MINI-BOOK REVIEWS
Well in an effort to catch up on my reviews I will combine these three reviews together.
By Cecilia Tan
You read her in Yankee
Magazine, you read her on her website, heck you even read her on the message
boards of BTB. 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.
Management Wisdom from the New York Yankees Dynasty
By Lance A. Berger with Dorothy R. Berger
Ever wonder why the Yankees
have been so successful? Well the
secret is out in the form of a hardcover book by Management Consultant Lance A.
Berger. Along with Dorothy R. Berger,
Mr. Berger dissects the operation of the Yankees and applies them to the
business world. It isn’t just the Steinbrenner era that is analyzed. It is every ownership since Jacob Ruppert set up shop right through the modern day Steinbrenner era. The book details what it took to bring the Yankees their 26 World Championships and shows how you can apply it to any business. It shows just how you can apply the team concept to any business. It takes the principles the Yankees use and applies it to an everyday business. If Theo Epstein had this book, perhaps it wouldn’t have taken him 86 years to win the World Series. This book could make a great reference for an economic class project.
My True Life Adventures Coming Of Age with the New York Yankees
Matthew McGough
Read by the Author
This is an audio book
available on Compact Disk and cassette. I did not
read the original book in paper form but I enjoyed this one immensely in the CD
player in my car. McGough was a Yankee
Bat Boy in the Mattingly era, hence the title.
While an audio book does leave little to the imagination this one is
like listening to old time baseball story while hanging with McGough. The
key words are "True Life".While most books are not read by the actual author this one does, it makes the adventures of the author that much more credible. Matthew McGough does a great job dragging you into his recollections of the lean teams in that era. He has a story for everyone. Having been a Yankee fan my whole life I could only envy the young Matthew.
McGough goes through the trials and tribulations of how he went from rookie batboy to player-accepted batboy. It shows what he had to do to become accepted by the players. At points it hinges on breaking the rule “what goes on here stays here” as he goes into detail some very interesting things that he had seen in his two year tenure. You would be surprised what goes on in the locker room. It reveals some very interesting stories that may just shock a fan. It has more than a few items that would tarnish an image or two.
After hearing this audio book, It never gave me any desire to go out and read the print version of the book but I recommend the audio version highly. It makes you wonder if there will be an audio book for Jose Canseco’s book.
Updated Through The 2004 Season
Paperback Version
By Harvey Frommer and Frederic J. Frommer
What more can be said about
one of the best Yankee book ever written?
They took perfection and then go and ruin in by updating the book to
include the Yankees biggest choke of all time.
The new paperback edition was updated to include the Red Sox 2004 World
Series championship. It includes both
fan a players recollections on how the Sox won their first World Series title
since 1918 and breaking the alleged curse.
It includes a detailed account of the come from behind victory over the
NY Yankees in the ALCS. A great book
for Yankee fans, Red Sox fans (especially now), and all baseball fans. Red Sox vs. Yankees:
The Great Rivalry gives the most complete coverage of the greatest rivalry
in sports history and the Frommers do it better than anyone, even if they did
ruin the ending.
All the all the photos are now in black and white, it tends to give them
that artsy look. For Yankee Fans go out and get the hardcover. For
Red Sox Fans this book is for you. For Baseball fans this is great baseball
history. The only way this book could be any better was to have the Sox
play the Cubbies in the Fall Classic.