Lost Summer: The '67 Red Sox and the Impossible Dream

Dramatic. Heart-breaking. Covers the bases. Just like baseball. Dick McAuliffe only hit into two double plays in 1967. “The Lost Summer” describes how the second one resulted in the Red Sox winning the American League pennant. It also left me, a 9-year-old southeastern Michigan Tiger fan, in tears. All these years later, this book about the “Impossible Dream” Red Sox broke my heart again, and again. Although the author’s observation that baseball was “a rural game that was born in the small towns of an earlier America” seems to be an error and there are a few typos, overall this one is good for extra bases. Some of my favorite bits:• The trade of Dr. Strangeglove.• The tragedy of Tony C.• The account of the aftermath of McAuliffe’s double play.• Lonborg’s quip about soaking his head.• Yastrzemski’s quote: “You can’t always put heart in your arm.”• “What's so tough about baseball is the emotional strain it puts on everyone. The season is so long, there are so many games, so many highs and lows, that a team must be resilient, able to bounce back emotionally as well as physically.”• Yastrzemski’s observation about the Player’s Association and brushback pitches.Maybe you can’t put heart in your arm, but the author put it in this book.

Bill Reynolds reminded me of more than a few names and events that, as a 9 year-old following the Sox' Impossible Dream season from a few hundred miles away, I had forgotten.Much like Tim Wendell’s “Summer of ’68: The Year that Changed Baseball – and America – Forever;” in that it showcases the sport against the backdrop of the social and cultural upheaval that was the late 1960s. Reynolds achieves some clever, ironic transitions as he moves from that backdrop, back into the story of those Red Sox; MLB’s perennial caterpillars become suddenly something amazing. He tries to convey those Sox’ unifying pull on New Englanders across generations and on either side of the countercultural divide as their season hurtles through that magical final week; the team and the Fens a magnetic pull on businessmen and beatniks alike, building to the crescendo that was the love-in of the World Series itself.But Reynolds is too cute, painting the corners of this theme instead of giving us fat pitches; and too often he misses by a few inches. For instance, he characterizes Ken Harrelson, arriving in Boston to replace popular slugger Tony Conigliaro after the beaning incident that shortened Conig’s career, as the only member of the ’67 Red Sox who talked, thought and looked like a hippy. Reynolds also sets up baseball as a quintessential part of American tradition that itself would never change (much) despite the changes taking place all around it. What a great opportunity to develop the theme of how social change infiltrated baseball – especially, seeing that Harrelson was still active in baseball media when the book was being written, and has never met a microphone he didn’t like.The book's shortcomings won't even be noticed by baseball fans and by Red Sox fans in particular. Whereas Wendell did not focus completely on the ’68 Tigers or Cards in his similar work, Reynolds wants us, above all to relive and remember Boston’s Impossible Dream. As a remembrance of Boston’s season and especially for those looking to learn more about its heroes – Yazstremski, Petrocelli, Boomer Scott, Jim Lonborg and skipper Dick Williams – “Lost Summer” may be as good as it gets.

Great insight into a season for Boston fans and baseball fans in general. Reynolds does a great job of capturing the hope and heartbreak. As a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan, I sympathze with the '67 Red Sox, but sometimes it's better to have never come close (i.e., Cleveland) than to come so close only to have the Grail slip from one's grasp (Red Sox). Reynolds does a great job of documenting Carl Yastremski's breakout year, as well as the meteoric rise of Jim Lonborg, while showing us why Dick Williams was (at least for this season) a baseball genius.

Excellent book about an improssible dram of a season by the 1967 Red Sox. Bill Reynolds blended the season with all the social changes that were taking place in America that summer. He did a wonderful job at this and made the book that much better IMO. Most biography's of season like this one do the same and it add much to the book. The 67 Red Sox entered thes season with little hope of contending. They had a rookie manager and many players who had never excelled in the big leagues. They were lead by Yaz from the start and he had one of the more remarkable seasons in MLB history. He won the Triple Crown while leading the Red Sox to the AL title. They fell short in the World Series but they help revive baseball in New England and made the Red Sox the people choice in that region of the United States. I would recommend this book to any baseball fan and expecially to an Red Sox fan.

Actually learned some things I hadn't about this miraculous year and being an avid fan of Carl Yastrzemski, it was cool to read a different perspective on his incredible performance throughout this 67 season. I was eight so I didn't really pay that much attention, but I do remember my father listening to the BoSox on his transistor radio and saying, "Yaz hit another one!" over and over and over again. Thanks for a great read!

Bill Reynolds has captured a special summer for this reader. On June 24, 1967 - I returned home after two tours of duty in Vietnam to realize that the Red Sox were actually in a pennant race for the first time in memory. My father would often talk about the '46, '48, & '49 seasons which ended badly. August 18 was my 22nd birthday - the day that Tony C. was hit by Jack Hamilton. I remember the radio broadcasts everywhere you went that summer. The final two games at Fenway were dreams come true. The Impossible Dream was more than just a song on the radio. The over-achieving Red Sox made believers of us all. Bill Reynolds has written another excellent page turner. I look forward to his daily column in the Providence Journal.