Climbing Mighty Mount New York

Brett DiStasio October 30, 2017

     Climbing Mighty Mount New York

Do you have an older sibling who always seems to be bigger, stronger and faster than you are? Everyone knows the feeling of being the little guy who can’t seem to overcome an obstacle no matter how hard they try or how close they get. Dan Shaughnessy truly captures this feeling in the novel Reversing The Curse a story of the 2004 Boston Red Sox. The novel starts on October 27, 2004 the fateful night in Boston in which generations of fans celebrated and cried together as an 86 year curse had been broken. Shaughnessy talks about the struggles that each fan has overcome while being loyal to the Red Sox and goes into perspective of fans around the world who were watching the final out of the World Series. The author quickly switches focus as he goes back to the 1920’s and begins to talk about “the dreaded curse of the bambino”, Shaughnessy begins to retell the missteps of the Red Sox franchise and seems to intertwine the New York Yankees with every misstep we make. Shaughnessy summarizes the past 80 years in the next four chapters such as the trade of the greatest Baseball Player of all time to New York for a measly $125,000, this trade kicks off the what was the longest championship drought in Boston Sports history.  Every time the fans regained hope as the Red Sox would have a surging summer, there would be a collapse such as in the summer of 1978, the Red Sox were up 14 games on the Yankees and ended up having the greatest collapse in baseball history and lost the AL East pennant. Shaughnessy states, “More than a quarter of a century later, those ‘78 Sox are still taking abuse.”(26) The author eventually moves on the the 2003 ALCS and the Sox historic collapse at Yankees stadium losing the last 2 games of the playoff series. “If that series wasn’t enough of a slap in the face, the Yankees traded for the best player in baseball, who many believed was going to the Red Sox, and the hearts of Red Sox nation simultaneously broke.” (46)

The Author does a great job of embodying the dark cloud that had been over Boston and the Red Sox franchise for decades, by showcasing the emotions of the fans and the players after years of disappointment. Shaughnessy uses vivid imagery and other literary devices to give the reader the image that the Yankees have always been towering over the Sox and the mountain becomes more and more insurmountable each year. A clear cut example of this is when Shaughnessy says, “Our stomachs dropped” and , “our hearts were ripped out” , using the repetition of the word our to present the reader with the idea that all of Boston had felt the pain of the Red Sox over the years. One aspect of the book that I enjoyed was the fact that this novel goes in depth of everything happened in Boston during 2003 and 2004, not just the Red Sox. I would not only recommend this book to Red Sox fans such as myself, but I would encourage anyone who lives in New England to read this book, as it embodies the blue collar attitude and resiliency of the region. This book is also a unique read as it provides fresh and unseen perspectives of fans around the world, and Red Sox players and officials. This style gives the reader a good idea of how the people were feeling and how the city longed for another Championship. The author also uses a shift in tone to convey his message. In the early chapters the tone is very negative as he talks about “curses” and “disappointments” , but in the later chapters when things seem to be looking up and the Red Sox bring in a new manager and president of baseball operations he uses words such as “hope”, “a new start” and “a breath of fresh air”. I may have only been 3 or 4 years old, but what I like the most about this book is that Shaughnessy makes me feel like I was in Boston and felt the pain, anguish and the eventual relief of the “curse” being broken.