Now I Can Die in Peace: How The Sports Guy Found Salvation Thanks to the World Champion (Twice!) Red Sox

Following the 2004 season, The Sports Guy wrote the best of the many books about the Red Sox championship run. In preparation for opening day of 2009, he has revised it to include 100 pages of updated columns.

Simmons starts the new section with an analysis of how Sox fans confronted a new and uncursed existence. He asks "What happens when your identity gets stripped away, when you get the chance to start from scratch?" He follows this with: a comparison of Larry Bird and Big Papi, coverage of the Dice-K acquisition, the 2007 championship, the Rocket and the Roids, a defense of Manny being Manny and the 2008 loss to the Rays. Through it all, Simmons writing is more about what it is to be a fan than it is about the team or the game.

If you strip away the occassionally on target pop culture references and the more accurately directed humor, this book is the story of the love affair of Simmons, his family and his city for a team. (Part of that sentence is stolen from Ken Coleman's 1967 Impossible Dream narration.) The Sports Guy proudly wears his passion on his sleeve: "I think like a fan, write like a fan and try like hell to keep it that way." It is a lifelong relationship: "You love sports most when you are 16, then you love it a little less every year."

Reading these columns, another diehard instinctively feels an affinity for Simmons and appreciates his commitment, knowledge and intermittant suffering. This is made easier because the author often recognizes when he has stepped across the line that separates the healthfully obsessed from the not quite well (One of his footnotes points out, "This paragraph made me sound like an a**hole.") He doesn't always know when he is wandering on the borderline of the geek but that lack of concern and authenticity is part of his charm. He is, above all else, one of us.

In The Natural, Robert Redford's Roy Hobbs character asks the sportswriter played by Robert Duvall if he ever played the game. The answer: "No. But I made it more fun to watch." So does Simmons. (This is my attempt at pop culture relevance.) In the 70s and 80s, I didn't consider a Sox season over until I had read what Roger Angell and Peter Gammons wrote about it. That mantle has passed to Simmons. And, apparently, he is not going to disappoint. His plan is to "re-release this book with more chapters every few years, kinda like what God did with the bible."

Keep releasing them. We'll keep reading.

If you aren't acquainted with Bill Simmons get ready for a treat. This book is an excellent read about the intersection of sports, pop culture, die-hard fandom, and how to embrace said fandom even if your team routinely rips your heart out.

I guarantee you will laugh out loud repeatedly and find yourself in tears (from laughing) at least a couple of times.

I do not know if this book will be as good for you as it is for me. I am an avid Red Sox fan, a smart aleck, and born in the 1960's. I can relate to almost everything in this book. I think people under 30 might miss on some of the pop-culture references. I think people less passionate about the Red Sox will not relate as well to some things. But for me, this book is the best.

There are so many places this book feels like I wrote it myself: the rants against Roger Clemens, the love for Red Sox folk hero Rich Garces, the love of Pedro, and the many references to The Godfather and several other favorite movies and TV shows. I live in Chicago and felt former third base coach Wendell Kim cost the Cubs several games a few years ago. I laughed out load reading the section where the author once again perfectly verbalized my feelings (I didn't realize Wave 'em Wendell was equally rotten for the Red Sox).

About 50% of the reading is footnotes. I was put off by the writing style the first page or two. However, once I got into this book, I could not put it down. Smart aleck Red Sox fans, you are in for a real treat!

Bill Simmons book is a walk down memory lane with a completion of his various writings and columns from the late 90's to the raising of the World series flag.

Unlike other compilations the action takes place in the margins. Little notes on the side commenting on the things he has said and wrote and little stories about the events. it is those marginal writings that are the real meat and potatoes of the book.

It is an odd thing to read this book and to remember the times when one waited for disaster to overtake our team, knowing deep inside that it would come.

If you want to get a real grasp of what it was like, then this book is for you.

I loved this book (even though I hate the Red Sox). Bill Simmons is an awesome author, you will enjoy this book!