Good Yankees books forum

[PYanks]

This thread is designed to be a forum to discuss or recommend good Yankees books that you have read. There are, of course, many such books, both historical and contemporary. Perhaps you're looking for a good Yankees book to read and can get an idea from a post here. Perhaps you've read one recently you'd like to discuss with others. Here's the place for that!

I recently read Jonathan Eig's The Luckiest Man, a biography of Lou Gehrig. The book was outstanding in terms of its research and style. I also read Pride and Pinstripes, Mel Stottlemyre's autobiography--also worth a read.

[MunsonNY15]

What a great off-season thread!

I agree, PYanks. Jonathan Eig's Luckiest Man was a great biography, not just a great baseball biography. It made me even more of a Gehrig fan than I already was.

Here are a few Yankees books that I've read and recommend:

Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees by Matthew McGough. Very funny account of McGough's turn as a Yankees' bat boy during the early 90s. The team didn't exactly include today's all-star lineup, but there are some good stories about Donnie and others.

October Men : Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees' Miraculous Finish in 1978 by Roger Kahn. Kahn's writing style is in a class by itself. Some may find it disjointed at times, especially when he includes paragraphs unrelated to the topic at hand, but somehow he always manages to get back to the main point. And no no one turns a phrase like Kahn. His book, Boys of Summer, is considered by many to be the best baseball book ever written.

Bronx Zoo by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock. Lyle's hilarious behind the scenes account of the tumultuous 1978 season. These are the Yankees of my youth, and I'll always have a soft spot for this team, but even if I didn't, I'd find this book one of the funniest I've read.

Birth of a Dynasty: Behind the Pinstripes with the 1996 Yankees by Joel Sherman. I really enjoy behind the scenes stuff, and this book has it.

One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America by Steve Kettmann. Another behind the scenes book, but this one is all about one game played in the middle of a pennant race: Yankees vs. Red Sox on August 30, 2003. Kettmann gives us a view of this one game from the perspective of everyone from fans in the stands to Red Sox GM, Theo Epstein. By the way, the Yankees won the game 10-7.

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty : The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness by Buster Olney. Some may argue with Olney's premise (that the Yankees are dead), but it gives the reader more behind the scenes stuff. This time it's a view of the Yankee Dynasty principals (Torre, Jeter, Big Stein, etc.) intertwined within an inning by inning look at game 7 of the 2001 world series. Interesting idea, and it works.

The Pride and the Pressure: A Season Inside the New York Yankee Fishbowl by Michael Morrissey. No big revelations here, but it's more behind the scenes stuff, this time with a more current team, the 2006 Yanks.

Pride of October: What it Was to Be Young and a Yankee by Bill Madden. Each chapter is a visit with former Yankees from Marius Russo, who played with Lou Gehrig, to more contemporaries like Mattingly and O'Neill. I found it interesting since it gave me some background on Yankees I didn't know much about.

Chasing the Dream by Joe Torre. Basically an autobiography, but it gives the reader more behind the scenes stuff, this time the 1996 season from Torre's perspective.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler. This is the book on which the ESPN miniseries was based. Not specifically about the Yankees, but the 1977 team plays a large part. Even if you saw the ESPN series, I recommend the book. Jumping from storyline to storyline works much better on the printed page than it did on the TV screen.

Few And Chosen: Defining Yankee Greatness Across The Eras by Phil Pepe and Whitey Ford. Like lists? Then this is the book for you. Whitey gives us his top players at each position. He also gives us some anecdotes about his former teammates. Let the discussions begin!

Thurman Munson: An Autobiography by Thurman Munson and Marty Appel. I took this book out of my local library so many times as a kid, the librarian set it aside for me when it was finally included in a library book sale. She said, "You practically own it already." LOL. Best book out there about Munson. And yes, I still have the library copy.

I'd love to get some suggestions from other fans. I'm always looking for a good book.

Heidi

[Toaderly]

Luckiest Man. Best. Yankee. Book. Ever.


Ten Rings is pretty good, also.

[Yankeesfan924]

What a great off-season thread!

I agree, PYanks. Jonathan Eig's Luckiest Man was a great biography, not just a great baseball biography. It made me even more of a Gehrig fan than I already was.

Here are a few Yankees books that I've read and recommend:

Bat Boy: My True Life Adventures Coming of Age with the New York Yankees by Matthew McGough. Very funny account of McGough's turn as a Yankees' bat boy during the early 90s. The team didn't exactly include today's all-star lineup, but there are some good stories about Donnie and others.

