Shut Out: The Story of Race and Baseball in Boston

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Shut Out: The Story of Race and Baseball in Boston (Reprint) Pub. Date: 9/2/2003 Publisher: Beacon
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Shut Out (New Edition) Pub. Date: 11/7/2002 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

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Overview

WINNER OF SPITBALL MAGAZINE'S 2002 CASEY AWARD FOR BEST BASEBALL BOOK OF THE YEAR

"An essential read." -John Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox

With a new introduction by celebrated baseball writer Roger Kahn and a new afterword by the author, updating John Henry's first year of ownership after nearly six decades of the Yawkey dynasty, the legacy of the late Will McDonough, and the author's return to his native Boston after a seventeen-year absence, Shut Out has reopened the discussion of baseball, race, and Boston with a new candor.

"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

A native of Boston, Howard Bryant is a journalist for the Boston Herald. His work has appeared in Red Sox Century, Yankees Century, and Top of the Heap: A Yankees Collection.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780807009796
Publisher: Beacon
Publication date: 9/2/2003
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 320
Sales rank: 340,835
Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.75 (d)

Meet the Author

Elizabeth Spelman is professor of philosophy at Smith College and author of Inessential Woman (Beacon / 6745-8 / $17.00) and Fruits of Sorrow (Beacon / 1421-4 / $14.00). She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

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Anonymous

Posted August 14, 2003

Shut Out Is A Must Read!

Respecting Howard Bryant for his fine journalistic work at the Boston Herald, I purchased this book. What I soon discovered was a piece of work that is a must read for not only Red Sox fans, not only Bostonians, but for everyone. Shut Out is an eye opening, sometimes chilling look at a team and it's city. Howard Bryant, with great detail due to his endless research, responsibly but at the same time pulls no punches and is unapologetic. He not only details the injustice and the attitudes of the Red Sox and of Boston in their dealings with race but also causes the reader to think, to really think honestly about his or her own attitudes about race. Bryant is brilliant here. The book, despite the heavy topic is for the lack of a better word, entertaining. Couldn't put the thing down, eagerly turning the next page. At the same time so enlightening, and puts the reader on an emotional roller coaster, celebrating the successes, exposing the injustices. Mr. Bryant's work is a work that any social scientist would respect and is anything but a 'typical' sports book. I reach for words to accurately describe the impact that this book had on me. Any book that causes the reader to pause, to think and reflect is a book that has hit home. Howard Bryant has hit a home run.
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Anonymous

Posted August 2, 2003

Missed opportunity

This book is a good idea maddeningly flawed. It is filled with misspellings, inconsistencies and factual errors. Cases in point: Expos GM is Omar Minaya, not Mineya. Harold Washington was first elected to the mayorship of Chicago in 1983, not 1987. And the late rapper is The Notorious B.I.G., not Notorious B.I.G. Ken 'Hawk' Harrelson and Jim Rice were never teammates, as mentioned in the book. There is at least 1 sentence in the book that is not a sentence. Such errors embarrass the author and the publisher. The book is diligently researched and readable, but its credibility is thrown into question when such mistakes are allowed past the publishing stage. An opportunity missed.
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Anonymous

Posted November 15, 2002

Hardly the Curse of the Bambino...

The publication of Shut Out occurs at a time when the Boston Red Sox have just finished their first season of a new era. An era promising to right every wrong of the past 101 seasons. The sad part is that in reading this book we come away with the feeling that there is more to the antidote than simply John Henry, new seats at Fenway, and the mere promise of final racial equality for the team. Howard Bryant, while publicly a journalist covering the rival New York Yankees, is also a black man who grew up in the city of Boston during its most turbulent period for blacks- the school busing crisis of the early 1970s. Bryant's journalistic talents shine brightly throughout this well-written expose. He begins the story with a good deal of Boston history entirely unrelated to baseball. He examines early 19th century Boston when it was known to blacks as home to the abolitionist movement. Tracing Boston's slow move away from perceived abolitionist leanings and into political rivalries among various groups, he shows a city ripe with prejudice. The Boston Red Sox of the early Tom Yawkey era was very much a club. Yawkey surrounded himself with cronies who thought very much the way he did. While never publicly speaking out against the idea of integrated baseball, others in his organization did. From the eloquent dodging of the question by General Manager Eddie Collins to the very public racist comments of Manager Pinky Higgins we learn how a team who could have been the first in baseball to integrate, became the absolute last. A good deal of time is given to the story of Jackie Robinson's Fenway Park tryout- predetermined to failure and ignored by all from Joe Cronin on the field to the top ranks of the organization. Two years later, Robinson would break the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. In similar fashion we see the refusal of a Red Sox talent scout to even watch the young Willie Mays, another Hall of Famer who was Boston's for the taking, but would instead break in with the New York Giants. The thought of Robinson and Mays playing on the field with Ted Williams is enough to give any Sox fan chills. When in 1959 the Red Sox finally do break the color barrier with Elijah "Pumpsie" Green, it is Ted Williams who shows the most solidarity with the black rookie. On a personal note, as a lifelong Red Sox fan growing up in the 1970s, the realization of just how few black players have made the team is disheartening. We learn of the struggles of more recent players from Reggie Smith, to Jim Rice, to Ellis Burks, to Mo Vaughn- playing and living in Boston. Now that the past has been publicly stated, perhaps things could change for the future of the franchise. Let's just hope the city doesn't hold them back for they are truly New England's team. -Jonathan Colcord
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Shut Out: The Story of Race and Baseball in Boston

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Shut Out Is A Must Read!

Missed opportunity

Hardly the Curse of the Bambino...