The Yankee Years
by Joe Torre, Tom Verducci
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Book Reviews of The Yankee Years
Book Review: The End Of A Dynasty Chronicled By Its Leader
Summary: 5 Stars
A few years ago, I was enthralled by Buster Olney's book "The Last Night of The Yankee Dynasty" for its ability to get to the heart of those 1996-2001 New York Yankee teams and understand both what made them tick, and eventually what caused their decline. "The Yankee Years" embarks on a similar task and actually eclipses that earlier effort due to the combination of Joe Torre's inside insight and Tom Verducci's captivating writing.
Basically, this book picks up on the day that Torre is introduced (to boos, of course) as manager of the New York Yankees before the 1996 season and continues until his dismissal following the 2007 season (in which he led the Yankees to a first-place finish). Over that span of time, Torre describes in detail each of those seasons, including what went right, what went wrong, and how he handled both of those issues.
What is easily the most interesting part of the book, though, are Torre's musings about how the Yankees changed after the 2001 season. Whereas the Yankees of the late 90s and early 2000s were built on home-grown talent (Jeter, Rivera, Posada) and ego-less players (Tino Martinez, Paul O'Neill, David Cone) who would do anything for a victory, that Luis Gonzalez blooper in the '01 World Series seemed to change everything, as Boss George Steinbrenner embarked on a spending spree the likes of which had never before been seen in baseball history. Each offseason, the Yankees would go out and buy the best player available, putting together an All-Star team of sorts that, on paper, looked pretty much unbeatable. Yet, as Torre points out time and time again within the text, that approach ultimately lead to the demise of one of the great dynasties in professional baseball. Sure, the Yankees bought enough talent to keep themselves in contention and make the playoffs, but by ignoring the "little things" like deep pitching, solid defense, and team unity, the Yankees have never been able to duplicate the success of that 1996-2001 run.
Of course, when a person (like Torre does) expresses an opinion that a failure has occurred, there are always going to be people to "blame". Being the gentleman that he is, however, Torre does not turn the book into a tell-all rag or a figure-pointing memoir. Does he have some harsh words for Steinbrenner, Alex Rodriguez, Kevin Brown, and the entire Yankee organization? At times, yes. However, he does not take pot-shots at them and backs up his claims with personal stories. It seems as if he was just "telling it like it was", and sometimes the truth can be very uncomfortable for those involved.
Thus, I think that perhaps the real success of "The Yankee Years" is its ability to de-bunk the notion that the Yankees have always been just an Evil Empire. Though I hated the Yanks with a passion back in their "glory years" a century ago, and railed against the big-market strategy they stood for, I have now come to realize that, at least those teams, were built on the fundamentals of winning baseball and really cannot be criticized. Only in more recent years, when the Yankees started buying up the rest of the league's talent, did the real trouble begin, and it took the inside knowledge of Joe Torre to shed light on that fact.
Book Review: poorly organized but good insight into decline of the yankees
Summary: 3 Stars
This book chronicles the decline of the Yankees from their amazing run of 4 championships in 5 years to their present low point. It is more than just a chronicle, though, as it provides analysis and insight into the reasons behind this decline. Relatedly, it also explains how and why other teams with far lesser payroll resources available to them than the free spending and flush Yankees have managed to close the gap and overtake the Yankees. For this documentation, the book is golden and provides a valuable contribution to understanding the business of developing a successful baseball organization.
On the other hand, this is perhaps one of the most poorly organized and written books I have ever read. Stories are told and retold at various points throughout the book. The repetition adds nothing to the story and only introduces confusion and lack of clarity to the presentation of the issues raised. It also makes the book incredibly tedious to read.
One other tiring aspect of the book is the effusive and fawning praise for various players littered throughout the chapters again and again and again. It would be one thing if the praise were spread out over many players, but it is not. Instead, it is limited to a small number of players and the praise is extolled repetitively throughout the book. Derek Jeter, in particular, is the subject of seemingly uninterrupted idol worship. (This is true for other players as well, but to a much lesser and far less objectionable extent.) Although I am of the opinion that Jeter is a great overall player and a certain first ballot Hall of Famer whom I would love to have playing for my favorite team - and I say this despite being aware of sabermetric analyses that consistently reveal Jeter to be amongst the worst fielding shortstops in baseball, both presently and all-time - the idol worship is over the top.
(Full disclosure: I was born in Boston and am a diehard Red Sox fan who, having spent half of my life in Greater Philadelphia, also roots for the Phillies.)
I don't believe this book was written by Joe Torre, but rather solely by Tom Verducci (based on extensive interviews with Torre), because of the fact it is told from the third person perspective with lots of quotes. (If Joe Torre wrote it, why does he write as if he is someone else and liberally quote himself?) And if this is how Verducci writes - with such shameful disjointedness, repetitiveness, and lack of organization to his topics - I truly don't understand how he could possibly be employed as a professional writer. Any freshman journalism student at a respectable university writes with better organization and clarity than is evident in this book. I am sorry, I simply cannot get past how pitifully poorly this book is written.
Book Review: Underwhelming
Summary: 3 Stars
Publicizing The Yankee Years as a Joe Torre book is misleading. This is Tom Verducci's work all the way, from start to finish. He chronicles Torre's twelve years as manager of the New York Yankees, telling Torre's story for him. To be fair, Verducci obviously collaborated with Torre and in fact quotes from interviews with the esteemed manager throughout to give a semblance of involvement. The third person perspective alone makes clear that this is not, in fact, coming from the pen of Joe Torre.
