Book Description
"Cecilia Tan has written a Yankee Doodle Dandy of a book. The reader is taken through the dramatic ebb and flow of the 50 greatest Yankee games. We learn a lot about the team from the Bronx in this fact-filled, entertainingly written opus. Should be required reading for all fans of the New York Yankees."
—Harvey Frommer, author of A YANKEE CENTURY and THE NEW YORK YANKEE ENCYCLOPEDIA
From Opening Day in 1903, when the Highlanders—soon to be called Yankees by headline and sports writers alike—first took the field, to the tension-filled 2003 pennant race with the Red Sox, Yankee fans of all ages have witnessed history in the making time and time again. Now, this unique tribute brings to life the 50 greatest Yankee games of all time, taking you back to games so unforgettable, if you weren't there, you'll wish you were.
From the Yankees' first World Series to the pennant race that pitted Joe DiMaggio against Ted Williams to the Bucky Dent home run game, you'll have the best seat in the stadium as you experience all the excitement and drama of the Yankees' best (and sometimes worst) moments. You'll also hear from legendary players such as Yogi Berra, Ryne Duren, Dwight Gooden, Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, Willie Randolph, and many more as they share their personal recollections.
Featuring fascinating anecdotes, box scores, and vintage photographs, The 50 Greatest Yankee Games is the perfect book for every Yankee fan and anyone who cherishes the game.
Download Description
"
The greatest moments of the greatest team
The Yankees are by far the most successful baseball franchise in history-a team that has won 26 World Series titles in 101 years, 17 more than their closest rival. Each year, they draw more than 3 million fans to Yankee Stadium, and millions more see them on the road and on TV. This unique book brings to life the 50 greatest Yankee games of all time, ranging from the 1949 pennant race that pitted Joe DiMaggio against Ted Williams to the 1978 Bucky Dent home run game. Filled with player interviews, fascinating anecdotes, box scores, and nearly two dozen vintage photographs, it's the perfect gift for every Yankee fan.
Cecilia Tan (Cambridge, MA) was born in New York City and is a lifelong Yankee fan, despite her current residence. She has written for Yankees magazine, Yankees Xtreme, and other baseball publications.
Customer Reviews:
What do you get the die-hard Yankee Fan? This DVD.......2007-03-09
My best friend is a die-hard Yankee fan and LOVES tis DVD! One of his top Yankee DVDs.
The Best Of History.......2005-04-28
You read her in Yankee Magazine, you read her on her website, heck you even read her on the message boards of BehindtheBombers.com. Some of you may have read some of her earlier works as well. How do you write a book on the Greatest Games of an icon in sports history? That task sounded difficult to me but Ms Tan has taken that task and made it most enjoyable.
The author takes us through the history of the mighty Bronx Bombers and through the magic of her pen she brings us back to the games we grew up with. Her thorough research and interviews covers memories from every generation.
I asked myself how could you pick only 50 games from the multitude of games the Yankees have played? Well after reading the book I couldn't think of a single game she missed. From the obvious perfect games to the oblivious Andy Hawkins no hit loss it is all there. She drives us through the dynasties to the lean years and back again. She dusted the cobwebs out of the pinstriped portion of my brain for sure.
Cecilia Tan has a hit on her hands with this book. Whether you a baseball historian of just love the lore of the game you should go out buy this book and pick one up for the Yankee fans on you gift list they will thank you for it.
Excellent writing, presentation fair.......2005-04-08
Greatest games books can be very boring; this one is anything but. The 50 greatest Yankees games are intelligently selected and thoroughly covered in 50 separate essays. The writing is solid and entertaining. However, the design of the book, with no box scores and only a tiny separation between each game essay, could be better.
very good take.......2005-03-19
I agree with the other reviewer that Tan might have chosen some different games for the top 50, but isn't disagreeing with the picks half the fun of a book like this?
I found the writing fun and breezy, and many of the chapters nostalgia-provoking. I came of baseball fan age during the late 70s run--that is, I was 10 years old--and the book was a great reminder of those days when the game was grittier and I had to run home from school to watch the Bucky Dent game, picking it up in the third inning, because it was played during the day.
The games the Yankees lost were especially interesting because that would make them seem contrary to the idea of a "greatest" game, but Tan showed why they were so special. This reminded me of Pete Rose telling Sparky Anderson after Game Six of '75 series that the game was the greatest he'd ever been in. Sparky, in disbelief, reminded Rose that their Reds had lost. Rose just looked back in disbelief, understanding that sometimes winning truly isn't the only thing.
