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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Terry Francona Takes Low Road in New Sox Book

The publishing industry is unquestionably turbulent today, but here’s something that remains a constant: celebrities or athletes who’ve attained a degree of notoriety usually won’t have any difficulty obtaining a book deal. Does it matter if the targeted audience for such material is quite small? Apparently not, as Francona: The Red Sox Years (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), a vengeful book by former Boston manager Terry Francona (as told to Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy) amply demonstrates.

MUGGER Posted: January 22, 2013 at 02:24 PM | 22 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: red sox

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1. Meatwad denied pope, reveals he faked it at mass Posted: January 22, 2013 at 05:06 PM (#4352789)

Tough to call the target audience small when it's several million people.

2. Jose Can Still Seabiscuit Posted: January 22, 2013 at 05:08 PM (#4352791)

For what it's worth Chad Finn had a completely different take on the book;

(Francona) offers an often hilarious but never salacious peek behind clubhouse doors on the championship “Idiots” of 2004, borderline insubordinates of 2011, and all the good times and chaos in between.

3. Matt Clement of Alexandria Posted: January 22, 2013 at 05:11 PM (#4352796)

Self-linking is generally discouraged, Mugger.

4. Bruce Markusen Posted: January 22, 2013 at 05:42 PM (#4352842)

If what Francona writes is true--and I don't know that it is--how is that the "low road?" I love reading about the inner workings of a clubhouse and a team, and I imagine that it would involve a fair share of unsavory activity.

5. SteveM. Posted: January 22, 2013 at 05:45 PM (#4352849)

. Francona, who was extensively interviewed by Shaughnessy, is funny, profane, repetitive, not particularly articulate (one of his favorite phrases is “dumb-ass,” as well as earthier epithets) and self-deprecatory,

.

I have a PhD in history and I frequently use the phrase dumb-ass. How else do you describe Warren G. Harding?

6. Greg (U)K Posted: January 22, 2013 at 05:50 PM (#4352862)

I have a PhD in history and I frequently use the phrase dumb-ass. How else do you describe Warren G. Harding?

I keep having to suppress the urge to use profanity in my thesis. It's hard to get across the image of a 17th century backdoor court factional beatdown without doing so.

7. Dale Sams Posted: January 22, 2013 at 05:52 PM (#4352865)

not to mention the great website Boston Dirtdogs.

errrr...

8. Tripon Posted: January 22, 2013 at 05:53 PM (#4352868)

I mean sure, its okay when management slanders its players, that's expected. But don't you dare let the help talk about its masters. That's just scandleous!

9. Esoteric throws a 'hard slider' Posted: January 22, 2013 at 06:01 PM (#4352880)

Oh great, another self-linking turd.

10. TerpNats Posted: January 22, 2013 at 07:42 PM (#4352971)

Has this person ever visited a bookstore and saw the huge array of Bosox books? Not a small audience by any means. Navel-gazing, perhaps, but not small.

11. villageidiom Posted: January 22, 2013 at 07:55 PM (#4352975)

I read TFA and I didn't see any evidence presented that the book is "spiteful" or taking "the low road" in any way, other than the author asserting it to be true. He doesn't cite any examples of anything other than (a) that which Red Sox fans already knew prior to last week and (b) the excerpt that was published last week, in which Francona asserted the owners were good owners.

It's not clear this guy has actually read the book.

12. gef the talking mongoose Posted: January 22, 2013 at 08:54 PM (#4352998)

have a PhD in history and I frequently use the phrase dumb-ass. How else do you describe Warren G. Harding?

"Republican" works pretty well, I've found.

13. willcarrolldoesnotsuk Posted: January 22, 2013 at 09:39 PM (#4353006)

Same thing.

14. VoodooR Posted: January 22, 2013 at 09:58 PM (#4353019)

This "review" is a trainwreck.

Thread complete.

15. ecwcat Posted: January 22, 2013 at 11:21 PM (#4353048)

Mugger's site is a content farm and this is a way for him to get backlinks and traffic.

16. The Clarence Thomas of BBTF (scott) Posted: January 22, 2013 at 11:43 PM (#4353059)

Mugger's site is a content farm and this is a way for him to get backlinks and traffic.

Carney would be a more apropos name, eh? Good thing so many of us don't RTFA.

17. Lassus Posted: January 22, 2013 at 11:53 PM (#4353062)

Holy crap, wait, MUGGER from the old NY Weekly Press? UGH

18. vortex of dissipation Posted: January 23, 2013 at 12:00 AM (#4353063)

Tough to call the target audience small when it's several million people.

This was the last book I've bought. I would think it had a slightly smaller target audience.

19. Ron J2 Posted: January 23, 2013 at 01:14 PM (#4353368)

Tough to call the target audience small when it's several million people.

This is the point that Bill James made in his "Breaking The Wand" piece. Most baseball fans weren't interested in what he talked about. Still left a huge potential market.

Saw something that said that a publisher needed to sell ~50,000 copied to make a book profitable. Seems like only a small percentage of the Red Sox fan base would need to buy the book to make it worthwhile.

And yeah, I read the piece and didn't feel that the "load road" claims were substantiated.

20. Fernigal McGunnigle has become a merry hat Posted: January 23, 2013 at 01:34 PM (#4353390)

Mugger's site is a content farm and this is a way for him to get backlinks and traffic.

Mugger has posted 22 stories (all of them self-links, so far as I can tell) and made 0 comments. He's a leech.

21. Fernigal McGunnigle has become a merry hat Posted: January 23, 2013 at 01:43 PM (#4353398)

Saw something that said that a publisher needed to sell ~50,000 copied to make a book profitable. Seems like only a small percentage of the Red Sox fan base would need to buy the book to make it worthwhile.

FWIW, the number I've seen is that a book from a regular publisher breaks even at around 15,000 copies sold and starts to make a notable profit at about 20,000. 50,000 might be the number that a publisher would want to set as the minimum for the sort of profit that might be worth the time and effort.

22. Darren

Posted: January 23, 2013 at 01:45 PM (#4353402)

Be careful, you can get called lots of names around here for pointing out that self-linking is frowned upon.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Terry Francona Takes Low Road in New Sox Book

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