Mosher Pens Red Sox Fantasy

Last year’s American League Championship Series presented author Howard Frank Mosher with a strange dilemma. Though he has long been a die-hard Boston Red Sox fan, Mosher admitted he jumped for joy when Aaron Boone hit his dramatic extra-innings home run in the seventh game to win last year’s American League championship series for the hated New York Yankees. With one swing, Boone had not only extended Boston’s World Series drought one more year (it is now 86 years and counting since the Red Sox last won it), he also may have indirectly saved Mosher’s career. “It was so ironic that I found myself rooting for my favorite team’s archrival, but I was afraid my book wouldn’t sell if the Red Sox went on to win the World Series,” Mosher joked Monday night at Village Books, the latest stop on a cross-country tour to promote his latest novel, “Waiting for Teddy Williams.” Mosher discussed his recently-published book with an attentive audience and presented a slide show entitled “Baseball and the Writing Life,” even though he confessed he detests slide shows “more than anything outside of George Steinbrenner.” In his presentation he explained the similarities between his two lifelong passions. “Baseball and writing are both about dreams and hope,” Mosher said. “Just as the World Series is right out there for any team to win every year, the next great American novel is out there for anyone to write as well.” Mosher said he learned the keys to being a good writer from one of his English teachers: “She hated kids and we all hated her. But she told us if you want to be a good writer you have to do three things. Write about what you know about, revise your work and read whatever you can get your hands on, especially the classics. And you know what? She was right!” “Waiting for Teddy Williams” is the story of Ethan Allen, a young boy from fictional Kingdom Common, Vermont, the spiritual home of the Red Sox Nation. After a mysterious drifter enters his life and begins to teach him the finer points of baseball, and when a new owner threatens the very existence of his beloved Sox, E.A. finds himself on the other side of the fence at Fenway Park, charged with breaking the team’s nearly century-old losing streak and taking them all the way to the World Series. “Howard is a great storyteller and his books appeal to young and old alike,” said Palisadian Bob Vickrey, the local representative for Houghton-Mifflin, the book’s publisher. “I think this book would make a great movie too.” The 20 or so people who attended Mosher’s book signing reflected the diverse appeal of his stories. Among the readers who left with autographed copies were Joe Rosenbaum (who plays on the PPBA’s Pinto travel team), who was celebrating his ninth birthday and Pauline Cowle, celebrating her 75th. “We are delighted to have Howard with us this evening all the way from Vermont,” Village Books owner Katie O’Laughlin said during her introduction. “He is a charming man and the characters he creates are so real. The story has a magical quality to it that’s both uplifting and extremely funny.” Mosher grew up a Yankee fan and remembered listening to his father (a Yankee fan) and uncle (a Red Sox fan) engage in heated discussions about who was better–Joe DiMaggio or Ted Williams. “My dad would tell me ‘You tell your uncle that Joe D was the greatest player ever,’ Mosher chuckled. “Then my uncle would say ‘You tell your father Teddy was the greatest hitter of all time!’ They were sitting five feet apart but they wouldn’t talk directly to each other. I found it amusing to see two grownups arguing the way they did.” Mosher switched allegiances after moving to Irasburg, Vermont, with his high school sweetheart Phillis, who has been his partner in marriage for 40 years. “She told me if I could write a book about the Red Sox winning the World Series it will indeed be a fantasy,” Mosher joked. “When I was a freshman in high school, I developed a big wide swing because I wanted to be a home run hitter,” Mosher continued. “I remember striking out once and my coach saying ‘If you don’t learn how to make contact on that high hard one on the outside corner, you won’t amount to nothing. So I named the mythical manager of the Red Sox after my old high school coach.'” Mosher is nearing the end of a three-week tour across the country in which he has visited over 70 cities and he said Pacific Palisades reminds him of his hometown. “They both have that small-town feel,” he said. “But I love to travel. After spending a year straight at a desk, this is emancipation for me.” Mosher was on his way to Phoenix for several appearances the next day, but said if it was not for independent stores like Village Books, his titles would not sell nearly as well. “The big chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders carry my books but a lot of times they aren’t displayed prominently,” Mosher said with a sigh. “It’s places like this that keep me going.” Unlike many of his fellow long-suffering Red Sox fans, Mosher does not believe in the “Curse of the Bambino,” a label attached to the Red Sox after they traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees following their last World Series championship in 1918. “I just don’t think they’ve ever been the best team in baseball since then,” he said. “They’ve come close a couple of times. They had that great series with the Reds in 1975 and they were only a pitch or two away against the Mets [in 1986]. But I’m not giving up hope.”