October Men : Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees' Miraculous Finish in 1978 by Roger Kahn. Kahn's writing style is in a class by itself. Some may find it disjointed at times, especially when he includes paragraphs unrelated to the topic at hand, but somehow he always manages to get back to the main point. And no no one turns a phrase like Kahn. His book, Boys of Summer, is considered by many to be the best baseball book ever written.

Bronx Zoo by Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock. Lyle's hilarious behind the scenes account of the tumultuous 1978 season. These are the Yankees of my youth, and I'll always have a soft spot for this team, but even if I didn't, I'd find this book one of the funniest I've read.

Birth of a Dynasty: Behind the Pinstripes with the 1996 Yankees by Joel Sherman. I really enjoy behind the scenes stuff, and this book has it.

One Day at Fenway: A Day in the Life of Baseball in America by Steve Kettmann. Another behind the scenes book, but this one is all about one game played in the middle of a pennant race: Yankees vs. Red Sox on August 30, 2003. Kettmann gives us a view of this one game from the perspective of everyone from fans in the stands to Red Sox GM, Theo Epstein. By the way, the Yankees won the game 10-7.

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty : The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness by Buster Olney. Some may argue with Olney's premise (that the Yankees are dead), but it gives the reader more behind the scenes stuff. This time it's a view of the Yankee Dynasty principals (Torre, Jeter, Big Stein, etc.) intertwined within an inning by inning look at game 7 of the 2001 world series. Interesting idea, and it works.

The Pride and the Pressure: A Season Inside the New York Yankee Fishbowl by Michael Morrissey. No big revelations here, but it's more behind the scenes stuff, this time with a more current team, the 2006 Yanks.

Pride of October: What it Was to Be Young and a Yankee by Bill Madden. Each chapter is a visit with former Yankees from Marius Russo, who played with Lou Gehrig, to more contemporaries like Mattingly and O'Neill. I found it interesting since it gave me some background on Yankees I didn't know much about.

Chasing the Dream by Joe Torre. Basically an autobiography, but it gives the reader more behind the scenes stuff, this time the 1996 season from Torre's perspective.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City by Jonathan Mahler. This is the book on which the ESPN miniseries was based. Not specifically about the Yankees, but the 1977 team plays a large part. Even if you saw the ESPN series, I recommend the book. Jumping from storyline to storyline works much better on the printed page than it did on the TV screen.

Few And Chosen: Defining Yankee Greatness Across The Eras by Phil Pepe and Whitey Ford. Like lists? Then this is the book for you. Whitey gives us his top players at each position. He also gives us some anecdotes about his former teammates. Let the discussions begin!

Thurman Munson: An Autobiography by Thurman Munson and Marty Appel. I took this book out of my local library so many times as a kid, the librarian set it aside for me when it was finally included in a library book sale. She said, "You practically own it already." LOL. Best book out there about Munson. And yes, I still have the library copy.

I'd love to get some suggestions from other fans. I'm always looking for a good book.

Heidi

The Bill Madden one is fantastic, the Buster Olney, I never finished, but I didn't really enjoy it.

[Yankeesfan924]

A great book that I've read about the Yankees is Maury Allen's All Roads Lead to October about Steinbrenner's run with the Yankees.

[penguin4]

Luckiest Man was great. I only wish it had been written ten years sooner so it had more primary interviews.

A Pitcher's Story by Roger Angell (about the guy to my left) is also very good. But I've never read anything bad by Roger Angell.

I've always been a big fan of Murderer's Row by G.H. Fleming, which is a compilation of newspaper articles and other primary sources from the 1927 season. Waite Hoyt had a huge hand as a consultant in the editing process, as well as wrote the forward a couple months before he died -- and it's probably one of the few things ever written about the '27 team by one of the players themselves (ghostwritten columns don't count). [Note: It may be out of print, but most libraries have it, and used copies are always floating around the web.]

Baseball As I Have Known It by Fred Lieb is another one of my favorites. It's not Yankee-specific, but Lieb was a sportswriter for over seventy years, a significant portion of which was based in New York, so there are chapters on Ruth, Gehrig, Hal Chase, and Carl Mays, among lots of other goodies, a lot of which you may not have heard before.

[THEBOSS84]

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty is the best sports book I have ever read.

The Michael Morrisey crappy book was crap. I think it was called Pressure and Pinstripes. Sucked.

[ace]

Game of Shadows isn't a Yankee book (though Giambi is in it), but you should read it anyway if you haven't.

"Birth of a Dynasty" and "Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty" are very good, I liked the latter better.

