back and asked if they could talk. At the same time, I was talking to the other party and we were setting up a potential Saturday get-together as soon as the Red Sox window of opportunity ran out.

They came back over and put an offer on the table and the one thing about Theo and Jed – I think from both ends – when it was Theo and Jed and I – there was no . . . we weren't negotiating to get to a better number. I told them, "This is my number. I'm not trying to milk any of this or any of that. This is my number. If this number isn't OK, then I understand, but it's just not going to happen." They came back and worked around it and that was when I asked about the incentives and the clause with the World Series bonus. I guess by the end of the day, I knew that was why they were there. They weren't there to trade for me to pitch and come in and help the team. They were there to trade for me to come in and help the team win a World Series.

It was a real unique moment, I think. They were sitting in the living room and – people think this was orchestrated, but it wasn't – we were in the room where my World Series trophy was sitting. It was actually sitting in the background between Larry and Theo, and I said, "Listen, I know for a fact that from a financial perspective, you guys can go wherever you need to go. I guess what you have to figure out is what kind of value you place on that" – and I pointed to the World Series trophy. "You're bringing me there to win one of those. And I've done it against the team you can't get past. I know there's some value there. You guys are going to have to decide if it's worth it." And ultimately they did.

DLUWT Book Signing In Framingham Tonight

If you are near Framingham, Mass., and have not yet picked up a copy of Don't Let Us Win Tonight, head over to the Barnes & Noble this evening, where my co-author Bill Nowlin will be signing copies and chatting about the 2004 team. You can find more information on the event - which starts at 7 PM - including directions, here.

Two More Reviews Of "Don't Let Us Win Tonight"

Pete Chianca, Hamilton-Wenham Chronicle (Danvers, Mass.):

Lovingly constructed ... quotes that get into the heads of the players and manager – not to mention the GM, owners, medical staff and even the bat boy.

Through their testimony, the smaller dramas behind the series all coalesce into a broader overarching story about grit, determination and sheer boneheaded luck. You know exactly what's going to happen, and yet you still feel the bumps rise on the back of your neck. ...

[E]xtra kudos to the authors for devoting an entire chapter to the jeering sportswriters who piled on when the Sox were down 0-3. ...

[M]uch more than a souvenir for Sox fans. It's a historical document that, behind all the game-time drama, reverberates with a love of the sport that would resonate with any baseball lover. Maybe even a Yankee fan.

I'm extremely pleased with this review, as happy with it as I was for the Globe's rave. It's obvious that Pete read the entire book and then gave it a good deal of thought before writing his review. I'm thrilled that he noticed that the older quotes we used were devoid of puffery and I'm pleased that he enjoyed the many sportswriters' quotes from after ALCS 3!

The Feathered Quill has also reviewed the book:

Allan Wood and Bill Nowlin have put together a minute-by-minute playback of a Red Sox win that diehard fans had waited far too long to see. ...

Why are there so many endnotes? The reason is simple and is why this book is so good. Rather than simply write a dry synopsis of each game, the authors chose to incorporate a vast quantity of quotes by those who were there; the players, coaches, front office, the medical staff, and members of both the Yankees and the Cardinals. A few paragraphs of text, then it’s on to the comments from those who lived each moment. ...

The reader comes away with a true sense of the strategies behind various decisions, what the players were thinking, play by play, the tension, stress, anxiety, and best of all, the relief and elation. Don’t Let Us Win Tonight should be added to every Sox fan's library!

2004 Red Sox: Before The Breakthrough

Yahoo! Sports has excerpted the beginning of Don't Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History of the 2004 Boston Red Sox's Impossible Playoff Run at The Post Game.

