Miracle at Fenway

BEFORE THEY BECAME THE 2013 WORLD CHAMPIONS, THERE WAS THE SEASON THAT BROKE THE CURSE AND STARTED IT ALL The players and coaching staff of the 2004 Boston Red Sox are now and forever, legends. After all, it had been eighty-six years since Boston last won a World Series, a fact anybody even remotely associated with the team as a player, executive, or fan was reminded of on a daily basis. For members of the 2004 Red Sox roster, winning that October was one of the greatest experiences in their lives.

For fans, the '04 team will always be remembered as the one that finally silenced the "1918" chants. Hundreds of articles and numerous books were written in the immediate aftermath of the thrilling '04 season, but ten years have passed and Miracle at Fenway has a fresh perspective, including the type of analysis and insight that comes with a decade of reflection. As a Red Sox fan since birth, and from having written about and worked alongside the team for his entire professional life, Saul Wisnia has cultivated relationships with people at every level of the Sox organization.

From the players to the fans to the upper echelons of team management, he has their accounts of 2004 as they saw it and as they remember it today, now that the memories have had time to take root and blossom. In the winning tradition of baseball oral histories, Wisnia tells the story of 2004 as experienced by the people who lived it, in an engaging style filled with insight and excitement.

WISNIA is a former sports and news correspondent for the Washington Post and feature writer for the Boston Herald. He has authored, coauthored, or contributed to numerous books on Boston baseball history, including Fenway Park The Centennial and For the Love of the Boston Red Sox. His essays and articles have appeared in Sports Illustrated, Red Sox Magazine, and The Boston Globe.

Wisnia lives 6. 78 miles from MLB's oldest ballpark in his native Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife, two kids, and Wally the Cat (not the Green Monster). His Red Sox blog is Fenway Reflections.