I got this book as a gift and will give it as a gift myself several times over. I highly recommend it.
A Major Disappointment.......2005-03-11
This book was not what I had hoped to see. 50 games are given the same kind of thumbnail sketch that I've seen too many times before in so many other books that the end result is an end product that just seems like a slapped together collection of information anyone can glean from books already out there. And if that isn't bad enough, some of Tan's choices for the 50 Greatest Games are mindboggling in their stupidity when contrasted with what gets left out. Who in their right mind would say that a game where Tony Fernandez hit for the cycle in 1995 was greater than Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS with Jim Leyritz's two run HR in the 15th inning? Or that the Jeffrey Maier game of the 96 ALCS should be left out, along with Games 4 and 5 of the 2001 WS? I almost got the feeling that Tan didn't want to write about multiple games from a particular postseason because that would have required too much effort on her part. Indeed, most of the lead-in for a game description consists of a recap of the entire season up to that point (which in itself eats up much of the brief time allotted for the game), and to do more than one game for a particular postseason would have required more detailed about the game and less filler time.
You also would have thought that Tan would at least go to the trouble of providing box score information on the games profiled, but we don't even get something convenient like that. And her description of the Babe Ruth called HR game contains a howling error when she reprints the so-called "Radio call" of Cubs broadcaster Quin Ryan. That call is a phony recreation done long after the fact, and Tan should have known that.
Books like this are IMO the worst kind because all they do is give the most rudimentary thumbnail sketch of a game without attempting anything fresh or insightful. If one is not as much of a hardcore fan and wants just an introductary primer to some of these games, it can perhaps be useful, but for the serious Yankee fan, don't waste your money.
Book Description
The numbers are impressive: an astounding 26 World Series titles (and counting). Twenty-one MVP awards. Countless statistical milestones, many of them courtesy of the game's greatest slugger (Babe Ruth). Two Triple Crown winners (Lou Gehrig and Mickey Mantle). Baseball's most fabled record (Joe DiMaggio¹s 56-game hitting streak). Four of the winningest skippers‹Miller Huggins, Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel and Joe Torre‹the game has ever produced.
But the numbers alone don¹t do justice to the impact that the Yankees have had and continue to have on their legion of fans. What takes place within the storied confines of the House That Ruth Built is more than simply a game, it¹s a way of life. The monuments that stand just beyond the center-field fence at Yankee Stadium bear witness to the decades of excellence that have inspired all of us ever since players first donned the pinstripes.
Game Day: Yankees Baseball is a celebration of that tradition of excellence and of the men who helped to weave Yankees tradition, and the game itself, into the fabric of America.
Book Description
Sit on the bench with Yogi and Casey, in the locker room with Mickey and the Babe, and in the bullpen with Whitey and Sparky. Tales from the Yankee Dugout is a compilation of the funniest, strangest, and most unique stories, anecdotes, and tall tales that have been attributed to the former personalities from baseball's legendary New York Yankees. Includes more than two dozen caricatures by noted sports illustrator Robert Jackson.
Customer Reviews:
Decent Stories.......2003-06-03
These are decent stories, generally a paragraph or two per subject and several pages per person (see the Table of Contents online). Most of them are entertaining and make for quick reading when convenient.
Clever and entertaining.......1999-12-05
This compendium of stories is sure to delight the baseball fan in any house (even if they're not rooting for the Yankees)! Some of the stories were laugh-out-loud funny. A great gift idea.
Book Description
The Greatest Yankees Teams updates One Hundred Years, The New York Yankees, The Official Retrospective a stunning collection of stories, facts and images of the most celebrated team in the history of professional sports.
From the unbeatable record-breaking 1927 Yankees managed by Hall of Famer Miller Huggins to the ongoing legacy of Joe Torre, the book also details the team’s latest tribulations, including its 2003 Series loss and the “trade of the century” that brought Alex Rodriquez to New York and opened the next chapter in Yankees history.
A must-have keepsake for every fan, this lavishly illustrated tribute includes the Yankees’ greatest moments, marks, and events as voted by the New York–New Jersey Chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. From those early magnificent days in the House That Ruth Built to the George Steinbrenner era of more than three decades of unprecedented excellence, here is an inimitable portrait of America’s team.