DLUWT: The Daily Beast, Book Store Appearances

Robert Birnbaum, The Daily Beast:

Historic pennant races make for compelling narratives, none more fantastic than the fairy tale 2004 Red Sox season. Don't Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History of the 2004 Boston Red Sox's Impossible Playoff Run by Allan Wood and Bill Nowlin is sure to please the members of the heavily monetizing branding commodity "Red Sox Nation." Memories of David Ortiz's slugging heroics, bourbon fueled pregame rituals, Dave Roberts's stolen base, Curt Shilling's blood stained sock, and Kevin Millar's manic enthusiasm all recall the first and perhaps most profound championship by the long benighted Red Sox.

(Of course, 2004 was the Red Sox 6th World Series title, not their first.)

DLUWT co-author Bill Nowlin will make three Boston-area book store appearances this weekend:

Saturday, April 12, 2014: 4-6 PM
Barnes & Noble
210 Andover Street, Peabody MA
978-573-3261

Sunday, April 13, 2014: 11 AM – 1 PM
Barnes & Noble
82 Providence Highway, Walpole, MA
508-668-1303

Sunday, April 13, 2014: 2:30 PM
Barnes & Noble
96 Derby Street, Hingham, MA
781-749-3319

And if you are anywhere near Mississauga, Ontario, tomorrow, stop by the Spring Literary Festival. I will be there from 1:00 to 4:30 PM.

Boston Globe: A Rave Review Of "Don't Let Us Win Tonight"

Colin Fleming, Boston Globe:

Baseball is well suited to the talking head approach to literature, with composite voices crafting a narrative that seems peopled with the very spirits — past and present — that make the game the most rewarding of our sports to discuss. In that regard, "Don't Let Us Win Tonight" by Allan Wood and Bill Nowlin is a modern-day, single-team cousin to the classic 1966 omnibus work "The Glory of Their Times," the key literary effort of the first half of baseball's history. ...

And now [the 2004 Red Sox] have the first important book to document their achievement, efficacy, and, really, folklore. ...

Read this book in some downtown café, then pop out onto the street and encounter a couple of Yankees fans coming your way and you're apt to lower your shoulder and think, "Let's do this!" The sports brigade will be suitably "pumped," in the vernacular, and more than a little surprised. Reading along to testimony of one sports miracle after another, you become dubious that all of this actually could have happened.

Note Re "Don't Let Us Win Tonight"

If you are curious about reviews of "Don't Let Us Win Tonight" or possible author appearances or anything to do with the book, really, you should follow the Twitter feed and Facebook page. While I will certainly post news about the book here, it may not be everything.

On Friday, April 4, my co-author, Bill Nowlin, will be on Chris Russo's "High Heat" (MLB Network). Considering the Mad Dog's epic reaction the day after the Red Sox clinched the 2004 pennant, I'm hoping for at least a little Yankee schadenfreude. High Heat is on at 1 PM; the Red Sox's home opener against the Brewers begins at 2 PM.

Both Bill and I will be at the first BoSox Club luncheon of the season on Tuesday, April 8, at the Dedham Hilton. Check here for ticket availability.

Utica Observer-Dispatch: "Relive The Baseball Party Of A Generation"

Don't Let Us Win Tonight has received its first review!

Don Laible of the Utica Observer-Dispatch spoke with both Bill and me and posted his story today:

What makes Don't Let Us Win Tonight so captivating is how meticulously Wood and Nowlin walk readers through the divisional series, league championship series, the Series, and of course, the celebration. The playmakers and those associated with the Red Sox are telling the story. ...

Think of a SportsCenter program, loaded from commercial break to commercial break with quotes and game updates from the divisional series to the World Series four-game sweep of St. Louis, now you know what you're getting with Don't Let Us Win Tonight. ...

You're invited to relive the baseball party of a generation, all over again, in the pages of Don't Let Us Win Tonight.

"Don't Let Us Win Tonight" - Back Cover

At least one person received her copy of Don't Let Us Win Tonight this afternoon!