[effdamets]

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty is the best sports book I have ever read.

The Michael Morrisey crappy book was crap. I think it was called Pressure and Pinstripes. Sucked.

I just ordered "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty" from Amazon...

[NYYankees6265]

Game of Shadows isn't a Yankee book (though Giambi is in it), but you should read it anyway if you haven't.

"Birth of a Dynasty" and "Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty" are very good, I liked the latter better.

Birth of Dynasty was really good.

Another good one....although its one really just for fun....is 101 Reason to Love The Yankees (And 10 Reasons to Hate The Red Sox) By Ron Green, Jr

[NYYankees6265]

Oh and Bleeding Pinstripes is a really good one too. Its all about the Bleacher Creatures

[Toaderly]

Birth of Dynasty was really good.

Another good one....although its one really just for fun....is 101 Reason to Love The Yankees (And 10 Reasons to Hate The Red Sox) By Ron Green, Jr

Only 10? Seems a little low, dontcha think?

[AlbanyColonieYankee]

I really enjoyed "Emperors and Idiots" about the Yankees/Sox rivalry.

[Yankeesfan924]

"The Rivalry" was good about the Yankees/Sox rivalry, plus my cousins are in a picture in it.

[wexy]

Summer of '49 and October'64 by the late David Halberstam are great books.

[4bronxbombers]

This thread is designed to be a forum to discuss or recommend good Yankees books that you have read. There are, of course, many such books, both historical and contemporary. Perhaps you're looking for a good Yankees book to read and can get an idea from a post here. Perhaps you've read one recently you'd like to discuss with others. Here's the place for that!

I recently read Jonathan Eig's The Luckiest Man, a biography of Lou Gehrig. The book was outstanding in terms of its research and style. I also read Pride and Pinstripes, Mel Stottlemyre's autobiography--also worth a read.

I loved Luckiest Man! And now I'm reading Pride and Pinstripes.

[4bronxbombers]

Game of Shadows isn't a Yankee book (though Giambi is in it), but you should read it anyway if you haven't.

"Birth of a Dynasty" and "Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty" are very good, I liked the latter better.

I have Game of Shadows and haven't read it yet. I also have Bronx is Burning that I have to read.

[penguin4]

I really enjoyed "Emperors and Idiots" about the Yankees/Sox rivalry.

Speak of the devil! My aunt just sent me a free copy of that today. I wouldn't've paid money for it, but eventually maybe I'll get around to reading it.

Add Babe: The Legend Comes To Life by Robert Creamer to this list. An oldie, but from what I gather no one's quite done as good a job narrating the life of the Bambino as he has. A lot of the crazy stories we know and hear about Ruth that have sort of become canon originated in that book.

[PYanks]

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty is the best sports book I have ever read.

The Michael Morrisey crappy book was crap. I think it was called Pressure and Pinstripes. Sucked.

Olney's book was excellent, to be sure. He is a very good writer and as a NYTimes beat writer had incredible access. Now that he's with ESPN, I think he continues to maintain a high level of access.

You're right about Morrisey's The Pride and the Pressure. I read it, but it was not good at all.

Joel Sherman's book, Birth of a Dynasty, is also a very good read, as some of you have already pointed out.

[Sixty one]

I am currently reading a book by Jim Reisler called "The Best Game Ever" which is the story of the seventh game of the 1960 WS between the Yankees and the Pirates inwhich Pittsburgh won in the bottom of the 9th inning by a homerun off the bat of Bill Mazaroski. Even though I was skeptical about reading a book showing how the Yanks who dominated that Series lost it, I decided to give it a try and have found it fascinating. I can remember that series vividly. It was a great disappointment for me at the time since I was in college and had to bear the teasing from my anti-yankee friends. However, I would definitely recommend this book especially to the old timers on this forum who may remember it as I did.

[NYYankees6265]

Only 10? Seems a little low, dontcha think?

Personally, I think its alittle low because I think we all knows theres plenty more than that, but sadly he chose to only include 10.

[Hank#1]

My favorite book is a fiction book called Yankee Rookie by Ed Fitzgerald. My dad got it in the 1950s, and I found it on a shelf one day when I was a kid and started reading it. That's how I became a Yankee fan. When I have kids, I'll let them read it if they don't mind the musty smell and yellow pages.

And I"ll second the nomination for Creamer's biography of the Babe. It's a great book and everybody should read it. I read it in college for a class about American history. I had no idea the Babe was such a great pitcher before reading it.

