Off to Fort Myers!

We'll be heading out the door in about an hour to travel to Fort Myers, Florida, spring training home of the Boston Red Sox.

Roughly eight hours and 550 miles down I-75 we'll be there for my first book signing ...

Full report when we return!

An Endorsement from "Over There!"

It Was Never About the Babe may have received the oddest endorsement it will ever get.

My book got a rave review today from The Irish Times of Dublin, Ireland!

Written by former Boston Phoenix sports editor and Boston Herald-American Red Sox beat reporter George Kimball, the book review states:

"Gutlon argues that the Red Sox were cursed, all right. For more than 80 years they were cursed by a policy of institutionalized racism and a mind-boggling litany of wrong-headed business decisions ...

"Although he is a professional journalist by trade, Gutlon is first and foremost a lifelong Red Sox fan, and what he brings to the table in his eminently readable new book is a comprehensive accumulation of anecdotal evidence delivered from that perspective – the winning argument, if you will, in a hypothetical bar-room debate on the subject ...

"If nothing else, the book makes it abundantly clear that the Red Sox exorcised the ghosts of the past by winning the 2004 World Series (and repeating as champions in 2007) despite their sordid history, not because of it, and with the passage of time the old Red Sox regime will likely be viewed as one of those imponderable chicken-and-egg conundrums: Were they racists because they were stupid, or stupid because they were racists?"

To read the entire book review, click here:

George Kimball in the Irish Times

An Excerpt: It Was Never About the Babe

To read an excerpt from It Was Never About the Babe click here:

It Was Never About the Babe

A return link is provided on the alternate website.

A Compilation of What They're Saying ...

“A history of the Boston Red Sox [that] evaluates many of the more controversial aspects of the team, arguing such points as the correctness of Babe Ruth's trade, the detrimental practices of owner Tom Yawkey, and the team's alleged legacy of racism.”

--Books Nation

“The author set out on a goal of disproving the misguided catchphrase ‘The Curse Of The Bambino,’ and in my opinion, he succeeded.”

-- Rick “Shaq” Goldstein, Amazon.com review

“In his new book, It Was Never About The Babe, (published by Skyhorse Publishing) author Jerry M. Gutlon breaks the myths of curses and bad luck that have become folklore in Red Sox Nation … Even if you are not a Red Sox fan, Gutlon’s book is a great read for anyone interested in baseball history.”

--Kranepool Society (Mets website)

“Whether you are a Red Sox fan, a Yankee fan, or, really, any type of baseball fan, you are going to love Jerry M. Gutlon’s new book It Was Never About the Babe … This is a great book, both as a history lesson and as an ode to one of the most important teams in the history of the game. Buy it. Read it. Love it.”

--James L. Ray, national baseball correspondent, Suite101.com

“For years Red Sox fans were told by a certain columnist in town that their team was cursed because the Sox sold Babe Ruth the Yankees. But as Jerry Gutlon reveals in this book, there is much more drama to Red Sox history than the ‘Curse of the Bambino.’ The truth is more shocking than any myth.”

--Bruce Allen, Boston Sports Media Watch

“Comprehensive … a must-read for every Red Sox fan.”

--WXBR Radio, Brockton, Mass.

“I am hooked after the very first page! It is great. It is a book about the 'real' history of the Red Sox. I think even those who don't like sports will enjoy this book.”

--Sylvia Hollums, City of Griffin [GA] Tax Commissioner

“A tremendous read and meticulously researched.”

--The J Team, WCAP Radio, Lowell, Mass.

“It’s a ‘warts and all’ history of the BoSox by a lifelong Red Sox fan. Fascinating stuff — especially on the total travesty of the Yawkey ownership — and an excellent read … [I] really haven’t been able to put it down.”

--Around the Water Cooler (Yankee website)

“As a look at the unsavory side of a mismanaged franchise, it cuts the plate.”

--The Villages Daily Sun

“Gutlon has written an excellent history of a franchise that has transformed itself from being an object of ridicule to a model of sports excellence."

--Booklist, The American Library Association

Order a copy of It Was Never About the Babe at a 34% discount here:

It Was Never About the Babe

Some Nice Comments from a Yankees Fan

Came upon an interesting book this afternoon, bought it on impulse, and really haven’t been able to put it down for long.

IT WAS NEVER ABOUT THE BABE: THE RED SOX, RACISM, MISMANAGEMENT, AND THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO, by Jerry M. Gutlon (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009) 302 pp.

It’s a “warts and all” history of the BoSox by a lifelong Red Sox fan. Fascinating stuff — especially on the total travesty of the Yawkey ownership — and an excellent read. Somewhat Yankees related because it deals with the whole “Curse” mythos.

--“Tresh Fan” Water Cooler Talk website

Book Review: The Villages Daily Sun

Anyone who still believes the Boston Red Sox were cursed for selling Babe Ruth in 1919 hasn't read Jerry Gutlon's It Was Never About The Babe.

Gutlon, a lifelong BoSox fan and long-time newspaper reporter, adeptly dispels the silly notion that his beloved Red Sox endured 86 years between World Series because Boston owner Harry Frazee sold baseball's greatest slugger.

There's no pitching around the subject. Gutlon retires the so-called "Curse of the Bambino" in the first chapter.

