In 2004, chapter member David Southwick came up with the idea of chapter members collaborating on a book which would offer individual biographies of every member of the 1975 Red Sox. The following year - 2005 - would be the 30th anniversary of that season, and David thought it would be nice to memorialize the season as well as to encourage the work that SABR's BioProject committee was doing. With the support of the local chapter, and BioProject, he found volunteers to write up the stories of the various players and folks set to work.

As it happened, being the first such book of this nature, and involving as many as 20 different biographers - all of whom were volunteers - it's not surprising that this first effort was hard to manage. It's not easy to expect volunteers to be fully self-directed and to meet deadlines. It also takes a certain type of personality to shepherd a project like this along. David had the original inspiration, but was left to his own devices to realize it.

As we got into 2005, it became evident to some other chapter members that the project needed assistance, so three people stepped up to try and push the book forward: Bill Nowlin, Cecilia Tan, and Glenn Ledoux. Bill jumped in to try and work on the shepherding. Cecilia brought her considerable experience in editing and manuscript formatting and preparation to the table, and Glenn contributed the design for the entire book. As it came together, we became convinced that this was a substantial work and Rounder Books agreed to publish it in a limited edition with a full perfect-bound cover rather than the sort of spiral-bound idea that may have first been conceived. All the authors came through, Cecilia and Glenn labored hard on it, and the book became a reality - and such a success that Rounder extended its production into a second edition.

The resulting book is: '75: THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL. (ISBN: 1579401279)

Buy "75: The Red Sox Team that Saved Baseball" from this link to support the SABR Boston chapter.

We were so pleased with the idea that Dan Desrochers suggested doing a book on the 1967 team. He and Bill teamed up editorially, with Dan bringing in his large collection of memorabilia from 1967 and acquiring photo rights from the Boston Herald and the Boston Red Sox. Glenn scanned in a lot of the photos from the Red Sox, while Cecilia again helped greatly with the formatting. The book was published as THE 1967 IMPOSSIBLE DREAM RED SOX: PANDEMONIUM ON THE FIELD. (ISBN: 1579401414)

Buy "The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox" from this link to support the SABR Boston chapter.

The work that the Boston chapter did began to attract more and more biographers from outside our region, and spawned a number of other "team books" - as of the end of 2009, there are nine such books that have been published and 2010 has two or three more projected.

The other Boston books are:

• Spahn, Sain, and Teddy Ballgame: Boston's (almost) Perfect Baseball Summer of 1948 (ISBN: 1579401600)
  chapter members Bob Brady, Saul Wisnia, and Len Levin all helped edit this book
  Buy "Spahn, Sain, and Teddy Ballgame" from this link to support the SABR Boston chapter.
• When Boston Still Had the Babe: The 1918 World Series Champion Red Sox (ISBN: 1579401597)
  Len Levin helped edit this book as well
  Buy "When Boston Still Had the Babe" from this link to support the SABR Boston chapter.
• Lefty, Double-X, and The Kid: The 1939 Red Sox, a Team in Transition (ISBN: 1579401627)
  chapter members Maurice Bouchard and Len Levin helped edit this book
  Buy "Lefty, Double-X, and The Kid" from this link to support the SABR Boston chapter.

An earlier book that the Boston chapter helped coordinate was The Fenway Project (ISBN: 1579400914), edited by Bill Nowlin and Cecilia Tan, published in 2004. This book may have helped give David Southwick his original inspiration - and, in turn, The Fenway Project was itself inspired by a publication of the Ted Williams Chapter of SABR (San Diego). The book gathered the work of 61 of the game's most ardent and knowledgeable fans who attended the 2002 national convention of SABR in Boston and chronicled one night on the field, in the stands, and behind the scenes at America's oldest ballpark, Fenway Park.

Buy "The Fenway Project" from this link to support the SABR Boston chapter.