“You feel the history every time you walk into Yankee Stadium.
twenty-six championships. There are signs all over the place.
when we run into Yogi Berra in the clubhouse, that’s 10
championship rings right there. Think about that for a minute
—10, just as a player. I won four in my first five seasons here,
and I thought that was the only way it could be. It’s actually
pretty hard for most guys even to get one title.
“Right now, I do what I can to help the Yankees get that next
championship. Everyone expects us to win, and we expect no
less of ourselves. With the Yankees, whether it’s the fans, the
front office, the owner, whatever—we’re held to the highest
standard. Nobody’s tougher on us than we are on ourselves…
“I consider myself fortunate to have spent my whole career in
pinstripes. When I’m old and retired, I’ll probably look back
on this time here, and go, ‘Wow! That was really something.”
—Yankees captain Derek Jeter, 2004
Customer Reviews:
Bought this as a gift.......2007-03-08
I bought this for a friend who is a die-hard Yankee fan and he loves it!
Average customer rating:
- GREAT RETELLING OF PERFECTION
- Big Surprise
- The Perfect Yankee is perfect.
- A Complete Waste of Time
- The Perfect Yankee is a great sports book.
|
The Perfect Yankee: The Incredible Story of the Greatest Miracle in Baseball History
Don Larsen , and
Mark Shaw
Manufacturer: Sports Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 159670215X |
Amazon.com
Yankee faithful and haters alike will relish this pitch-by-pitch retelling of one of baseball's most remarkable feats: Don Larsen's perfect game in game five of the 1956 World Series. Larsen, one of the game's beloved figures, has remained humble and unaffected as his record has stood unequalled for four decades. In this book with sports journalist Mark Shaw, he throws in asides on his teammates, his opponents, even the umpires who worked the game. Larsen's memoir recalls a time when nobody spat in anyone's face, strikes were called only on the field, and baseball was still the national pastime.
Book Description
By all accounts, the perfect game pitched by New York Yankee right-hander Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series qualifies as a true miracle. No one knows why it happened, or why an unlikely baseball player such as Don Larsen was the one who tossed it. In The Perfect Yankee, Larsen and co-author Mark Shaw describe for the first time the facts surrounding one of the most famous games in baseball history.
Customer Reviews:
GREAT RETELLING OF PERFECTION.......2005-09-03
THIS IS THE STORY OF THE ONLY PERFECT GAME EVER PITCHED IN THE WORLD SERIES. THE PLACE IS YANKEE STADIUM IN 1956. FROM HERE DON LARSEN WHO PITCHED THIS GEM AND ALSO WROTE THIS JEWEL OF A BOOK, DESCRIBES IN DEATIL EVERY EXCITING MOMENT HE CAN RECALL ON THIS HISTORIC DAY OF OCT 8TH. HE ALSO GIVES US A LITTLE ABOUT HIS LIFE AND FAMILY. BUT THE MAIN FOCUS IS THE PERFECT GAME. I REALLY ENJOYED THIS BOOK AND I RECOMMEND IT TO ALL BASEBALL FANS WHO ENJOY A PIECE OF HISTORY CONCERNING THE GRAND GAME. I AM NOT A YANKEE FAN BUT I COULDNT HELP BUT ROOT FOR LARSEN AS THE BOOK DESCRIBES EACH OUT, GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO IMMORTALITY FOR LARSEN. A MUST READ.
Big Surprise.......2004-05-12
Considering Im not a Yankee fan, far from one actually, the fact I loved this book should appear odd. But this story about an average player accomplishing something that no one ever has or will ever do ever again. It just makes me want to cry, that's why I gave this book 5 out of 5. Baseball is a great sport!
BTW, All the facts in this book are correct, no facts are wrong... I think the guy on the bottom is drunk.
The Perfect Yankee is perfect........2003-04-18
Baseball books are a dime a dozen, but the story of Don Larsen's remarkable achievement is outstanding. Author Shaw captures Larsen's voice and the miracle that occurred on October 8, 1956. This is a must read for any baseball fan.
A Complete Waste of Time.......2003-03-21
I have rarely been as disappointed in a book as I was by this one. The book abounds with errors of fact, misspellings and boring retelling of stories well known to any baseball fan. The only thing perfect about this book is that it's perfectly dreadful.