Despite his admittedly impressive resume (including a co-author credit on Torre's earlier memoirs, Chasing the Dream), Verducci's work here is underwhelming. Each chapter reads as little more than an expanded version of an article Verducci might composed for Sports Illustrated and longtime fans are not likely to walk away with any more insight into the era than they already had. Then there's his tendency to namedrop players only by their surnames, so newer fans might not know--or care--who's being discussed throughout various passages. (If you're frustrated by not being able to remember a player, you'll be surprised how much more frustrating it is to be given his last name and not be sure what his first name is without doing external research.) Lastly, Verducci occasionally employs a metaphor for humor's sake that likely serves him well in magazine articles, but is out of place in a book. I meant to record it verbatim, but the gist of the worst offender is a remark early on about how a disgruntled player was best approached wearing a hazardous material suit. Really?
Still, even a broken clock is right twice a day and where Verducci succeeds is telling the story of the relationship between the New York Yankees and the rest of Major League Baseball from 1995-2007. Especially well-researched is the chapter on the rise of steroids culture (and no wonder; performance-enhancing substances is a favorite subject of Verducci's). Indeed, the most illuminating passages step outside Yankee Stadium altogether and explore the changing landscape of player behavior, fan expectations and the revolution among owners to overhaul the very nature of the front office and how it meets its objective of finding and fielding a less costly, yet competitive, team.
Ultimately, there are no new insights shared in The Yankee Years, and history will not be restricted to its documentation of the era covered. Fans of Verducci's writing are much likelier to be pleased than are fans of Torre's.
Book Review: More of a History Than a Memoir, Supplemented with Interviews of Yankee Players
Summary: 4 Stars
If you are a Yankee fan, this is must reading. If you are a Red Sox fan, you may enjoy the book more than you think. If you are a Rays fan, it will give you hope. If you are a Dodger fan, it will add to your admiration for Joe Torre.
I admire Joe Torre and as a life-long Dodger fan was thrilled when he came to Chavez Ravine to manage. I wasn't surprised when the Dodgers made the playoffs. It's a big loss for the Yankees, but the miracle is that Torre was willing to put up with the Yankee ownership and leadership so long.
I also live in Boston and usually don't miss a pitch of any Red Sox-Yankee games. I was pleasantly surprised to see that The Yankee Years explores the underlying reasons why the rivalry went from being one that the Yankees comfortably dominated to one that has more recently favored the Red Sox. Just to give you a sense of how seriously people in Boston take the rivalry, I was stopped several times as I walked down the street carrying this book by people belligerently asking me if I was a Yankee fan.
Although the Yankees are the subject here, the book spends a lot of time on the newer ways of picking free agents, the effects of the luxury tax and subsidy to the small-market teams, better ways to develop players, steroids and HGH, and other general baseball subjects. For someone who isn't a Yankee fan, this made the book more interesting. If you are Yankee fan, you probably won't think it's all so great since much of it points out weaknesses in the Yankees.
Although I don't read the New York baseball reports columns, I was surprised to see that the book contained very little information about the Yankees that wasn't covered in Boston. Now if you don't live in New York or Boston and can't watch a lot of the Yankee games, this book may be of more interest to you than someone who keeps on top of the franchise.
I liked the way the book lets the record speak for itself in pointing out how badly pitchers picked up by the Yankees have performed in recent years. Joe Torre is a classy guy and he wasn't going to just trash everyone. Using numbers and statistics to portray how well Torre did with an ever weaker set of players . . . despite having a very expensive payroll . . . was deftly done.
I found the book overall to be enjoyable, but too long. With some editing, it could have been much shorter. A lot of the points are repeated way too often.
Book Review: Sometimes Insightful, Often Disappointing
Summary: 3 Stars
The Yankee Years is more of a chronicle of the Yankees and baseball from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, than a Joe Torre biography. Torre is quoted extensively, but so are other Yankees (Mike Mussina and David Cone in particular) and non-Yankees (Theo Epstein). This allows SI writer Tom Verducci to relate non-Torre stories, like the Red Sox ascendancy and the steroids controversy, as well as dish out some very harsh criticism (particularly at Alex Rodriguez) that may or may not be Torre's.
The first half of the book reveals little about the Yankees that you haven't seen on TV. If you're a fan, you'll enjoy reliving the League Championships and World Series games, but don't expect much in the way of behind-the-scenes play.
The books picks up, ironically, when it turns to the rise of the Red Sox, and then on to their confrontations with the Yankees.
Verducci could have used a proof reader or second editor. He'll repeat stories, mention people by last name that he hasn't referred to before, make statements in passing that beg for explanation (e.g., someone who "played by Selig's rules" without ever mentioning what those rules were, accusing Carlos Beltran of wanting to come to NY to "hide among the trees"), and every time he is about to cite an injustice (real or not) done to Torre, he feels the need to recite all of Torre's achievements with he Yankees, over and over again.
He had plenty of access to some Yankee players but hardly any to the very stars he (or Torre?) claim were the real Yankees (Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera) and had zero access to the Front Office (but got through in Boston).
But my main peeve is in his/their treatment of Rodriguez. Verducci/Torre call him phony, A-Fraud and self-centered with little concrete evidence to support it. When Rodriguez offers to Torre to help out with Sheffield's tantrum's, the player is at fault for "trying to be Jeter." A home run without anybody on base becomes a "cosmetic home run." A-Rod may have failed in the clutch, but there is zero in the book to merit such derision.
In fact, ironically, the two people the book puts in a better light are perhaps two of the least liked members of the organization: Rodriguez and owner George Steinbrenner, who comes across as a well-meaning meanie.
Faulty as it is, the Yankee Years is highly entertaining read.