Bucky F*cking Dent

Bucky F*cking Dent by David Duchovny, 296 pages

Thirty-something self-described loser and Yankee Stadium peanut vendor Ted has always had a fraught relationship with his father, Marty, a retired womanizing advertising executive and a lifelong Red Sox fan. (Is that the reason Ted works for and supports the Yankees, despite having the middle name of Fenway? Probably doesn't hurt.) Father and son haven't talked for five years when Ted is summoned to the hospital, where he learns that Marty is in the final stages of lung cancer. Ted moves home and is determined to figure out where their relationship went wrong. The whole book is set against the 1978 American League fight for the playoffs between the Red Sox and Yankees (a LOT of Sox fans felt that that was their year, and in the book, Marty is convinced that he's immortal until October, "when the Sox win it all.").

Duchovny offers up a good exploration of both the father-son dynamic, as well as the role that baseball plays in the American psyche. A great book to read as the MLB season kicks off.