The Curse of Carl Mays

By Howard Camerik

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1589398823
• ISBN13: 9781589398825
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Virtual Bookworm.Com Pub Inc
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.9" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Great Story, Great Read

Book was suggested by a friend and I took it on vacation. Finished in a day and a half, kept rushing to get back to it. Great blend of one of the greatest moments for Mets fans (I was lucky enough to be at game 6)with true baseball history. Author Camerik's descriptions of the events from the 20s (or was it 1918) were stellar especially considering this was a pre-ESPN, pre-internet era with limited recorded history. Always fascinating to ponder how slightly tweaking the past could affect the future/present and throw in the sports twist and you have one entertaining read.

Quick Read; Transcends Baseball Theme

I don't generally read sports books, but this one caught my interest. Baseball with a surprise historical twist that one would never anticipate takes this novel to another level. Clever, humorous and extremely well researched with obscure references to former players and observations on the antics of others more current, it invites you into the clubhouse and the bullpen to share their thoughts, problems and dreams. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this book. And, you don't even have to like the Redsox to find yourself staying up late and turning pages in this compelling read. Recommend highly. Can't wait for Howard Camerik to publish his next novel.

Reading Material for Red Sox Fans this October

I'll admit: when I first saw a description for Howard Camerik's The Curse of Carl Mays, I was a bit skeptical, especially when I saw the book involved the 1986 World Series, the subject of that flop-written-all-over-it movie from last year, Game 6. Successful Boston mayor has baseball dreams left over from his aborted playing days, blames the 68 year World Series win drought on an ornery Red Sox pitcher (Carl Mays, a headhunter who supposedly learned his malicious ways from a Red Sox manager, sold by the Sox to the Yankees in 1919 and then went on to accidentally kill a player by hitting him in the head), plays for a senior league charity game in Yankee Stadium the day of Game 6, gets hit in the head Matt Clement style and then strange cosmic events occur? However, odd concept aside, once I started reading I found myself drawn in very, very quickly. Camerik is writing historical fiction, something I've always liked when well done and The Curse of Carl Mays is a great example of the genre for two reasons: 1. Research: everything in Camerik's book, from the layout of the Polo Grounds in 1920 to the political views of Bill Lee to the names of minor league baseball players with peripheral interest to the plot is meticulously researched, something that's vital to any good piece of historical fiction, where attention to detail is very, very important. In the case of a book like The Curse of Carl Mays, where the main character (Boston mayor Pat McCarvill) is a fictional character inserted into highly documented situations like mayor of Boston and member of various minor and major league baseball teams, this amount of research is absolutely vital to making the plot work at all. 2. Description: going along with the attention to detail in The Curse of Carl Mays is a good deal of description for characters, places and events, which help the reader to visualize exactly what's going on. Description is certainly helpful in any piece of fiction, but it's even more important when you're writing about the past. On the whole, if you're looking for an exciting story about baseball, the Red Sox and more importantly, being a Red Sox fan, you can't go wrong checking out Howard Camerik's The Curse of Carl Mays.

Red Sox Nation Daily Reviews "The Curse of Carl Mays'

If you are a Red Sox fan then you must read this book. If you are a fan of baseball, then you must read this book. This is a well written tale of baseball lore, that manages to spin the past with the book's present day, and it does so flawlessly. I have read this book, and reviewed for my site Red Sox Nation Daily, I highly recomend this book, it is a fantastic book, one that any casual fan of baseball will enjoy

A NATIONAL TREASURE FOR RED SOX NATION

"The Curse of Carl Mays" is a wonderful novel with an imaginative plot, unfolding against the backdrop of historical events before ultimately veering off into an alternate history. Red Sox fanatics who still can't believe what happened on October 25th 1986 will find it "wicked awesome." Forget about "The Curse of the Bambino," which itself was the creature of a writer's imagination. This author posits a better theory, cleverly connecting the Red Sox's long years of frustration to Harry Frazee's peddling of his other star pitcher, Carl Mays, and Mays' eventual date with infamy - a beanball that killed popular Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman. The story is told mostly through the life of Pat McCarvill, a former baseball bonus baby turned lawyer turned politician, who in 1986 is Boston's 41-year old mayor (I can easily see this as a movie part tailor-made for Red Sox fanatic Ben Affleck). Come October 25th (the day of "Game Six"), McCarvill is playing in a charity game in Yankee Stadium - a stone's throw from the site where Ray Chapman bought it at the old Polo Grounds - and he is drilled just as Chapman was 66 years before. Paramedics are dispatched, but they end up across the Harlem River and back in 1920, where they use their modern medical skills to rescue Chapman instead. As if Field of Dreams collided with Back to the Future, Chapman's resurrection ripples through time - McCarvill is transformed into a different character who has lived an alternate destiny, and both the Red Sox and the city will now face their alternate destinies, too. The author does a masterful job of connecting all the time-space altering dots. The history is well-researched (the detail is exquisite for Sox fans), the pacing is superb, the dialogue rings authentic, and the on-field baseball scenes, beginning on page one, crackle with energy. Sox fans will particularly enjoy the author's use of actual Red Sox players from history as fictional characters (Bill Buckner should have a good, cathartic cry when he reads this). Though from a small publisher, this gem deserves a wide readership. Highly recommended.