It had already been one of the most remarkable years in baseball history, but the moment Bucky Dent's seemingly harmless fly ball cleared the Green Monster at Fenway Park on the afternoon of October 2, the 1978 season became, what some people still consider today, the most dramatic in the sport's glorious lineage. In The Ultimate Season, Sal Maiorana takes you on an exciting day-by-day journey through the 1978 season, and he has created three fictional characters who tell the story in 21st-century blog style fashion. Zack Lassiter is a 43-year-old New York City-born sports writer; Maria Martinez is a 19-year-old native of the Bronx, a Yankees fan as well as a Yankee Stadium vendor; and Jimmy O'Reilly is a ruddy-faced, beer-bellied, 58-year-old bartender in the heart of South Boston. Through their eyes, readers will be transported back to '78, and thrust into the middle of the drama and excitement of a baseball season that captivated a nation at a time when baseball was still our national pastime.
