The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty


Book Description

For six extraordinary years around the turn of the millennium, the Yankees were baseball's unstoppable force, with players such as Paul O'Neill, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera. But for the players and the coaches, baseball Yankees-style was also an almost unbearable pressure cooker of anxiety, expectation, and infighting. With owner George Steinbrenner at the controls, the Yankees money machine spun out of control. In this new edition of The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, Buster Olney tracks the Yankees through these exciting and tumultuous seasons, updating his insightful portrait with a new introduction that walks readers through Steinbrenner's departure from power, Joe Torre's departure from the team, the continued failure of the Yankees to succeed in the postseason, and the rise of Hank Steinbrenner. With an insider's familiarity with the game, Olney reveals what may have been an inevitable fall that last night of the Yankee dynasty, and its powerful aftermath.




Ed Barrow


Book Description

Before the feuding owners turned to Ed Barrow to be general manager in 1920, the Yankees had never won a pennant. They won their first in 1921 and during Barrow?s tenure went on to win thirteen more as well as ten World Series. This biography of the incomparable Barrow is also the story of how he built the most successful sports franchise in American history. øBarrow spent fifty years in baseball. He was in the middle of virtually every major conflict and held practically every job except player. Daniel R. Levitt describes Barrow?s pre-Yankees years, when he managed Babe Ruth and the Boston Red Sox to their last World Series Championship before the ?curse.? He then details how Barrow assembled a winning Yankees team both by purchasing players outright and by developing talent through a farm system. øThe story of the making of the great Yankees dynasty reveals Barrow?s genius for organizing, for recognizing baseball talent, and for exploiting the existing economic environment. Because Barrow was a player in so many of baseball?s key events, his biography gives a clear and eye-opening picture of how America?s sport was played in the twentieth century, on the field and off. A complex portrait of a larger-than-life character in the annals of baseball, this book is also an inside history of how the sport?s competitive environment evolved and how the Yankees came to dominate it.




The First Yankees Dynasty


Book Description

When Babe Ruth was sold by the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees at the beginning of the Roaring Twenties, the stage was set for one of baseball's greatest dynasties. With Ruth on board, and under manager Miller Huggins, the Yankees became America's most popular team, and the most dominant team in the American League. They won three consecutive pennants (1921-1923) and a World Series (1923). In 1924, the Yankees' quest for a fourth consecutive pennant fell short when they finished two games behind the first place Washington Senators. Expected to bounce back and win the 1925 championship, the Bronx Bombers instead crumbled to the bottom. Ruth's love for the nightlife, his undisciplined nature and disrespect for his manager had finally caught up to him, and it jeopardized his future in baseball. This book tells the story of Babe Ruth, Miller Huggins and the Yankees' rise to glory, their collapse in 1925 and their climb back to the top.




Birth of a Dynasty


Book Description

An overview of the 1996 Yankee season describes the pivotal contributions of manager Joe Torre, the achievements of such athletes as Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, and the team's four subsequent championships.




Yankees 1936–39, Baseball's Greatest Dynasty


Book Description

The Story of the Greatest Yankees Team—and Baseball Team—of All Time New York, 1936. Red Ruffing, Lefty Gomez, Bill Dickey, Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, and rookie Joe DiMaggio—with these six future Hall of Fame players, the Yankees embarked on a four-year run that would go down in the history books as the greatest Yankees team, if not, the greatest baseball team of all time. Over the next four years, the Yankees won four straight pennants, finishing an average of nearly fifteen games ahead of the second-place team. They won their four World Series by an overall margin of 16-3, sweeping the last two, putting the punctuation mark on baseball’s first true dynasty. Even the Ruthian Yankees of the twenties never won more than two consecutive world championships. From 1936 to 1939, the world was changing rapidly. America was in the grip of the Great Depression. Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected president in the greatest landslide in American history. And Hitler’s Germany was on the move in the fall of 1939, just as the Yankee dynasty reached its climax. Against the backdrop of a world in turmoil, baseball, and America’s love for baseball, thrived. Starring the best team of all time, featuring little-known anecdotes of players and set against a history of the world, Yankees 1936–39, Baseball's Greatest Dynasty tells the tale of a legendary team that changed history.




Core Four


Book Description

Tracing the careers of four instrumental players who turned around the Yankees ball club, this book shares behind-the-scenes stories from their early days together in the minors through the 2012 season, and follows them on their majestic ride to the top of the baseball world. At a time when the New York Yankees were in free fall, having failed to win a World Series in 17 years and had not played in one in 14 years--the Bronx Bombers' longest drought since before the days of Babe Ruth--along came four young players whose powerful impact returned the franchise to its former glory. They were a diverse group from different parts of the globe: Mariano Rivera, a right-handed pitcher from Panama, who was destined to become the all-time record holder in saves and baseball's greatest closer; Derek Jeter, a shortstop raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who would become the first Yankee to accumulate 3,000 hits; Jorge Posada, an infielder-turned-catcher from Puerto Rico, who would hit more home runs than any Yankees catcher except the legendary Hall of Famer Yogi Berra; and Andy Pettitte, a left-handed pitcher born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who would win more postseason games than any player in baseball history. Together they formed the "Core Four," and would go on to play as teammates for 13 seasons during which time they would help the Yankees advance to the postseason 12 times, win the American League pennant seven times, and take home five World Series trophies. This book follows these phenoms from the minor leagues to the present, detailing their significant contributions to a winning major league franchise.




