Empyreal Environs

Author

John Snyder, author of Cardinals Journal, Cubs Journal, and The Worlds Series’ Most Wanted: The Top 10 Book of Championship Teams, Broken Dreams, and October Oddities

Bill Nowlin, author or co-author of numerous Red Sox books including Blood Feud, The Kid: Ted Williams in San Diego, and Ted Williams at War, as well as the upcoming The 50 Greatest Red Sox Games

Specifications

716 pages 7 7/8 by 10 inches $29.95 ISBN 157860253X Emmis Books

614 pages 6 by 9 inches $17.95 ISBN 1579401260 Rounder Books

Organization

Each decade summarized with best and worst teams, moments, and player moves, as well as an all-decade team Seasons have significant dates beneath each year Each season lists team record, manager, team statistics, starting lineup, season attendance, and club leaders Photographs appear throughout

Daily entries with events organized by year in reverse chronological order Detail of transactions, debuts, birthdates, and deaths at the end of the day Entries of special significance marked with an icon, but no other images featured

Appendices

Multiple, including offensive and pitching leaders and an all-time roster with dates of service

Single appendix with an all-time roster listing birth, death, debut, and years on the team

Sample Entry: July 29, 2003

From page 660 “Bill Mueller becomes the first player in major league history to hit grand slams from both sides of the plate during a 14-7 win over the Rangers in Arlington. Mueller had three homers overall and drove in nine runs. Batting left-handed, Mueller hit a solo homer in the third inning off R.A. Dickey. Batting right-handed in the seventh, he hit a grand slam against Aaron Fultz. An inning later, he connected again for his second grand slam of the game, this one as a lefty facing Jay Powell. On the same day, the Red Sox trade Phil Dumatrait and Tyler Pelland to the Reds for Scott Williamson.” In actuality, Pelland wasn’t named until a few weeks later.

From page 318 “In back-to-back innings (the seventh and the eighth), switch-hitting Bill Mueller hit back-to-back grand slams, one from each side of the plate at The Ballpark in Arlington. He already had a solo home run back in the third. His nine RBIs helped beat the Texas Rangers, 14-7.” Under “Transactions,” the Williamson trade is mentioned, and it properly does not name Pelland, instead stating a player to be named later. The left-handed pitching prospect was not named until August 18, 2003; this updated information does not appear in Nowlin’s book.

It’s hard to choose between the two because they both lend themselves to different types of reading. If I wanted to relive a decade or season, I would pick up Snyder’s book. But if instead I wanted to see the odd synchronicities between throughout the eras, Nowlin’s book would be my selection.

Snyder’s book would be best if you wanted to best your peers in Red Sox trivia involving team leaders, but I question the criteria he used to determine those best and worst categories throughout the book. A note on the methodology used to select these events and players would have been appreciated.

Those wanting to explore the day-to-day coverage of the team would do well to peruse Nowlin’s volume. My issue with the Nowlin’s work is that I needed to have Retrosheet at the ready to know which game he was commenting on. Perhaps eventually Day By Day will be an electronic book with links to the box score in question.

Both books are welcome editions to my ever-growing baseball library, Given the discrepancy in the Williamson trade details, however, I suggest they hire me as their factchecker for their next editions.