The Perfect Yankee is a great sports book........1999-08-25
Don Larsen's perfect game in the 1956 World Series was a masterpiece, the greatest game ever pitched. This book chronicles Larsen's thoughts and explains why he was the most unlikely candidate to pitch such a game. The Perfect Yankee is a must read for any sports fan.
Book Description
The New York Yankees are the acknowledged kingpins of Major League Baseball, and no one among the media is more of an authority on the Yankees than Ed Randall. He has conducted personal interviews with virtually every current Yankee player and hundreds from past seasons. In More Tales from the Yankee Dugout, fans will gain insights about the famed Bronx Bombers that they've never read before. Nearly 200 different tales are told in this book.
Customer Reviews:
A book for everyone..........2002-09-07
The stories from the players are the ones that never made the news papers or the sports radio shows.
The book covers everything from Goose Gossage driving the bullpen car in Milwaukee across the baseball field to Mel Stottlemyer winning a bet and having his AMEX bill run up by some of his fellow ball players as a joke.
Several of the player stories from Mr.Randall actually made me laugh out loud!
Weather you like baseball or not this book is a must read.
Book Description
This handsome and definitive volume celebrates a legendary century of Yankee history, with:
€ Rare photographs
€ Statistics
€ A Yankee quiz
€ Introduction by Yankee great Paul O'Neill
€ Profiles of such legends as Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Babe Ruth, Derek Jeter, Joe DiMaggio, and many more
€ Tales of rivalries, triumphs, and unforgettable moments on and off the field
€ The victories, sweeps, and stumbles
€ Quotes, lists, tributes, and trivia
Customer Reviews:
Best Gift.......2007-05-25
We bought this and "New York Yankees: an Illustrared History,"for a Yankee fan. He keeps them on a table next to his favorite chair and each time we visit, there are more little bookmarks and notes. He had told us how much he was enjoying them, but the sight of that well used books showed us that we chose a perfect gift.
How about that, folks?.......2004-03-02
In the northeast, the winter of 2003-2004 will be remembered as one of the snowiest, iciest, coldest and dreariest in recent memory. A YANKEE CENTURY was the perfect cure for those miserable days. Filled with the baseball history that took place on the sun-drenched field of Yankee Stadium, Harvey Frommer has provided us Yankee [and most baseball] fans with a warm nostalgia and a good feeling for the springs and summers to come.
With equal parts statistics and anecdote, the book is a well-balanced exploration into the most successful sports franchise in history. Peppered with wonderful photos (some that I had never seen before), this 400+ page book moves swiftly. The writing is respectful without becoming sentimental. And Paul O'Neill, who I will always remember as our favorite water-cooler kicking hothead, proves to be a sensitive and articulate commentator. Congratulations to both writers.
A YANKEE CENTURY is a great exploration into the Bronx Bombers, and by extension, to the history of 20th century baseball itself.
IRRESISTIBLE! . IRRESISTIBLE! ........2004-02-10
The Olympian
A Yankee Century" ($16, Berkley). Baseball's spring training does not truly reside in the deserts of Arizona or near the sands and swamps of Florida. It resides in the hearts and minds of children-turned-adults, who carry with them years of baseball lore and feelings (rational or not) of intense rivalry.
So the paperback version of "A Yankee Century" is just the ticket for warming up to the first crack of the bat. As one raised on the Baltimore Orioles, I can do nothing else but hate (rationally or not) the Yankees.
That said, 100 years of Yankee baseball is a walk through much of baseball history. Harvey Frommer's book covers so many of the details that fans love to savor that it's irresistible.
Frommer stays out of the statistic pit (although there are plenty of numbers), instead making a winning delivery out of stories and quotes that will help baseball fans stay sane on a rainy late-January afternoon.
The Olympian, Olympia Washington
A YANKEE BOOK TO CHERISH!.......2003-10-27
This N' That with Tony Mack:
BLACK ATHLETE SPORTS NETWORK
BOOK REVIEW: A YANKEE CENTURY\\
***************************************************************
BRISTOL, CONN---Earlier this year, you may have read a book review I wrote on the historic relationship between Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson. That book was penned by noted baseball writer and historian Harvey Frommer.
Prof. Frommer has since come out with another historic baseball book, this time about the sport's most celebrated franchise.
Frommer, who authored "The New York Yankee Encloypedia", has now penned "A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First 100 Years of Baseball's Greatest Team".
Not only does Frommer give an oral history of the Pinstripes, but there are several rare photos of Yankee greats past and present.
From Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter, Lou Gehrig to Reggie Jackson, and all those in between, "A Yankee Century" is keepsake dream for fans of the Bronx Bombers and a nightmare for Yankee haters all over.
Even though this review is being written by a lifelong Met fan, I found this to be a very entertaining read.
One of the things that was enjoyable about the book is how Frommer has separate "Yankee Stories" on the well-known and lesser known ex-Yankees.
A humble Chris Chambliss talks about coming over from the lowly Cleveland Indians in a 1975 and then winning the pennant with a dramatic homer in the 1976 ALCS against the Royals.
Frommer also writes about the plight of Elston Howard, the first Black to play for the Yankees. His struggles on and off the field are chronicled along with a review of his very understated career as a player and coach.
The breathtaking and sometimes tumulous career of Reggie Jackson in pinstripes is also well chronicled. "Mr. October" had one of the greatest moments in Yankee history when he hit three homers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.
At the time, it gave the Yanks their first World Series title in 13 seasons and he would help them go back to the next season.
Among some of the other African American players that are featured in Prof. Frommer's book are Jeter, current third base coach and ex-captain Willie Randolph, Bernie Williams, and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.
The book also includes a comprehensive trivia quiz, quotes, anecdotes, and other entertaining features for all baseball fans, Yankee or otherwise.
If you know a true Yankee fan, it's a great addition to their library.
If you know a true Yankee hater, this will be a best way to start an arguement.
**Another HISTORIC BASEBALL BOOK BY FROMMER.......2003-10-03
BOOK REVIEW: A YANKEE CENTURY
By Tony McClean
BLACK ATHLETE SPORTS NETWORK
BRISTOL, CONN---Earlier this year, you may have read a book review I wrote on the historic relationship between Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson. That book was penned by noted baseball writer and historian Harvey Frommer.
Prof. Frommer has since come out with another historic baseball book, this time about the sport's most celebrated franchise.
Frommer, who authored "The New York Yankee Encloypedia", has now penned "A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First 100 Years of Baseball's Greatest Team".
Not only does Frommer give an oral history of the Pinstripes, but there are several rare photos of Yankee greats past and present.
From Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter, Lou Gehrig to Reggie Jackson, and all those in between, "A Yankee Century" is keepsake dream for fans of the Bronx Bombers and a nightmare for Yankee haters all over.
Even though this review is being written by a lifelong Met fan, I found this to be a very entertaining read.
One of the things that was enjoyable about the book is how Frommer has separate "Yankee Stories" on the well-known and lesser known ex-Yankees.
A humble Chris Chambliss talks about coming over from the lowly Cleveland Indians in a 1975 and then winning the pennant with a dramatic homer in the 1976 ALCS against the Royals.
Frommer also writes about the plight of Elston Howard, the first Black to play for the Yankees. His struggles on and off the field are chronicled along with a review of his very understated career as a player and coach.
The breathtaking and sometimes tumulous career of Reggie Jackson in pinstripes is also well chronicled. "Mr. October" had one of the greatest moments in Yankee history when he hit three homers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.
At the time, it gave the Yanks their first World Series title in 13 seasons and he would help them go back to the next season.
Among some of the other African American players that are featured in Prof. Frommer's book are Jeter, current third base coach and ex-captain Willie Randolph, Bernie Williams, and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.
The book also includes a comprehensive trivia quiz, quotes, anecdotes, and other entertaining features for all baseball fans, Yankee or otherwise.
If you know a true Yankee fan, it's a great addition to their library.
If you know a true Yankee hater, this will be a best way to start an arguement.
Customer Reviews:
Great book, full of intricacies and detail........1997-12-11
Mr. Mosedale's book is full of background, let's you know what else was going on in 1927, etc. He gives a good recreation of the season. I wish it would have included more actual dates of the games that were played. He made it reasonbly easy to compile a game by game list, including 85% of games. He gave salaries for a few every day players, but no salaries for pitchers. Overall, the book was easy to read and extremely hard to put down. It left me, a die hard 1927 Yankee fan yearning for even more knowledge about the greatest team in history.
