Good Yankees books forum

[snarkerella]

I'm sure it's been recommended a lot here but Birth of a Dynasty is so good that I was shocked how bad Joel Sherman's reporting is overall once I started to pay attention to it.

Has anyone read that book about the 1995 ALDS that came out a little while back? How did that compare to the first chapter(s) of BoaD?

[Beyle]

It said nothing about baserunners running across the pitcher's mound, but it wasn't published in the 2-0-9 so it's probably all wrong.

Otherwise an entertaining but informative short read!

I enjoyed reading this book as well.

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.

Thanks, Kevin! Sounds interesting.

[ericns1]

Madden's book on the Boss makes for good reading and for me brings back many memories - some bad but many good.

[ynkefan23]

I'm sure it's been recommended a lot here but Birth of a Dynasty is so good that I was shocked how bad Joel Sherman's reporting is overall once I started to pay attention to it.

Has anyone read that book about the 1995 ALDS that came out a little while back? How did that compare to the first chapter(s) of BoaD?

I read the 1995 book by Donnolly...it was ok. Nothing you didn't already know. It was more of a re-cap of each game.

I find the new Steinbrenner book hard to put down.

[YankeePride1967]

I have the Steinbrenner book on deck behind the Willie Mays book I'm in the middle of.

[Eldee5]

I have the Steinbrenner book on deck behind the Willie Mays book I'm in the middle of.

That's funny. I'm doing the exact same thing. The new Steinbrenner book just came in at the library so I grabbed it right away but I'm still not finished with the Willie Mays book and that is very good also. There just aren't enough hours in the day...

[Tifoso]

no book written by Mike Lupica!

His book on 1998 was very good.

[Eldee5]

His book on 1998 was very good.

That is actually one of my all-time favorite books. Of course, in light of all the steroid admissions since then, I'm afraid to go back and read it again. It just wouldn't be the same.

[Tifoso]

That is actually one of my all-time favorite books. Of course, in light of all the steroid admissions since then, I'm afraid to go back and read it again. It just wouldn't be the same.

Just read the Yankees parts

[Eldee5]

Just read the Yankees parts

Those, thankfully, hold up extremely well!

[ojo]

actually, 'Steinbrenner' is the first book i've purchased for reading on my iPad. very interesting, indeed.

[ojo]

so yeah, George was an @ss back in the day.




the manner in which he'd humiliate people to the core, fire them in front of an audience, and then try to play it off like nothing happened a day or two later.

[MunsonNY15]

I read it several years ago shortly after it was released and enjoyed the read. It painted a "warts and all" picture of DiMaggio but it was well done. And, as Q just mentioned, it really captured the feel of the 40's. DiMaggio's career, of course, went from Gehrig to Mantle so it covers an amazing period of Yankees' history.

Take it out of the To Be Read pile. I'll bet you'll enjoy it.

After being passed over in my To Be Read pile for quite some time, I finally pulled out Cramer's Joe D book and finished it the other night. As you both said, Eldee and Q, it was very good. Warts and all, to be sure, but very researched and well written.

I'm now reading Madden's Steinbrenner book. That too is warts and all, but very good so far.
Heidi

[Eldee5]

After being passed over in my To Be Read pile for quite some time, I finally pulled out Cramer's Joe D book and finished it the other night. As you both said, Eldee and Q, it was very good. Warts and all, to be sure, but very researched and well written.

I'm now reading Madden's Steinbrenner book. That too is warts and all, but very good so far.
Heidi

I'm glad you enjoyed the Joe D. biography Heidi.

I just finished the Madden biography on Steinbrenner.
Excellent book, a must read for all Yankees' fans, especially those who are too young to remember what life in Yankeeland was like during the 70s and 80s. The present day "beloved" George Steinbrenner--to recent Yankees' fans, at least--was far from beloved back then and rightly so. Bill Madden did a great job with this book, especially in comparison to the disastrous Peter Golenbock biography of Steinbrenner. I was concerned that because Madden has had a pretty close relationship with Steinbrenner over the years, that this wouldn't be an honest appraisal of the man's life. Nothing could be further from the truth. The first five years of Steinbrenner's tenure were especially revealing as Madden was able to obtain audio tapes from Gabe Paul's son that Gabe had recorded on a daily basis while he was living and working in the mouth of the lion. Truly eye-opening stuff. Surprising, some of the conversations he was made privy to. I was sorry to see the book end.

