Howard Bryant is a senior writer for ESPN the Magazine and the author of Juicing the Game- Drugs, Power and the Fight for the Soul of Major League Baseball, and The Last Hero- A Life of Henry Aaron. He is the editor of The Best American Sports Writing 2017. He appears regularly on ESPN's The Sports Reporters, ESPN First Take, Outside the Lines, and serves as sports correspondent for NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday.
Sport is not always a metaphor . . . but in this instance the story
of race and the Red Sox is an exceedingly accurate mirror of the
story of race and Boston, and thus race and America. —Jonathan
Yardley, Washington Post
"One of the best baseball books I have ever read, and in fact one
of the best non-fiction books I have read in years. To simply call
it a baseball book is to do it a disservice, in that people
interested in American history, race relations in America, and
simply human nature might not read it, which would be their loss."
—Lisa Winston, USA Today's Sports Weekly
"Shut Out...is the first book detailing and analyzing the racial
problems of the Red Sox...it is required reading for anyone who
cares about the history of racial prejudice and the game of
baseball." —Louis P. Masur, The Nation
The Boston Red Sox' inability to win the World Series is one of the most familiar oddities in sport; the club's peculiar relationship with race is not quite so well known. Bryant, who's covered the Oakland A's and the New York Yankees for daily newspapers, brings excellent journalistic instincts and baseball smarts to the table. And he's a Boston native to boot, meaning he's properly versed about the city that former Celtic hero Bill Russell once called "a flea market of racism." Bryant examines looks at Jackie Robinson's doomed Fenway tryout in 1945 and at Pumpsie Green, who eventually became the Red Sox' first black player, a full dozen years after Robinson broke the color barrier. An unspectacular player, Green was befriended on the field by Ted Williams and by Russell off, as both tried to shield him from the pervasive vitriol. Bryant visits the modern era as well, reporting that the Sox did not sign a black free agent until 1993, and detailing slugger Mo Vaughn's mercurial stint in Boston. An MVP in 1995, the New England-reared Vaughn embraced his role in the race debate, even wearing Robinson's old number. Bryant illustrates both the ballplayer's dedication to community service and his repeated run-ins with the law, and wonders if Vaughn was run out of town by the press and team management. Throughout the book, Bryant looks at both sides of the race issue, and backs his conclusions with exhaustive research from a variety of sources. (Sept.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Sport is not always a metaphor . . . but in this instance the story
of race and the Red Sox is an exceedingly accurate mirror of the
story of race and Boston, and thus race and America. -Jonathan
Yardley, Washington Post
"One of the best baseball books I have ever read, and in fact one
of the best non-fiction books I have read in years. To simply call
it a baseball book is to do it a disservice, in that people
interested in American history, race relations in America, and
simply human nature might not read it, which would be their loss."
-Lisa Winston, USA Today's Sports Weekly
"Shut Out...is the first book detailing and analyzing the
racial problems of the Red Sox...it is required reading for anyone
who cares about the history of racial prejudice and the game of
baseball." -Louis P. Masur, The Nation
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