The remaining 22 chapters chronicle the meanderings of front-office villains whose inept management, anti-Semitism and racism hindered the franchise between World Series championships in 1918 and 2004.

Long-time owner Tom Yawkey is the primary culprit on Gutlon's skewer. Yawkey, who owned the Red Sox for 44 years, is repeatedly harpooned for bonehead transactions and overt bigotry.

The Red Sox were the last Major League team to integrate. Boston didn't cross the color barrier until 1959 — 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers, and 13 months after Detroit became the next-to-last team to integrate.

And Boston committed unforgivable sins by passing up opportunities to employ Jackie Robinson (a Negro sportswriter pressured the team to give Robinson a tryout in 1945), Willie Mays, and other Negro League greats.

It Was Never About The Babe is purported to be a must-read for Red Sox fans, but Ford Frick probably would attach an asterisk to such a statement.

Truth is, die-hard Red Sox fans will find more pain than pleasure in It Was Never About The Babe.

Those who want to relive the Red Sox's pennant winning years of 1946, 1967, 1975, and 1986 best look elsewhere. Gutlon devotes only a handful of pages to each magnificent summer when Boston won the American League title, only to lose the World Series.

This is very much a book about lowlights, not highlights.

For example, the 1972 season, in which the Red Sox went 85-70 and were in the pennant race down to the wire, merits just seven paragraphs. The 1979 squad that rolled to a 91-69 record gets a mere sentence.

Individual stars don't fare much better. Ted Williams, perhaps the greatest hitter of all time, rates a chapter and change. Hall-of-Famers Carl Yastrzemski, Wade Boggs and Jim Rice merit just a few pages each.

As a definitive history of the Red Sox, It Was Never About The Babe is down and outside the strike zone. As a look at the unsavory side of a mismanaged franchise, it cuts the plate.

Published March 22, 2009

Gary Corsair is a senior writer with the Daily Sun.

Dan's Defender

It Was Never About the Babe received a terrific review this week in the Booklist publication, a periodical published primarily for the tens of thousands of librarians who select which books to purchase for their institutions.

Although the author ultimately termed the book "excellent," he did take umbrage with my exorcising of one Dan Shaughnessy, the abrasive Boston Globe columnist, who's done more than any man alive to perpetuate the mythical "Curse of the Bambino," not to mention the gobs of moolah ol' Danny Boy ran off to the bank with...

That said, here's what reviewer Wes Lukowsky had to say:

"After the Red Sox blew the World Series to the New York Mets in 1986, Boston sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy wrote The Curse of the Bambino (1990), which facetiously laid the Sox woes since 1918 on the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees.

"There was never a curse, but there was mismanagement, bad luck, and racism. Gutlon, who grew up outside Boston, seems genuinely annoyed at Shaughnessy for perpetuating the myth of Babe's curse on the Sox. His vitriol toward a fellow scribe aside, Gutlon provides a fascinating chronicle of Sox management's endless missteps until the 2004 World Series win. At the heart of Gutlon's critique is the Sox refusal to integrate, long after the rest of baseball. The Sox were the last to add a black player, waiting a decade and a half after Jackie Robinson's debut.

"Other than the Shaughnessy quibble, Gutlon has written an excellent history of a franchise that has transformed itself from being an object of ridicule to a model of sports excellence."

Thanks, Wes!

To return to the Dan Shaughnessy Watch, click here.

James L. Ray's Review

Here's a review of It Was Never About the Babe by the national baseball correspondent for suite101.com:

Whether you are a Red Sox fan, a Yankee fan, or, really, any type of baseball fan, you are going to love Jerry M. Gutlon's new book It Was Never About The Babe.

This incredibly well-researched book completely debunks the myth that Boston's 86-year World Series championship drought had anything to do with Harry Frazee's trade of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees after the 1919 season.

Instead, as Gutlon demonstrates in great detail, the real reasons why the Red Sox couldn't get over the hump for almost a century were: (1) racist ownership, and (2) stubborn, often stupid, and almost always inflexible management.

While the rest of baseball was embracing racial integration during the late 1940s and the 1950s, the Boston Red Sox remained an all-white team. It wasn't until 1959 that the Sox signed Pumpsie Green, making Boston the last team in baseball to integrate. The discrimination wasn't limited to black players. Yawkey also kept Catholics and Jews off the team, a practice that led to a 1959 lawsuit against the Sox.

But it wasn't just racism that kept Boston down for so long. It was also a series of poor, stubborn decisions by ownership and management that contributed to the drought. Perhaps the most famous example of poor on-field management occurred in Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series, when manager Grady Little left Pedro Martinez on the mound for much too long, a move that allowed the New York Yankees to turn an almost certain loss into another tragic BoSox loss when Aaron Boone hit a walk off homer that sent the Yankees, instead of the Sox, to the Series.

The book also shows how the alleged Curse of the Bambino was nothing more than a fantasy dreamed up by noted (and often reviled) Boston sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy. In fact, according to Gutlon, the phrase "The Curse of the Bambino" didn't really come about until Shaughnessy wrote his 1990 book by the same name. The term was so catchy and irresistible to down-and-out Boston fans, that it soon took on a life of its own, and it remained a mythical staple in the Red Sox diet until, of course, the team finally won it all in 2004.

This is a great book, both as a history lesson and as an ode to one of the most important teams in the history of the game.

Buy it. Read it. Love it.