"Do or Die" Season
By ThrowsLikeAGirl
Does anyone else find it just a little bit ironic that the quintessential Red Sox diary of the 2004 season is to be co-written by horror novelists Stephen King and Stewart O’Nan?
Tragic, bloody car wrecks. Rabid foaming beasts. Prom dates gone really, really bad….On second thought, these are absolutely the right guys for the job! Who better than to chronicle the game-to-game, deal-to-deal adventures of a band of brothers and their die-hard loyal followers on a noble quest to overcome an ancient curse and win it all?!
That this still-untitled book, due out in the fall by Scribner, is in the works for this particular season is, to us, another sign that the stars are aligning to make Summer, 2004 truly remarkable. (Dare we say, a history-making season? Even a winning season?)
Just listening to him, we can tell O’Nan – who lives in Connecticut and has been a baseball fan all his life – has the combination of faith, hope and angst that being a New Englander , a Red Sox fan and a literary artisan all require. "This is the year," says O’Nan in a press release from his publisher. "I just got back from Spring Training and the guys are ready. I’m ready. Everyone’s ready. It’s do or die time." But when we spoke to him on the phone, O’Nan acknowledged feeling that heady, queasy sense of anticipation for this season with which we are all too familiar. "If you’re a Red Sox fan, you know that the team can be infuriating. I’m already a little bit worried . . . but then all good fans are managers."
According to the press release, it was with this sense of exhilaration and frustration that O’Nan fired off an e-mail to fellow writer and well-documented Red Sox fanatic Stephen King "who responded with his thoughts on Pedro, Nomar, Manny, Mueller and Theo"…and their mutual project was conceived.
Throughout the season, both writers will keep independent diaries while following the ups and inevitable downs of the team, the temperature of the fans, and the way it all fits into the way we live now. O’Nan tells us he intends to explore the way fans go through the season fitting baseball into our daily lives – the emotional "connection and disconnection with the team —the way it serves as the soundtrack to summer."
O’Nan and King plan to go to some games together and will share their discussions and opposing viewpoints on plays and trades. They will be the Red Sox fans of record – hopefully capturing for posterity the hopes and fears of us all. O’Nan admires a committed, philosophical quality he sees in the typical member of Red Sox Nation – as opposed to Yankee Fans, who he says seem to "show up when the team is doing well. When the Yankees aren’t doing well, there are a lot of empty seats. They’re more fairweather fans."
Red Sox fans, he says "have learned to appreciated the whole of the season. They are serious about analyzing the team." Perhaps championships can be bought but, O’Nan believes, "even if we got A-Rod it wouldn’t really count. Turning ourselves into the Yankees wouldn’t be good. We have our own identity."
Speaking of loyal fans, one of the first things O’Nan is writing about will be his difficulty getting tickets at Fenway. As of this writing, many games are already sold-out.
So look for Stewart and Stephen in the bleachers at Fenway this summer. And check back here for more of their thoughts as YankeesSuck.com will check in on their progress again as the season heats up.
For more works by Stewart O’Nan go to http://www.stewart-onan.com/
For more information about Stephen King go to http://www.stephenking.com
