Now I Can Die in Peace

"The Red Sox won the World Series." To Citizen No. 1 of Red Sox Nation, those seven words meant "No more ‘1918' chants. No more smug glances from Yankee fans. No more worrying about living an entire life -- that's 80 years, followed by death without seeing the Red Sox win a Series."

But once he was able to type those life-changing words, Bill Simmons decided to look back at his Sports Guy columns for the last five years to find out how the miracle came to pass. And that's where the trouble began.

Why didn't he see it coming? Why didn't it happen sooner? What was the key deal, the lucky move, the lucky bounce, the sign from above that he failed to spot? Pretty soon, The Sports Guy was second-guessing himself, rewriting history, sniping at his own past predictions, pounding the table - that's what sports guys do, right? And doing so, he let himself get sidetracked by the suffering of the Boston Bruins, frustrated by the false promise of the Celtics - and driven into a state of ecstasy by the dynastic New England Patriots.

The result is Now I Can Die in Peace, a hilarious and fresh new look at some of the best sportswriting in America, with sharp critical commentary (and original insights) from the guy who wrote it in the first place.

Bill Simmons writes the popular Sports Guy column for ESPN.com's Page 2 and ESPN The Magazine. A former sports reporter for the Boston Herald, he founded the award-winning bostonsportsguy.com website in 1997 and was a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live. He commutes between his Los Angeles home and Fenway Parks.

"Bill Simmons is the funniest sportswriter of his generation." -- Chuck Klosterman, author of Killing Yourself to Live

"Destination reading for anyone who worships at the twin altars of pop culture and sports." -- Entertainment Weekly