Average customer rating:
- Wholly without a point
- quell the nausea
- Love it or hate it/love them or hate them
- Bitter, even if skillful in style
- Bitter, even if skillful in style
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Those Damn Yankees: The Secret Life of America's Greatest Franchise
Dean Chadwin
Manufacturer: Verso
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1859847137 |
Amazon.com
Chadwin, himself a New Yorker, may need to travel the streets of his city more cautiously. While he presents a thorough, well-considered assessment of the history and current status of baseball's most venerable institution, Chadwin can't seem to find much good in the team's past or present; from the fans (chiefly the "Bleacher Creatures"--the cheap-seat-inhabiting zealots described here as homophobic, obnoxious, and insensitive) to the owner (Now that's a new idea: criticizing George Steinbrenner!) to beloved manager Joe Torre and the players themselves, he spares virtually no one in his criticism of the team.
Though many of Chadwin's critiques ring true, the same complaints could be made of countless other top athletic teams, in baseball and elsewhere. Still, he does acknowledge that professional sports are a business rather than a microcosm of society (as so many of us, particularly sportswriters, want to believe); Yankees fans, it must be said, are particularly savvy in this regard: "Within the Yankee Nation ... fans embrace a 'Just Win, Baby' belief system because they know that the game contains no unique moral dimension that elevates it above other human endeavors." No matter what, Americans--and, most importantly, New Yorkers--will continue to love them. --Leah Ball
Book Description
The New York Yankees have won twenty-four championships, more than any other American professional sports franchise. The team's rich history includes a color bar, the towering home runs and bottomless appetites of Babe Ruth, the early and intensely lamented death of Lou Gehrig, frequent labor disputes between players and owners, and the free verse of Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto. The 1998 season has emerged as one of the franchise's most memorable both on and off the field. As the squad raced through an all-time record for victories to win the World Series, observers wondered whether the club's stadium would return to its wandering ways of a century ago. The Yankees abandoned Baltimore in 1902. After seventy-five years in the Bronx, Yankee management are now pursuing a move to Manhattan or the suburbs that could tap into millions of public dollars. Those Damn Yankees is a riveting and unconventional foray into the murky underworld of baseball, from the incipient sexual desire of young girls visiting the Derek Jeter on-line fansite to the boozy macho heart of the Yankee Nation in the now-endangered bleachers. In compelling asides, Dean Chadwin looks at issues such as baseball's cult of memory, numerology in sport and society, the emergence of an anti-competitive baseball league of haves and have-nots, and a sporting cartel's exploitation of inter-city economic warfare.
Customer Reviews:
Wholly without a point.......2004-05-03
It's hard to find anything to like about this book.
Not surprising, as author Dean Chadwin finds it hard to find something to like about, well, anything.
Chadwin's book is puzzling. While most works of non-fiction have a point - chronicling an era or person or event, informing about a topic, or editorializing on an issue - Chadwin seems to have forged ahead with little point outside the notion that the Yankees are not only the Great Evil of baseball, but one of the great evils of the world. If he could have pinned the first World War on the Yankees, he would have.
Space is allotted for diatribes on racism (the Yankees, you'll note, are a racist organization), homophobia (the Yankees have a special something that draws homophobes to the team, it seems), bad business (the Yankees are Enron and Standard Oil rolled into one) and New York politics (no, we're unsure how this is relevant to the team allegedly being chronicled, but darnit, Rudy is a bad guy). Chadwin makes it a point to tell us Steinbrenner is a bad guy (really?), that Yankee players are all tainted (they were, after all, Yankees), that most bad people around baseball can be traced back to the Yankees (he will bend over backwards to link bad behavior and the team), and that the so-called "bleacher creatures" represent Yankee fans as a whole (a bunch of loathsome, homophobic, racist drunkards, if Chadwin's book is to be believed).
Make no mistake, the author can write. His prose never bores, the pacing is good, and he can turn a phrase. Those looking for a tome that will help reinforce their Yankee hatred will relish in this book. It's certainly well put together.
For most readers, especially those looking for a good book about baseball or the New York Yankees, this will be a book you'll want to skip. It's about neither. It's about the author's politics.
Dean Chadwin's book isn't to be skipped because its target is the cherished New York Yankees - have at them, I say - it's to be skipped because it's little more than a lengthy rant without a point by a bitter man.
At least, that's how it reads. Once. Because it's not worth reading twice.
quell the nausea.......2001-11-04
I've argued this point too often to defend it again here; let me just state it : Men are conservative. One result of this political bias is that, for the most part, sports coverage tends to be fairly conservative too. Sure, sports writers and fans may moan about player salaries and big market teams, giving themselves a faint patina of egalitarianism, but as a general rule, don't begrudge them the money much, and, for all the lip service given to competitive balance, are never happier than when great teams come along. Take Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls for example; you never heard a peep about the gazillion dollars that Michael made or about the fact that no one else had any shot at the title. Those years, during which the NBA hit its all time peak in popularity, will be remembered for the dominance of not merely one team, but one player.
