Faithful



I read the book Faithful on my recent trip to the left coast. Written by Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King – the book chronicles the 2004 season of the Boston Red Sox through the eyes of “diehard” fans (namely the two authors). The diaries and back and forth emails take the reader from Spring Training to the ultimate victory of the Sox in the World Series.

Of course the big hook to this book is to read what Stephen King was thinking during the course of the season. I doubt the book gets a green light if the king of horror is not involved. Unfortunately, King’s prose only encompasses about 1/3 of the book with the balance being the words of O’Nan.

Yes, the book was highly entertaining and I can think of no better way to start off the 2005 season than by reliving the magic of 2004 but I had an uneasy feeling about O’Nan throughout.

Stewart O’Nan was born and raised a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates, meaning he is not a life-long Sox fan or even a fan with sole allegiances to the Red Sox. O’Nan mentions how he’s always checking the boxscores for the Pirates and he mentions Bill Mazeroski more times than Bucky “F’n” Dent. Word to O’Nan – lifelong Red Sox fans only care about the Red Sox and Yankees. That’s the true extent of our passion.

There was also the disturbing O’Nan mania for getting batting practice balls, foul balls and autographs that seemed to border on an unhealthy obsession. He comes off like comic book guy talking about scoring a comic book in mint condition.

As a blogger – I envy Stewart O’Nan. He got a book deal for doing what many of us do for free. There are hundreds of passionate baseball bloggers who comment on every game (and every day off) during the season.

Really – O’Nan basically got paid to do what I’d do for free. Yes – I’m jealous.

I’d be curious to see how the sales of this book stack up against the sales of the book Stephen King wrote about the art of writing. I don’t know but I’d be willing to bet more people bought this book to find out his thoughts on the Red Sox than bought his books explaining his craft. I find that kinda funny.