One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America

A book about a year-old, regular-season baseball game doesn't seem like it would contain much suspense, but Kettmann's account of the August 30, 2003 contest between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees is engrossing. With help from a team of researchers who watched the game alongside selected fans, players and front-office personnel from both ballclubs, Kettmann presents the action from multiple points of view, cutting around Fenway Park in an almost cinematic fashion and drawing readers in even though the outcome is foregone (10-7 Yankees). As the game unfolds, readers meet famous people and ordinary fans, among them former Senator George Mitchell, film directors Spike Lee and Peter Farrelly, Boston general manager Theo Epstein, Sox owner John Henry, Fenway Park scoreboard operator Rich Maloney and a Yankee rooter who plans to propose to his girlfriend on the giant video screen. Not all the commentary offered by these observers is insightful, but it makes for a remarkably vivid recreation of a day at Fenway. Thanks to the diverse cast, readers also learn fascinating tidbits about everything from grounds keeping, to Japanese superstitions, to the methods outfielders use to track fly balls. It helps that this game has a great back-story--two rival teams playing in a historic ballpark with a pennant on the line--and Kettmann, a sportswriter and Red Sox fan, has a knack for conveying the tensions that build throughout the afternoon. He also has a great eye for detail, describing the way pitcher Andy Pettitte wipes his face with his shoulder and the laughter that erupts when hulking outfielder Ruben Sierra jokingly works out at shortstop. Though Kettmann's smug, innuendo-laced comments about certain players' alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs are off-putting, this is a small flaw in an otherwise riveting book.