[PYanks]

I read the 1995 book by Donnolly...it was ok. Nothing you didn't already know. It was more of a re-cap of each game.

I agree with this. I just finished it and some of the play-by-play was tedious. He went deep enough into some of the player stories to make you want more, but there wasn't enough there. The most interesting aspect was the backstory of Seattle--the effort to keep the Mariners and the new stadium construction battle. I also found the epilogue a good reminder of what happened to a number of players after that 1995 season. Not bad, but not outstanding at the same time.

[PYanks]

This past weekend, I read Dayn Perry's Reggie Jackson: The Life and Thunderous Career of Baseball's Mr. October, and found it quite enlightening. Growing up, Reggie was one of my first favorites on the Yankees, and I always liked him without knowing much about him. I had read Maury Allen's biography of him and more recently, Reggie's own biography, but Perry's book goes much more deeply into who Reggie is and what he dealt with. Reggie is no innocent, to be sure, and this book, in a way, exposes him for who he was. The storyline is tied together around the theme of race, and Perry treats this theme with judiciousness. The book doesn't dwell on 1977 or 1978, but gives those seasons their due. The strength of this book is that it goes beyond the usual treatments of Reggie that so many of us have read several times. (The book could have used a better editing job, though, as there were more than the usual typos.)

[Sixty one]

I'm glad you enjoyed the Joe D. biography Heidi.

I just finished the Madden biography on Steinbrenner.
Excellent book, a must read for all Yankees' fans, especially those who are too young to remember what life in Yankeeland was like during the 70s and 80s. The present day "beloved" George Steinbrenner--to recent Yankees' fans, at least--was far from beloved back then and rightly so. Bill Madden did a great job with this book, especially in comparison to the disastrous Peter Golenbock biography of Steinbrenner. I was concerned that because Madden has had a pretty close relationship with Steinbrenner over the years, that this wouldn't be an honest appraisal of the man's life. Nothing could be further from the truth. The first five years of Steinbrenner's tenure were especially revealing as Madden was able to obtain audio tapes from Gabe Paul's son that Gabe had recorded on a daily basis while he was living and working in the mouth of the lion. Truly eye-opening stuff. Surprising, some of the conversations he was made privy to. I was sorry to see the book end.

I agree with you about this book. I've read about half of the book and think it should be a must read for younger fans who have no idea on just how ruthless George was and probably still would if he didn't have a form of dementia. His relationship with Martin was unbelieveable and I had forgotten just how all the hirings and firings took place. The current Yanks would have had a tough time playing for him. I can see George demanding that Girardi play certain players and perhaps calling for the trade of AJ or whoever was not performing well at the moment. I wonder what all the people he fired over the years think when they hear all the nice things that are said about him?

[Michaels07]

I agree with you about this book. I've read about half of the book and think it should be a must read for younger fans who have no idea on just how ruthless George was and probably still would if he didn't have a form of dementia. His relationship with Martin was unbelieveable and I had forgotten just how all the hirings and firings took place. The current Yanks would have had a tough time playing for him. I can see George demanding that Girardi play certain players and perhaps calling for the trade of AJ or whoever was not performing well at the moment. I wonder what all the people he fired over the years think when they hear all the nice things that are said about him?

At times George was an S.O.B but on second thought a Big Hearted S.O.B

[yankeesjetsfan]

The Madden book is high on my Summer read list. I'll probably pick it up along with the new Maris bio next week.

Mike

[Kentucky Bomber]

Madden is going to be inCooperstwons elling and autographing his book during the Induction Weekend. I'll probably get it then and read most of it on my long, long flight home. Southwest Airlines is sending me from Albany to Louisville via............Tampa.

[PYanks]

The Madden book, Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball is an excellent book, far better than Golenbock's book, published a year ago. I finished Madden's book a couple of weeks ago and found myself remembering so much about Yankees history and how tumultuous things were, but also how much Steinbrenner cared about what he was doing--no matter what it was, but especially making the Yankees a championship team. Madden's contacts and sources make this book definitive.

[Kentucky Bomber]

I just finished Yogi Berra, Eternal Yankee by Allan Barra. While it was a pretty good read on Yogi and the Yankees in his time, it was a great example of why I don't do much baseball reading these days. Every chapter had an error of some sort, usually trivial, that ruined the experience for me. That seems to be happening every time I get into a baseball book. Most of the errors were trivial, like identifying one of Yogi's boyhood heroes as Frank Orsatti when the slightest bit of research or editing would have corrected this to Ernie Orsatti. Another: After Yogi won the 1964 pennant and lost the World Series in 7 games he was fired by the Yankees and a couple of months later joined the Mets as a player/coach. Barra says that Met fans pleaded for the team to add Yogi to the roster by hanging banners at Shea. If Yogi managed thru the World Series and was picked up by the Mets in the winter of 64/65, when did the opportunity to hang banners arise?