Likewise, in those years where the NFL is truly competitive and small market teams have a shot at the Super Bowl, no one watches the games. The Rams vs. the Titans may have been a nice story, but no one followed it. Meanwhile, on most other issues, fans and journalists are positively reactionary. The trend towards old style ballparks, classic uniforms, and more traditional rules are all manifestations of a core belief that most sports were better forty years ago than they are today.
So it is a rather extraordinary thing when an author pens a sports book that can truly be described as politically radical. The Yankees are to Dean Chadwin as the Soviet Union was to Ronald Reagan--the focus of evil in the modern world. This book is a frequently funny, always splenetic, only sometimes ridiculous, tirade aimed at the racism, homophobia, exploitativeness, acquisitiveness, ignorance, intolerance, duplicity, and greed of George Steinbrenner, the fans, the athletes, baseball in general, and Rudy Guliani, and the other politicians who are so eager to spend public money to keep or lure professional franchises.
Personally, I grew up in Northern New Jersey, where there were only two kinds of people. Those who rooted for the Yankees/Giants/Rangers/Knicks were the worst kind of front running filth, the kind of people who would have remained Loyalist during the American Revolution, or, were they French (and they nearly were) would have been Vichy rather than Resistance. These people expected victory as something of a birthright, and weren't particular about how it was secured. The rest of us, though we liked to see our teams win periodically (the Mets in '69, '73, '86 seemed to have an adequate pace), actually did not peg our loyalties to championships--we stuck by our squads even at their most hopeless (and perhaps only a lifelong Nets fan can truly even comprehend the meaning of the word "hopeless."). Now I live in New England, root (as one must) for the Red Sox (though still a Met fan too) and have drunk deep at the well of Yankee hatred. So I thoroughly enjoyed the sheer venom that Chadwin spews in this book. It goes over the edge in certain places and some of his political beliefs are simply too absurd to be taken seriously, but he's right on the money about what a boondoggle all of this publicly funded stadium construction is, and the book is generally such a drastic change of pace from the glut of onanistic Yankee hagiographies we've been inundated with over the years that he deserves credit just for swimming against the hegemonic pinstriped tide.
It is necessary to loathe the Yankees. And while it is not necessary to read this book in order to summon the appropriate loathing, it certainly helps. The next time some Billy Crystal/Bob Costas type wells up when talking about how the best day of his childhood was that day at the Stadium when Mickey hit two, grab this book and turn to pretty much any page, it will surely help quell the nausea.
GRADE : C
Love it or hate it/love them or hate them.......2000-11-15
There are really only three ways to take this book. Love the Yanks = hate the book; hate the Yanks = like the book; or, prefer an opinionated, well-researched, theoretical, political, interesting, polemical treatment of baseball over the usual insipid drivel = love the book.
Bitter, even if skillful in style.......2000-10-06
The author, while clearly skillful in his use of language, yet shows an unmistakable bitterness against Giuliani and the Yankees, while presenting an unconvincing case for his convictions. I was surprised at how shallow his sentences were in content, though composed in rather sophisticated style. He has a gift with words but his thoughts are not coherent, with passions evidently more ruled by a personal contempt for the Yankees and those who rule in New York than anything genuinely factual about the team or the city's leaders. It is one thing to truly expose the faults of those who succeed; it is quite another to simply hate them because they succeeded. The former may be a public service, but the latter is nothing but petty jealousy. The latter is what I found in this disappointing book.
Bitter, even if skillful in style.......2000-10-03
The author, while clearly skillful in his use of language, yet shows an unmistakable bitterness against Giuliani and the Yankees, while presenting an unconvincing case for his convictions. I was surprised at how shallow his sentences were in content, though composed in rather sophisticated style. He has a gift with words but his thoughts are not coherent, with passions evidently more ruled by a personal contempt for the Yankees and those who rule in New York than anything genuinely factual about the team or the city's leaders. It is one thing to truly expose the faults of those who succeed; it is quite another to simply hate them because they succeeded. The former may be a public service, but the latter is nothing but petty jealousy. The latter is what I found in this disappointing book.
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