[.ca] Feeding the Green Monster (ISBN 075955028X)

Good writer. Good book.:
Check it out. Whether you're a Sox fan or not.

Feeding the Green Monster offers nothing new...:
There have been plenty of cute, outsider-comes-to-baseball-heaven books about out of town visitors and their experiences at Fenway Park. Unfortunately, Feeding The Green Monster, differs from none of them in it's style, depth, perspective, or insight. It provides little more than a kid-at-a-candy-store hyped up feel-good movie of the week view of what is arguably one of the more interesting landmarks in sports. Also, Mr Neyer's fake humility regarding what he does and does not know about the park and the city is laughable, and no doubt embarrassing to many Boston sports fans. And nobody in Boston above the age of 5 calls the left field wall at Fenway the 'Green Monster'. Perhaps that is the target audience.

BEAN MONSTER:
Rob Neyer's book is sad.The Theme of the book is sad.The Green Monster is sad.Sitting in fenway park for 80 games is sad.So why would any Boston Red Sox fan read a book about the one thing that has kept them from winning a world seris,I'am trying to be truthful here just think about it for a moment.Whats the one thing that hits you right in the face when you walk into that park the big ugly wall.I found no charm in the book or the WALL I say rip it down and play baseball instead of raketball.I throw the book in the garbage it was well bucky dentshess.If that wall was not there Boston would have some flags flying.And thats my story about the Wall plan and simple theres no curse just a wall were there should be a fence.

A fun read, but not as meaty as his columns:
I've been reading Rob Neyer's baseball columns on ESPN.com ever since he started writing for them, and also enjoyed the "Baseball Dynasties" book he co-authored. Both include statistical analyses of players and teams, interesting stories from baseball history, and a lot of "debunking" as Rob refutes conventional wisdom or debateable quotes from those in the game. "Feeding the Green Monster" has these elements in some places but really is just a diary of Rob's summer of 2000, in which he attended every Red Sox home game as well as lots of other games when Boston was travelling. The stadium itself is a frequent subject of the book. There is a good amount of prose about his intense love affair with Fenway Park and opposition to the local support for a new park. He waxed poetically enough about it at the time to induce me to make a pilgrimage to see my first game at Fenway that same summer, a Monday night loss to the Twins. (I suppose I could have/should have tried to meet and talk to Rob at that game (and maybe made it in the book!) but I was intimidated, plus he's a vegetarian and probably would have been repelled by my rampant sausage consumption.) In keeping with the "diary" aspect of the book, there is also a fair amount about Rob's personal life, which I was somewhat interested in since I've been following his columns for so many years, but isn't very spicy. I'm happy for him that he seems to have found the love of his life, but you would think in the interest of book sales he would have gotten involved with a heroin-addicted stripper or investigated the Boston transgender scene in his spare time or something. Maybe all that will come out in the underground bootleg version of the book, where the title turns out to be a double-entendre for acts which I won't dare to speculate about here. There are some funny bits to the book, usually stories from and about permanently aggrieved Red Sox fans, but also resulting from Rob's repeated problems with losing tickets, getting tickets for the wrong dates, etc. His logistical snafus seem improbably numerous, although if I was going to 100+ games a year I'm sure I'd probably do the same things, so kudos to Rob for not hiding his embarrassing moments. Overall I thought "Feeding the Green Monster" was a nice read ... definitely a good book to take on vacation like I did, because you can pick it up and read either a little bit or a lot as time allows. It's not as packed with information and insight as his columns or previous book, but if you want to learn about Fenway Park, the 2000 Red Sox, and what it's like to have the best job in the world, it's the book to check out.

A Passionate Story About A Season With The Red Sox:
Rob Neyer lived many a fan's dream during the 2000 major league season when he attended all 81 home games of the Boston Red Sox at their historic home, Fenway Park. But that wasn't the full extent of his baseball watching that summer. He managed to push his season total higher still with games in Seattle, New York, Kansas City and Pawtucket. The book that resulted, "Feeding the Green Monster," is Rob's diary of that busy season. We get plenty of baseball between these covers--and also a lot about Rob's life. Neyer is a columnist for ESPN.com, and his knowledge of, and passion for the game shine throughout the text. He's also quite eloquent and passionate about Fenway itself, and makes a strong case why this historic ballyard, the oldest left in the major leagues, should not be prematurely retired. One of the highlights for me was the story of how Rob and a friend managed to stay after the end of a game and spend the night in Fenway, exploring every nook, cranny and crevice. It's going to be a long time before anyone can write this way about any of the current crop of "retro" ballparks, and I can never, ever imagine a fan feeling the same way about one of those cookie-cutter stadiums that proliferated in the 60s and 70s. Sadly, Neyer didn't have much of a season to write about. The BoSox made a promising start that year, remained in contention for their division title for most of the summer, and were in the hunt for the wild card slot almost to the end, but once again fell short against the Yankees. A classic pennant race instead of a sad fade would have made for a more gripping text. Some of the other reviewers seemed to find the book a bit too self-involved, but such is the nature of a dairy. I had a different take...I found myself thinking of Rob as something of a kindred spirit, and wishing I could go to a game with him sometime. Anyone who laments over the fact that too many great books are published to keep up with in a year, let alone a lifetime; and who had such a passionate love for this great American sport is going to rate very highly in my personal book.