[Soriambi]

One book that I haven't seen mentioned that I enjoyed was Taking on the Yankees. It's basically a book discussing the history of the business of baseball and how it has changed, and the Yankees and their history are discusses thoroughly in it. I found it very interesting.

[Varitek=SuckerPunch]

Add Babe: The Legend Comes To Life by Robert Creamer to this list. An oldie, but from what I gather no one's quite done as good a job narrating the life of the Bambino as he has. A lot of the crazy stories we know and hear about Ruth that have sort of become canon originated in that book.

You might want to check out the The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth . I thought it was a great book about the Babe. It may have the same stories as the book you listed but it's worth checking out.

Also, I really liked Paul O'Neill's book, Me and My Dad: A Baseball Memoir. It was great! He talked about how hard it was to retire and he also wrote about his temper! That was the best part.

[mvavra1]

For all you parents out there, there is a great A-Z book of Yankee heroes. My sons love it and the illustrations are great.

[Sixty one]

Summer of '49 and October'64 by the late David Halberstam are great books.

I agree. They were both great books that I read several years ago. Too bad that Halberstam lost his life in a car accident last year. He was an excellent writer.

[51BWilliams]

Luckiest Man. Best. Yankee. Book. Ever.


Ten Rings is pretty good, also.

Those Yankee fans who haven't read Luckiest Man are doing themselves a great disservice, absolutely fantastic.

[4bronxbombers]

Those Yankee fans who haven't read Luckiest Man are doing themselves a great disservice, absolutely fantastic.

So true...one of the best books I read. Couldn't put it down.

[PepperGamesAllowed]

"Luckiest Man" is the best. Hands down.

Graig Nettles "Balls" is great. The entire book trashes Steinbrenner. It's amazing what he discusses as a current player. No wonder Steinbrenner shipped him off to San Diego after it was published.

[4bronxbombers]

"Luckiest Man" is the best. Hands down.

Graig Nettles "Balls" is great. The entire book trashes Steinbrenner. It's amazing what he discusses as a current player. No wonder Steinbrenner shipped him off to San Diego after it was published.

Oh wow....I'll have to check that one out.

[RhodyYanksFan]

One book that I haven't seen mentioned that I enjoyed was Taking on the Yankees. It's basically a book discussing the history of the business of baseball and how it has changed, and the Yankees and their history are discusses thoroughly in it. I found it very interesting.

Loved that one too. Very well done and interesting.

Ladies & Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning was the best book I read last year. It was exponentially better then the ESPN series.

[4bronxbombers]

Loved that one too. Very well done and interesting.

Ladies & Gentlemen, The Bronx is Burning was the best book I read last year. It was exponentially better then the ESPN series.

Good to know....I have that but haven't started it yet.

[RhodyYanksFan]

Good to know....I have that but haven't started it yet.

I'll never steer you wrong.

[TheMick@ND]

When I was a kid I read "My Favorite Summer 1956" by Mickey Mantle and Phil Pepe about 30 times. I think it was about the only book report I ever did. It's a really easy read, I'd recommend it to those with kids, although I think there's a few quotes that use profanity. My parents let me watch Major League when I was like 8, so that wasn't a big deal for me but I suppose it might be for some.

The only sports books I've read in the past few years aren't Yankee specific (Game of Shadows, Love Me Hate Me, MoneyBall, etc.) I'll definitely have to look at some of these previously mentioned books.

[njyankeesfan]

I'd recommend Derek Jeter's autobiography, The Life You Imagine. It's especially recommended for high school aged people trying to make good decisions in life, but all ages who admire Derek Jeter would enjoy the book. I'm still so amazed that he was focused on a specific career goal so early in his life and managed to achieve it!

[a yankeesfan]

I've read October Men, Murderer's Row, and the Duke of Havana (El Duque book). All were very good.

[YanksFan1992]

The Bronx is Burning

Emperors And Idiots

New York Yankees: The First 25 Years

The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty

October 1964

Luckiest Man


Coffee Table Books:

Memories of the Mick

New York Yankees: The Official Retrospective

Yankee Stadium

Joe DiMaggio: The Yankee Clipper

[__starr69]

Yankee Stadium by Ray Robinson and Christopher Jennison was pretty good and informative. As was Bleeding Pinstripes by Filip Bondy.

[ymike673]

If you want to learn about the early history of the Yankees read "Before They Were The Bombers". A great book about the early history (1903-1915) of the Yankees.

[hellonewman]

"Dynasty: 1949-1964. When Rooting for the Yankees Was Like Rooting For U.S. Steel," by Peter Golenbock. A few factual errors but a great oral history of the Yankees in that era.