The Baby Bombers


Book Description

A comprehensive look behind the rise of a new generation of superstar Yankees—now updated with the Yankees’ 100-win 2018 season! Derek Jeter and the “Core Four” have passed the torch to a new generation of Yankees superstars—including Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, and Gleyber Torres—who have powered through the minors to become stars on baseball’s biggest stage. Joined by reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton, this thrilling group is poised to chase championship titles for years to come. The Baby Bombers details the inside-baseball strategy of the Yankees’ pivot to a younger, more exciting roster, the players’ fascinating paths to Yankee Stadium, their memorable 2017 and 2018 playoff runs, their amazing assaults on the record books, and a unified mission to hoist the franchise’s twenty-eighth World Series trophy. Through new, in-depth interviews, veteran reporter Bryan Hoch fleshes out the transition from Jeter to Judge, scoring behind-the-scenes insights from general manager Brian Cashman, former manager Joe Girardi, executives and scouts, members of the current roster, opponents, and Yankees legends of the past. Winning baseball in the Bronx has resumed with postseason hero Aaron Boone in the manager’s chair, aiming to steer the franchise to its forty-first World Series appearance. Featuring nearly fifty photographs, The Baby Bombers tracks the rise of today’s Yankees from fresh-faced rookies into a group that is destined for pinstriped greatness. “A must-read for anyone who wants to understand who these new Yankees are, and where they are going.”―Ken Rosenthal, baseball writer and columnist for The Athletic, and Emmy Award–winning field reporter for MLB Network and FOX Sports




Chumps To Champs


Book Description

The untold story of the years when the Yankees were a laughingstock—and how out of that abyss emerged the modern Yankees dynasty, one of the greatest in all of sports The New York Yankees have won 27 world championships and 40 American League pennants, both world records. They have 26 members in the Hall of Fame. Their pinstripe swag is a symbol of “making it” worn across the globe. Yet some 25 years ago, from 1989 to 1992, the Yankees were a pitiful team at the bottom of the standings, sitting on a 14-year World Series drought and a 35 percent drop in attendance. To make the statistics worse, their mercurial, bombastic owner was banned from baseball. But out of these ashes emerged a modern Yankees dynasty, a juggernaut built on the sly, a brilliant mix of personalities, talent, and ambition. In Chumps to Champs, Bill Pennington reveals a grand tale of revival. Readers encounter larger-than-life characters like George Steinbrenner and unexplored figures like Buck Showalter (three-time manager of the year), Don Mattingly, and the crafty architect of it all, general manager Gene Michael, who assembled the team’s future stars—Rivera, Jeter, Williams, O’Neill, and Pettitte. Drawing on unique access, Pennington tells a wild and raucous tale.




Management Wisdom From the New York Yankees' Dynasty


Book Description

Since the 1920’s, the New York Yankees have become the most successful sports franchise in history because of the way they manage their talent and their organization. So how do they do it? The Yankees’ sustained success can be traced to 14 core management principles, applicable to any business operating today. These principles embrace cultivation of home-grown talent, creation of a culture that demands excellence, pursuit and introduction of the most talented players from outside the organization, promotion of a diversified workforce, and utilization of a productive farm system as currency in making talent deals.




Lou Gehrig


Book Description

The lost memoir from Lou Gehrig—“a compelling rumination by a baseball icon and a tragic hero” (Sports Illustrated) and “a fitting tribute to an inspiring baseball legend” (Publishers Weekly). At the tender age of twenty-four, Lou Gehrig decided to tell the remarkable story of his life and career. He was one of the most famous athletes in the country, in the midst of a record-breaking season with the legendary 1927 World Series–winning Yankees. In an effort to grow Lou’s star, pioneering sports agent Christy Walsh arranged for Lou’s tale of baseball greatness to syndicate in newspapers across the country. Those columns were largely forgotten and lost to history—until now. Lou comes alive in this “must-read” (Tyler Kepner, The New York Times) memoir. It is an inspiring, heartfelt rags-to-riches tale about a poor kid from New York who became one of the most revered baseball players of all time. Fourteen years after his account, Lou would tragically die from ALS, a neuromuscular disorder now known as Lou Gherig’s Disease. His poignant autobiography is followed by an insightful biographical essay by historian Alan D. Gaff. Here is Lou—Hall of Famer, All Star, MVP, an “athlete who epitomized the American dream” (Christian Science Monitor)—back at bat.