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This article appeared in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette's Fitchburg/Leominster FLASH publication Dec. 10, 2009
What if the Sox held onto the Babe? Fitchburg writer pens baseball fantasy book
By Jay Gearan CORRESPONDENT
FITCHBURG — In writing his novel, “Turning Back the Clock,” Fitchburg author Sean Sweeney considered the “what if’s” in Major League Baseball history.
Such as: What if Babe Ruth was never traded from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees? Or what if the Chicago White Sox hadn’t thrown the 1919 World Series? And what if Mr. Ruth was traded for Shoeless Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver?
Sweeney’s novel begins in the hours after the Red Sox lost the American League Championship Series to the Yankees in 2003. Greg Patterson, the 26-year-old protagonist of “Turning Back the Clock,” goes to sleep after the heartbreaking Boston defeat and has a vision of going through time and changing the fortunes of Red Sox Nation. As he begins his research, he finds that two of the game’s most notorious events — the trade of Babe Ruth and the Black Sox Scandal — could be linked.
Greg and his friend Brandon Roy then embark on a time-traveling journey that must be kept a secret. No one can know what they are trying to do, for if they fail the mission, the status quo of the Yankees continuing to dominate the Red Sox will continue.
“I wrote the book with the mindset of a Red Sox fan in October 2003,” Mr. Sweeney said. “Every Red Sox fan was thinking then that we would never beat the Yankees, never win a World Series. Things had to change. The reader has to suspend disbelief that it would take a long time to build a time machine. In my book, it takes only a few days.”
He added, “The book has a little bit of everything for the reader — sports and adventure and even a little love story. My mother likes to call it ‘the righting of a terrible sporting wrong.’ And being a Red Sox fan, I just loved brainstorming and writing it.”
“Turning Back the Clock” is available from Amazon.com’s Print On-Demand imprint CreateSpace. The trade paperback costs $14.95 plus shipping.
The novel is also available as an e-book for Kindle readers.
Mr. Sweeney, 32, fell in love with fantasy fiction when he was 11 and read J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic, “The Hobbit.” When he was in high school, he began writing for local papers as a sports correspondent.
Listed among his other literary influences are R.A. Salvatore, Steven Savile, J.K. Rowling, David Forbes, John Grisham, and, of course, the legends: Dickens, Doyle and Shakespeare.
“And I’m a huge Star Wars fan,” Mr. Sweeney said.
Mr. Sweeney chose John Fitch V as a pseudonym in honor of the late Robert Cormier, the successful, internationally acclaimed author of young-adult fiction. Mr. Cormier, who lived in Leominster, wrote under the pseudonym John Fitch IV when writing decades ago for the Sentinel & Enterprise.
Mr. Sweeney has also written four other fantasy novels, which he plans to re-release in the next few months. This review article appeared on the Red Sox blog FenwayWest.com Jan. 8, 2010 | Written by Matt O'Donnell | | Friday, 08 January 2010 17:39 | | John Fitch V has written several fantasy books and Turning Back the Clock is his first book about the Red Sox. The book begins with Grady Little's failure to take Pedro out of the game in 2003. The post game depression leads the main character to come up with a plan to go back in time and change the Red Sox fortunes by trying to keep Babe Ruth from going to the Yankees and keep Joe Jackson out of the 1919 World Series fix. To be honest I am not a big fan of fantasy or science fiction novels and books, I could be the only person out there that did not like The Lord of the Rings movies. I did however like this book. Fitch makes 1919 come to life through good research and excellent writing. The book is written with serious baseball fans in mind; those that know their history. The book gives you a feeling of what baseball was like in 1919 through interactions with the likes of Harry Frazee, Babe Ruth, Joe Jackson, and the notorious Joseph "Sport" Sullivan." It takes you through a compelling look at the forces that set in motion 86 years of heartbreak, and how they might have been avoided. The book does make me wonder one thing: if the Sox had won a few World Series after 1918, would 2004 still be the same? Would you give up the feeling you had in 2004 for the 27 rings the Yankees have? Tough call. I recommend you pick up a copy of Turning Back the Clock and read it yourself; it will increase your knowledge of Red Sox and baseball history while giving you some laughs along the way. With no baseball in the near future this book can tide you over until Truck Day. |
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