For everyone else, here's the book's back cover:

Baseball Books Due In 2014 (Including DLUWT)

Ron Kaplan has posted a long list of baseball books set to be released in 2014. Under "Happy Anniversary", we find:

Idiots Revisited: Catching Up With the Red Sox Who Won the 2004 World Series, by Ian Browne (Tilbury). Did someone say anniversary? Only 10 years for this one. It was a doozy only in that it had been so long before the last Boston championship. I'm waiting for someone to write about the Playoffs against the Yankees that preceded the trip to the Fall Classic.

Don't Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History of the 2004 Boston Red Sox’s Impossible Playoff Run, by Allan Wood and Bill Nowlin (Triumph). What did I just ask for?

Amazon states that DLUWT ($18.60, 25% off) is in stock March 3!

(I uploaded six pictures from the book here.)

"Don't Let Us Win Tonight": An Excerpt

I have posted a 2,200-word excerpt from Don't Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History of the 2004 Boston Red Sox's Impossible Playoff Run at the book's website.

It's Sunday night, October 17, 2004. The Yankees have won the first three games of the American League Championship Series and they lead 4-3 in Game 4 at Fenway Park. It's the bottom of the ninth inning, and the Red Sox are three outs away from a long, cold winter. Kevin Millar is set to lead off against Yankees closer Mariano Rivera.

Don't Let Us Win Tonight can be pre-ordered at Amazon (or other places). The book should be available around Opening Day.

"Don't Let Us Win Tonight" Is Off To The Printer!

Final edits and corrections have been made, photos have been selected and arranged, and the dust jacket copy has been approved!

My book on the 2004 Red Sox postseason is now completely done (!!) and is being sent to the printer this afternoon. It remains on schedule for an April 1 release.

The slightly-altered title: Don't Let Us Win Tonight: An Oral History of the 2004 Boston Red Sox's Impossible Playoff Run.

I have set up a website for the book, which is pretty bare at the moment, as well as a Twitter account.

You can pre-order DLUWT at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powells, as well as through the publisher, Triumph Books.

My 2004 Book: "Don't Let Us Win Tonight"

Amazon:

Commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Boston Red Sox' unprecedented championship run in the fall of 2004, this guide takes fans behind the scenes and inside the dugout, bullpen, and clubhouse to reveal to baseball fans how it happened, as it happened. The book highlights how, during a span of just 76 hours, the Red Sox won four do-or-die games against their archrivals, the New York Yankees, to qualify for the World Series and complete the greatest comeback in baseball history. Then the Red Sox steamrolled through the World Series, sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in four games, capturing their first championship since 1918. Don't Let Us Win Tonight is brimming with revealing quotes from Boston's front office personnel, coaches, medical staff, and players, including Kevin Millar talking about his infectious optimism and the team's pregame ritual of drinking whiskey, Dave Roberts revealing how he prepared to steal the most famous base of his career, and Dr. William Morgan describing the radical surgery he performed on Curt Schilling's right ankle. The ultimate keepsake for any Red Sox fan, this is the 2004 team in their own words.

Don't Let Us Win Tonight is scheduled for release on April 1, 2014.

Book

I made the announcement on March 1 that I was writing a book celebrating the glorious events of October 2004. That book is now complete. I emailed the manuscript to my editor at Triumph Books at 2:25 this afternoon.

Here is a Wordle diagram of the ALCS portion of the book:

I look forward to once again watching the Red Sox (99.9% probability of making the playoffs, for the first time since 2009) in the evening. ... Good timing with the FKR series starting tomorrow night.

Announcement

Big News: I signed a book contract this afternoon!

I'm writing a book for Triumph, based on an idea that I have been developing for more than a year. For now, all I can say is that it's about October 2004. It will be published next March, in plenty of time to join what I hope will be a season-long celebration of the 10th anniversary of the World Series championship many of us thought we would never see. Working with me on the project is Bill Nowlin, who has written many Red Sox-related books.

What does this mean for Joy of Sox? I'm not completely sure. While the blog will be on the back burner, I do hope to post periodically.