That's sloppy writing and sloppy editing, and unfortunately it is endemic to the genre these days.

However, if you can get through the sloppiness, a nice portrait of what makes Yogi the revered character he is comes through.

[PVD to NYC]

Just started reading Dynasty by Golenbock, then I am moving on to a book about the Babe. Which one should I go with: Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Creamer or The Big Bam the Life and Times and Times of Babe Ruth by Montville? I am leaning toward The Legend Comes to Life because it was written in the 70s and a lot of people associated with the Babe were still alive. They are both highly rated.

[MunsonNY15]

Just started reading Dynasty by Golenbock, then I am moving on to a book about the Babe. Which one should I go with: Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Creamer or The Big Bam the Life and Times and Times of Babe Ruth by Montville? I am leaning toward The Legend Comes to Life because it was written in the 70s and a lot of people associated with the Babe were still alive. They are both highly rated.

I read the Creamer one and enjoyed it very much.

Heidi

[YankeePride1967]

Just started reading Dynasty by Golenbock, then I am moving on to a book about the Babe. Which one should I go with: Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Creamer or The Big Bam the Life and Times and Times of Babe Ruth by Montville? I am leaning toward The Legend Comes to Life because it was written in the 70s and a lot of people associated with the Babe were still alive. They are both highly rated.

Never read the Creamer book but I thought the Montville book on Ruth is excellent. I am now just finishing Montville's book on Ted Williams.

[penguin4]

Just started reading Dynasty by Golenbock, then I am moving on to a book about the Babe. Which one should I go with: Babe: The Legend Comes to Life by Creamer or The Big Bam the Life and Times and Times of Babe Ruth by Montville? I am leaning toward The Legend Comes to Life because it was written in the 70s and a lot of people associated with the Babe were still alive. They are both highly rated.

[This thread's been open so long, I can't remember if I said this already here...] The Creamer book is a classic; it's where most of the Ruth stories that have become part of our canon originated. It was written some 30 years ago, but still stands the test of time.

Haven't read the Montville book, but from what I heard about from people who've read both, it kind of reinvents the wheel. I guess since the majority of first-hand sources that Creamer used are dead, it's kind of hard to find new material. But again, haven't read it, so can't say for myself.

The book I'm really excited for is Jane Leavy's Mickey Mantle book that's coming out in a couple of months. If it's anything like her Koufax book, it should be an excellent read. So far as I know, he was her childhood idol, and when she got to know him professionally and saw that whole other side of him, her opinion about him became a lot more complex. So I'm interested to see what she does with this.

[fredgmuggs]

I had recommended Marty Appel's "Munson" although I hadn't yet read it, knowing he always does a good job. I just finished it, basically reading nonstop in 2 sessions, thus not watching the second half of the Super Bowl. (really wasn't interested)

A really good read, full of facts from a Munson and Yankee insider. I have to admit Thurm was never one of my faves, and in fact I'm not really fond of any of the 1970's bunch. Too much unnecessary garbage going on. But this book did soften me a little in Munson's direction, especially when you come to realize his personality derived from his narrowly escaping the family from Hell. You learn lots about Thurman and quite a bit about his teammates, too. Well worth reading.

I finally got around to reading this book recently and I feel pretty much the same way as you do. Munson was too irascible for me to fully embrace but the book has also soften how I'll look at him from now on.

A very good biography with a lot of details of his early life that I was never aware about before I read the book.

[yankees2010]

Damned yankees by Madden and Moss Klien is a great read for someone who wants to remember how George Steinbrenner was viewed pre 1996

[ericns1]

Pinstriped Summers by Dick Lally covers the era from 1965 to the return to glory - nicely done

[PYanks]

Lots of books out now. Has anyone yet read any of these?

56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports, by Kostya Kennedy
Joe Dimaggio: The Long Vigil, by Jerome Charyn
The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter by Ian O'Connor
Derek Jeter: From the Pages of the New York Times, edited by Tyler Kepner
Donnie Baseball: The Definitive Biography of Don Mattingly, by Mike Shalin

Any others?