"Sox and the City"

[RockRaines]

Ive read it, its good.

[Soxfest]

Sounds like a good read!

[retro1983hat]

I just finished it as well. My only complaint is the constant whining and feeling of inferiority to the Cubs. He didn't have to include the Cubs and their players or fans in basically every chapter.

[rcpweiner]

If you don't read this book, YOU'RE a fair weather fan!

[knightni]

He sure gives props to WSI and the Flying Sock.

[CaliSoxFanViaSWside]

Roeper is great for 2 reasons...big time Sox fan, and big time Stern fan.

 

I'm definately picking up the book.

 

David ? Howard ? Isaac ? Otto?

[MSHAWKS]

Anyone claiming he's a bandwagon jumper or "recent" fan is absurd. He's always written about the Sox--I know, since I've read him since day one. For you kids, he's the guy who replaced Royko at the Sun-Times when Royko jumped to the Trib.

 

 

This isn't entirely accurate. Royko left the Sun-Times around '84 and Roeper didn't start writing a column there until the late 80's. For what its worth, I like Roeper, but as a columnist he doesn't come close to Mike Royko. But then, who does?

[LVSoxFan]

Apples and oranges. Royko wrote about what he wrote about, Roeper was the first "generation X" columnist I remember--somebody closer to my age who would write about things that were familiar to people under 50.

 

I loved Royko to the point where my mom would send his columns in the mail to me at college (pre-Internet, you kids!). But I liked Roeper for the more youthful subject matter.

 

But yes, he's always been a Sox fan and nothing else--I've never heard of him being at Cub games but occasionally, and no he did not just start talking about them in 2005 as some here have alleged.

 

BTW he's a South Sider to boot.

 

I got to pick up this book; I forgot about it.

[LVSoxFan]

BTW Royko left in '84, Roeper started in '87.

 

Thanks, Wikipedia!

[zimne piwo]

Hard to tell. I know that he's been a fan for a long time, but I'd never really heard him mention the Sox before 05.

 

FWIW I remember many of his earlier columns mentioning the White Sox; I also remember one of his columns from late 1989 where he insisted he wasn't hopping on to the Cubs bandwagon despite their divisional win that year.

[LVSoxFan]

I've been corresponding with and reading Roeper since he came along; he's the real deal as far as the Sox go. Total southsider and proud of it.

[LVSoxFan]

Just got it today finally from Amazon. Can't wait to read. I'll post what I thought. Love the pic of Old Comiskey on the cover.

[LVSoxFan]

I'm only 20 pages in and already was laughing my ass off at his description of Hawk--hilarious.

 

This is some really, really good stuff. When he talks about Sox teams in the 60s and 70s and the games, I can totally picture it even though I was hardly old enough to be watching baseball.

 

So far, so good. He gives a lot of shout-outs to other Sox books and baseball reference materials. Did you know there's a site where you can get a box score for any baseball game going back to 1960? I do now.

[MSHAWKS]

Apples and oranges.

 

 

By apples and oranges, you must mean that Royko wrote scathing columns with an acerbic tone and wit that can't be matched, while Roeper constantly churns out nothing but fluff?

[LVSoxFan]

No. That's not what I must mean.

[LVSoxFan]

Okay, finished this book and I ABSOLUTELY recommend it to all Sox fans.

 

Great read, lots of fun. More about what it's like to be a fan then a historical book, but there certainly is a ton of history about the culture of the Sox (in fact a whole chapter). Great stuff about the infamous Disco Demolition, Harry Caray's years, the terrible descision to put the Sox on Sportsvision (remember that?!), and the difference between Cubs & Sox fans.

 

The meat of the book is the Sox from 1970s on when he was old enough to go. I enjoyed because it wasn't until '80 that I was going so you get to hear cool stories about Dick Allen and Bill Melton (before my time).

 

I've now got this book on my Sox shelf with all my other memorabilia. Very entertaining read. If you ever read Sports Guy (Bill Simmons) and are familiar with how he writes about his beloved Red Sox, this is somewhat similar (very funny, but with an obvious love for the team).

 

THUMBS UP.