Lively, meticulously researched, and engaging story of Fenway Park's first season and the team that called it home. Stout spins a good tale, ranging from the specific details of stadium construction to the overarching economics of the game (both in player-owner relations and the overwhelming importance of gambling). What I most enjoyed, though, was finding about the 1912 Red Sox, who from the front office to the field were a fractious, talented, infuriating bunch who managed to pull it together long enough to win a championship. It's inevitable that the book dispels some of the nostalgia for the "lyric little bandbox," which in reality underwent numerous changes even during its first year, and it does make me a little sad. But I still appreciate having a clearer and truer picture of how things really were -- and in any case, as Stout says, nothing can take away from the first glimpse of that infield green. ( )

An amazingly detailed book into the first season at Fenway Park. The research is first rate in this book. The coverage of the season, the personalities and a World Series like none other is spot on. Also, after reading this book, the song Tessie as done by the Dropkick Murphies makes a lot more sense. The coverage of game 7 of the WS explains a lot of the song. I probably would have given this 3.5 stars but that is not available. The reason for my relative low rating was the blow by blow description of some of the games just seemed a bit much. I wanted more of a tale, not just a recap of games and at times, this is what it felt like. I found myself reading theses sections as quickly as possible. ( )

Although those old enough to remember the 1986 World Series may feel differently, many deem the September collapse of the 2011 Boston Red Sox as the worst flop in the history of Major League Baseball. As recently as August of 2011, smart money in Las Vegas put the chances of the Red Sox making the post-season at 99.4%. The Red Sox proved Vegas wrong by utterly blowing the nine game lead the team enjoyed in the American League Wild Card race in early September. Tony Francona fell on his sword and stepped down as Red Sox manager a couple days after the season's disastrous end, emphasizing among other ailments that derailed the team's seemingly assured playoff appearance a locker room teeming with strife and dissension among the players. But author Glenn Stout's excellent new book, "Fenway 1912," gives the lie to the notion that locker room ego clashes preclude championship play on the diamond.

As intimated by its subtitle, Stout's book covers far more than player discord during the 1912 season. Fenway's inaugural season was marked by virtually incessant tumult -- terrible weather; greedy baseball executives; labor unrest; professional gamblers; Boston politics; architectural slapdash; ornery fans and religious intolerance. Each and all of these demanded heavy tolls from the team during a baseball season book-ended by the Titanic's sinking and an attempted assassination of Progressive Party presidential candidate (and former president) Theodore Roosevelt. Given that virtually anyone who personally witnessed Fenway's erection and its first World Series isn't alive anymore, Stout does a superb job sifting through masses of contemporaneous historical records to unveil not only the intricacies of building the park and the team that played in it, but also to imbue the book with a sense of the turbulent social, cultural, political and economic forces roiling America 100 years ago. In that way, "Fenway 1912" appeals more broadly than to only fans of the Boston Red Sox, or of professional baseball. Stout conveys very well a small slice of Americana at a time when the country was undergoing fundamental sociopolitical changes culminated by Woodrow Wilson's winning a ferocious four-party presidential election while the tinder of World War I caught fire in the Balkans.

Before spring training's first pitch the 2011 Red Sox were widely considered a lock to make the post-season, if not win the World Series. Presumably the October 11, 2011 release date for "Fenway 1912" was intended to coincide with the team's predicted march to championship glory. It would be a shame if the team's premature demise dowsed interest in Stout's outstanding new book. The 1912 Boston Red Sox were a team ridden with religious and other schisms so intractable bloody fistfights broke out in their locker room during the World Series they won. Against this backdrop, Stout's book is instructive in making abundantly (though unintentionally) clear that pinning the 2011 team's failure on a vastly pettier brand of interpersonal friction than what rocked Fenway throughout 1912 rings hollow. Good history is illuminative that way. ( )

This book does a great job of capturing the feel of Fenway Park, while focusing on its origins and how it has changed over the years.

After initially discussing the building of the ballpark itself (it opened in April of 1912, days after the sinking of the Titanic), the author spends much of his time focusing on the ballpark and Red Sox team during that first season at Fenway, a year in which the team played in the World Series.

The amount of detail provided on that first season is incredible, possibly even too much. The best parts of all were those that addressed how the team changed its style of play to accommodate the new ballpark.

I also enjoyed reading about some of the most notable ballplayers during the early 20th century. Red Sox players like Smoky Joe Wood, Harry Hooper, and Tris Speaker and also opponents such as Ty Cobb and Christy Matthewson. Also of interest were the Royal Rooters, fanatical Red Sox fans whose behavior sometimes unnerved the opponents.

The author does a terrific job at including interesting details about baseball of that era. For example, boys would wander the park selling limited concessions items. There were no concession stands until Wrigley Field two years later.

I never realized how great a role gambling played in the game during this pre-Black Sox era and the book does an amazing job explaining this key point.

An absolutely fascinating book that any baseball fan should enjoy. Recommended. ( )