2015 Independent Publishers of
New England Book Awards

Boston’s 100 Greatest Games
Fifth Edition - Includes 2018 World Series and Super Bowl 53

This provocative book ranks Boston’s 100 greatest games of all time, across all sports. The bloody sock. A Harvard tie. Fisk’s pole dance. Orr’s swan dive. Havlicek's steal.  Butler’s pick. You’ll enjoy all the landmark events you remember plus many you forgot—and discover some you never knew about. It all leads up to the game that changed everything about Boston sports.

Boston’s 100 Greatest Games on:

Game 6 of the 2013 ALCS
The image of Shane Victorino jubilantly circling the bases, contrasted with the image of Prince Fielder dog-paddling in the dirt, summed up the 2013 American League Championship Series. The Tigers might have had more raw talent. But the Red Sox had better baseball players.

Game 7 of the 1987 NBA Eastern Conference Finals
This seven-game scrum was both a physical series and a metaphysical one. It showed what happened when two groups of proud, stubborn men tried to occupy the same space at the same time. The Larry Bird Celtics had won three NBA championships and thought they had at least one more in them. The Isiah Thomas Pistons were NBA-champions-in-waiting who didn’t want to wait.

Bobby Orr’s overtime goal in Game 4 of the 1970 Stanley Cup Final
It’s the ultimate freeze frame. Orr is suspended in space; the moment is suspended in time. It is the precise instant of change. When Orr began his takeoff, the Bruins hadn’t won a title since 1941. When he landed, they were Stanley Cup champions.

Super Bowl 49
The Patriots were on the brink of a third straight Super Bowl loss abetted by a fourth-quarter circus catch. Maybe there was something to that karma talk after all. Even the receiver’s name suggested as much: Kearse. But for all the derring-do the Seahawks displayed, they also committed a couple of derring-don’ts.

Introduction

It’s hard to overstate the accomplishments of Boston’s sports teams in the 21st century. But that hasn’t stopped people from trying. Each new milestone sends New England into fits of self-referential (and self-reverential) hyperbole. When the Red Sox came from nowhere to win it all in 2013, no less an authority than David Ortiz declared that it “might be the most special out of all the World Series I have been a part of.” This from a man who produced three walk-off hits in the 2004 postseason, enabling the Red Sox to vanquish the Yankees in a historic comeback before ending an 86-year World Series drought. 

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