The Year They Won: A Tale of the Boston Red Sox

Gerard Purciello
Brown Barn Books (2005)
ISBN 9780974648156
Reviewed by Nick Gauvin (age 12) for Reader Views (8/07)


It’s the year 2024, 20 years since your favorite baseball team (the Boston Red Sox) won the World Series, and you and your friends are worried that the 86-year Curse has once again settled on the Red Sox. So during the summer you and your friends (Peter “capisce” Capiscio, Joe “lights” and Paul “paulie” Beacon and you, Jerry “tags” Taglia) come up with a crazy plan to steal it for them. The Plan includes a new system of umpping called the “Cleanerama” which is controlled by cameras and sensors around and on the field called “the Brain,” your dad who is a button salesman, a cannibal who lives in the sewer, and a hot dog.

Now let me tell you more about the characters. Capisce is twice the size of everyone else and is stronger than the rest. Lights is the fastest of all of them and is twins with paulie. Tags’ dad is a button salesman and one day buys him a Louie Cardinale series glove (and by the way, he’s his idol) and tells him to rub baby oil on it to help it squeeze easier. Then, about two weeks later, he and his friends get together and his friends are shocked by the glove. By that time, it is the second half of the season and the red sox are ten games ahead of everyone else and they think that even the Red Sox can’t lose this lead.

Overall, I think that “The Year They Won” is an excellent book for anyone who likes baseball. Great job, Gerard Purciello!  

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