How did Sox fans continue to believe in their team this year, especially when the Yankees had them down 3-1 in the American League Championship Series and they hadn't won a World Series since 1918? Stewart O'Nan and Stephen King try to explain it in Faithful, their record of the journey from June swoon to October surprise. The Weekly caught up with the still-giddy authors in New York where, in spite of their gloating, they had already begun worrying about next year.
What do you look for next season now that you won?
O'Nan: Well, the first thing I have to worry about is tickets. These fans, the guys who got on the bandwagon this year, they're going to be with us for 10, 15, 20 years.
King: Now I would never tell a gentleman of the fourth estate what to ask, but ask me what I could have e-Bayed my postseason tickets for?
How much?
King: Quarter of a million dollars.
O'Nan: My ass was sitting in a $125,000 seat.
Couldn't you get dugout seats from the Red Sox on account of working on this book?
O'Nan: Well, anybody who is a baseball beat writer could have done that kind of book better than us. I think it's much more interesting to write it from the fan perspective: how it feels and what it means to be a Red Sox fan.
You guys seem to have different perspectives as fans. Steve, you're convinced everything is going to hell; and Stewart, you're the optimist.
King: The difference between Stewart and I is that I was born and grew up in New England. I was born to this thing. Red Sox are in my blood. I have that sense of doom when things are going to shit. Where I come from, if you have a lump anywhere on your body, its cancer, it's malignant and you're going to die in six months.
O'Nan: The Pirates. Magical team. The team that could pull it out. That team was down three games to one against the Orioles, who had four 20-game winners, and pulled it out—on the road. In '79, they were down 3-1 and they pulled it out, on the road. And now, the Red Sox have this idea that we're just another team. No, now we're a magical team.
Did either of you guys want to be sportswriters growing up?
King: I was. It was my first gig. I wrote sports for the Lisbon Enterprise. I got in trouble in high school writing a satiric newspaper about the teachers. My choice was either get suspended, or put my work to some constructive use. So they sent me down to this weekly newspaper and the guy there said, "Well, I need a sportswriter. My guy just had a heart attack."
That sounds unfortunate ...
King: I learned a lot about writing, though. The first two or three times I took in copy, he looked at it and took out all the adjectives. I covered high school basketball, bowling leagues. God, I learned a lot about people drinking and puking in bowling leagues.
What about you, Stewart?
O'Nan: I always wanted to be the play-by-play guy.
You could see that in the book. Stewart, you're the play-by-play guy, and Steve, you're definitely the color guy.
King: That's true. Stewart likes to get inside the game.
O'Nan: These guys might seem like idiot savants, but they're thinking every single minute. It's terribly intricate for them.
King: One of my favorite images of the season is a photo of the dugout. Curt Schilling is charting something, writing it down, and over there in the background, there's Manny Ramirez over his shoulder just sitting there, a little roll of fat in his stomach, just looking at the floor.
Speaking of images, the book's cover shows Boston catcher Jason Varitek shoving his mitt into Yankee star Alex Rodriguez's face. Do you think that was the turning point?
King: I do. We actually fought very hard for that cover.
O'Nan: It's the moment that everyone remembers. Even if we hadn't won the season, Sox fans would look at that and say, "That was a great moment."