"Steinbrenner's Yankees," Ed Linn. 1982. A highly critical look at the first decade or so of Steinbrenner's ownership.

[hellonewman]

I've always been a big fan of Murderer's Row by G.H. Fleming, which is a compilation of newspaper articles and other primary sources from the 1927 season. Waite Hoyt had a huge hand as a consultant in the editing process, as well as wrote the forward a couple months before he died -- and it's probably one of the few things ever written about the '27 team by one of the players themselves (ghostwritten columns don't count). [Note: It may be out of print, but most libraries have it, and used copies are always floating around the web.]

Seconded. Its predecessor, Fleming's "The Unforgettable Season," about the 1908 National League race, might be the best baseball book I've ever read.

[penguin4]

Seconded. Its predecessor, Fleming's "The Unforgettable Season," about the 1908 National League race, might be the best baseball book I've ever read.

Ooh, I've been wanting to check that one out ever since I read Cait Murphy's Crazy '08 -- another ridiculously well-researched (not to mention well-written) book. Only a few pages on the Yankees in there (and seeing as they finished dead last that season and weren't quite The Yankees yet, it's pretty obvious why), but still worth checking out for any baseball history fan.

[ymike673]

"The Year They Called Off The World Series: A True Story" by Benton Stark details the 1904 BB season which the Yankees (Highlanders) were a major part of.

[PYanks]

This forthcoming book just came to my attention:
Yankee for Life: My 40-Year Journey in Pinstripes, by Bobby Murcer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...etshrinecom-20

[bagger015]

Yankees Where have you gone? by Maury Allen.......Catching up with Dooley Womack, Tommy Henrich, Sparky Lyle and other Yankees of old............good read..........

[Retire21]

I'll try to mention some different books or at least re-iterate some other books' greatness:

Stengel by Robert Creamer is great. I laughed out loud while reading it numerous times- Stengel was a funny guy. Babe, also by Creamer, is the best book on Ruth ever written.

Summer of 49 by David Halberstam is the 2nd best baseball book I haver ever read (the 1st is The Glory of Their Times).

October 1964, also by Halberstam, is great but it is a depressing read if you're a Yankee fan. It kind of reads like Olney's book because the Yankees were holding on to their dynasty for dear life while the realities of years of ignoring African American players were about to hurt the Yankees.

A Legend in the Making: The New York Yankees in 1939 is a great read if you're interested in reading about quite possibly the greatest Yankee team of all-time. The book details Gehrig's situation and how the team handled it. Great book.

[MunsonNY15]

This forthcoming book just came to my attention:
Yankee for Life: My 40-Year Journey in Pinstripes, by Bobby Murcer
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...etshrinecom-20

Thanks for the heads up, PYanks! Murcer is one of my favorites, so this one will be pre-ordered.

Heidi

[PYanks]

Just finished Bombers: An Oral History of the New York Yankees. I liked it very much as it smoothly navigates Yankees history as told by players, both ours and opponents. The only real downside is that it skips right over the 1981-1996 era completely, with only a sentence to discuss it. Otherwise, an interesting book.

[MunsonNY15]

I started "The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78" by Richard Bradley last night and couldn't put it down!

There are a few factual errors (for example, he said Yogi was 22 [instead of 32] at the time of the Copa fight, which meant that he was 11 when he made his Yankees debut...LOL), but overall it's been very good. I was afraid it would have been biased toward the Red Sox, but it's been very even handed. In fact, he even seems to side a bit with Thurman in the Fisk vs. Munson debate.

Heidi

[MunsonNY15]

I started "The Greatest Game: The Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Playoff of '78" by Richard Bradley last night and couldn't put it down!

There are a few factual errors (for example, he said Yogi was 22 [instead of 32] at the time of the Copa fight, which meant that he was 11 when he made his Yankees debut...LOL), but overall it's been very good. I was afraid it would have been biased toward the Red Sox, but it's been very even handed. In fact, he even seems to side a bit with Thurman in the Fisk vs. Munson debate.

Heidi

I finished the book on Wednesday night and it was very good. Even though we obviously know the outcome of the game, the author manages to holds the reader's interest with a lot of backstory and in-game details.

Again, there were some errors that should have been caught in editing (at one point he writes about a ball hit to RIGHT FIELD just inside the 3RD BASELINE). But overall, it was very good.

ESPN.com has an excerpt, in case anyone is interested in reading it:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...9&sportCat=mlb

Heidi