by Dan Barry
Several Web sites were indispensable, none more so than Baseball-Reference.com. Others that proved helpful were Baseball Almanac, the Baseball Biography Project (one of many contributions by the Society for American Baseball Research), Baseball Library, Ripken in the Minors, the Sons of Sam Horn, the Buffalo Head Society, and Oklahoma Sports Memories. There is also a striking Dutch documentary about Win Remmerswaal called An Almost Perfect Game.
Naturally, I read many stories from the archives of the Providence Journal and the Pawtucket Evening Times, with supplementation provided by the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Columbus Dispatch, the Torrington Telegram, the Baseball Digest, and the Sporting News. Special note should also be paid to “Off the Field: Wade Boggs,” by Monte Burke, Forbes.com, May 26, 2009; “Where’ve You Gone, Barry Bonnell?” by Spencer Fordin, MLB. com, January 24, 2003; “Pretty Fair for a Fowl Guy,” by Peter Gammons, Sports Illustrated, April 14, 1986; “Sports News,” by Michael Geffner, the Associated Press, June 30, 1984; “Baseball Town, Oklahoma: Glory Days,” by Andrew Gilman, the Daily Oklahoman, July 1, 2001; “Dugout Fragrances and Sweet Memories,” by Jerome Holtzman, the Chicago Tribune, July 1, 1986; “Longest Day a Nightmare No More 10 Years Later, 33-Inning Affair Recalled Fondly,” by Matt Michael, the Syracuse Post-Standard, April 17, 1991; “The Long Haul,” by Leigh Montville, Sports Illustrated, April 24, 2000; “Hurst Balances Life in Baseball with His Beliefs,” by Bob Nightengale, the Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1991; “She’s Been His Closest Fan for 30 Years,” by Emily Nipps, the St. Petersburg Times, July 28, 2005; “Alone on the Hill: Bruce Hurst Might Not Fit In, but Padres Know He’ll Pitch In,” by Bill Plaschke, the Los Angeles Times, March 4, 1989; “Wade Boggs: 2005 Hall of Fame Inductee,” by Dan Shaughnessy, the Boston Globe, July 31, 2005; “Return Is Victory for Ojeda,” by Bud Shaw, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 8, 1993; “Long Memories from a Baseball Classic,” by Dave Sheinen, the Washington Post, April 18, 2006; and “Where There’s a Will, There’s a way,” by Leo Verheul, Achilles, April 2009.
This book greatly benefited from many kindnesses, large and small. I’d like to thank: Jack “Home Run” Baker; Richie Bancells; Dave Bloss; Billy Broadbent; Bryan Bullock; Rory Costello; Cactus Covello; Kevin Cullen; Julie Dalton; Scott Del Sole; Brendan Doherty; Ted Dolan; Jim Dorsey; Cate Doty; George Patrick Duffy; Peter Gammons; Bruce Germani; Tom Giordano; Jane Giovannucci, of the Pawtucket Times; Pat Heslin; Kathy Hill; Pete Khoury; Michael Kinch; Galway Kinnell; Sean Kirst; Topher Koza; Steve Krasner; Bill Malinowski; John Maroon; Mike McBurney; Bob Minzesheimer; Madeleine Mondor; Terry Moran; Mary Murphy; Bob Ojeda; Mike Pappas; Willie Rash-baum; Bill Reynolds; Joe Sexton; Dan Shaughnessy; Don Van Natta; Leo Verheul; Bob Weil; and Todd Willmarth. Special thanks to those who waded through early drafts and who buttressed my research and my spirits, including Dave Chmiel; Tom Heslin; John Hill; Len Levin; Colum McCann; and Rick Simpson.
I’d also like to thank my colleagues at the New York Times for their indulgence, including David Firestone, Rick Lyman, Rick Berke, Jill Abramson, and Bill Keller; my friends at HarperCollins, especially Kate Blum and Leah Wasielewski, for accepting the challenge to publicize a non-baseball baseball book; Barry Harbaugh, an extremely gifted editor with an unerring ear; and, of course, David Hirshey, who believed in this book from the beginning and whose enthusiasm never flagged. Gently coaxing and challenging, he made this book better.
As I round home, I’d like to thank, again, my agents, Todd Shuster and Lane Zachary, for their patience, guidance, and editorial gifts; my friend and colleague Michael McElroy, who checked and double-checked facts, read and reread copy, and was always at the ready; and the holy trinity of Pawtucket, Lou Schwechheimer, Mike Tamburro, and, of course, Ben Mondor. Ben’s enthusiastic spirit—for “bazeball,” for life—informs every word of this book. It was a privilege to have known him.
And now, as I make it home, there are the three who make it such: my daughters, Nora and Grace, and my wife, Mary Trinity, my first editor, my best friend, my love.
OFFICIAL BOX SCORE
About the Author
DAN BARRY is a national columnist for the New York Times. He has twice been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and in 1994 was part of an investigative team for the Providence Journal that won the prize for a series on Rhode Island’s justice system. He is the author of a memoir, Pull Me Up, and City Lights, a collection of his New York Times columns. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Maplewood, New Jersey.
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Other Books by Dan Barry
Pull Me Up
City Lights
Credits
Jacket photograph © James Wellman
Jacket design by Anthony Morais
Grateful acknowledgment for permission to reproduce illustrations is made to the following: Pawtucket Red Sox, pages 19, 77, 129, 223, 224; Ernie Orlando/Rochester Red Wings, page 77; Bill George/Pawtucket Red Sox, page 195; Providence Journal, page 227.
Copyright
BOTTOM OF THE 33RD. Copyright © 2011 by Dan Barry. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Barry, Dan.
Bottom of the 33rd: hope, redemption, and baseball’s longest game / by Dan Barry.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN: 978-0-06-201448-1
1. Baseball—United States—History. 2. Minor-league baseball—United States—History. 3. Baseball—Records—United States. 4. Pawtucket Red Sox (Baseball team)—History. 5. Rochester Red Wings (Baseball team)—History. I. Title. II. Title: Bottom of the thirty-third.
GV863.A1B3744 2011
796.357'630973—dc22 2010051656
EPub Edition © MARCH 2011 ISBN: 978-0-06-207902-2
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