3 books for baseball fans to make you fall in love with the Red Sox again

There are some events where you can remember where you were and who you were with when it happened. I will never forget my ex-boyfriend's birthday because the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series when he was on his way to the party and I screamed in hysterical joy alone in my apartment. If you want media about the greatest comeback in Major League Baseball History, you can watch Fever Pitch or read the commemorative magazines that relabeled the Yankees logo as the "international sign for choking." Today, I'd like to recommend some reading that celebrates that crazy day in 2004.

1. Miracle at Fenway by Saul Wisnia

"The Inside Story of the Boston Red Sox 2004 Championship Season" is a masterful analysis of how and why the "Ship of Idiots" won it all in 2004. I opened the book to a random page tonight and found one of the key players saying that playing with the Sox that season is "a dream come true and that's the honest-to-God truth." Flipping to one of my favorite chapters, "Winning at a fever pitch," I read about two season ticket holders carrying lucky 1918 pennies for the entire season.

Wisnia's book has stories everyone who's ever yelled at a Yankees player will know, but ones for newcomers as well. Even having watched the playoffs and the entire series as it unfolded, I learned a wealth of information.

2. Papi: My Story by David Ortiz with Michael Holley

David Ortiz is a name that every baseball fan should know. After being a major factor in reversing the Curse of the Bambino, he was part of the team that won the World Series in 2007 as well, For me, his most iconic moment came in April 2013.

The Boston Marathon bombings had terrorized the city and shaken people far and wide. It was on April 20, 2013 that the Sox played at Fenway and with the mayor and governor attending, the spokesman was David "Big Papi" Ortiz. In a piece for Medium, West Wing Writers described "The Cuss that Cured." Some people weren't happy with the f-bomb in the middle of Papi's "This is our...city," but "When I heard Big Papi speak that afternoon, for the first time in a week."

Such is the proud honesty of the memoir by a ten-time All-Star team member who won three World Series. Not only does he recount history with an attention to what we never realized we needed to hear, but he also infuses the saga of his career with personal integrity. "Ain't nobody gonna dictate our freedom," he said in 2013. And in this book, nobody dares.

3. The Boston Globe Story of the Red Sox

It's hard to summarize a book that contains hundreds of articles and even more photographs. This book, edited by Chad Finn, will take you from the beginning of the ball club to 2022. It covers the arrival of Babe Ruth and the bitter departure of the Bambino who said that the club would never win another World Series without him. That held true for over 80 years as the first book mentions, but the early years of the team were full of heart and hope.

It's quite a difference 100 years later when the 2018 World Series champions "Stake a claim as one of the greatest teams in baseball history." But the book itself is as full of memory and humanity as Boston itself and it's well worth a read.

Sadly, no one from the Boston bullpen is in this year's World Series, but best of luck to the Los Angeles Dodgers. And the Yankees, I guess.