The Yankee Years

I finished reading The Yankee Years by Joe Torre Monday and I must say it is a good book. It starts out in the end of 1995 with the decision to make Torre the manager of the Yanks. How the NY press was ripping into him before he even started! We following the historic run of Torre's tenure from World Series hero to his leaving in 2007. He goes into detail about the players like Derek Jeter, who he puts on a pedestal, and the management like Cashman. It was interesting to read about the different personalities that they players have. Like Jeter being the calm, no complaining ever, stay the course and do your best out there everyday attitude. As well as how big name players who are traded to the Yankees can't handling playing in New York and collapse.

He writes about the elation of winning his first World Series in 96 as the under dogs and how it set the tone for the years to follow. There is quite a bit about the 98 Yankee season and how everything just came together for them. As well as how they embodied the team mentality and went on that magnificent run of three back to back World Series wins, a feat not seen since. He broke down how the Steroid Era came to be and the early warnings that players tried to give while MLB ignored it. The subsequent fallout that was the aftermath of steroids in baseball.

Torre writes a good transition showing how the Yankees were getting farther and farther from the team mentality of the "good old days." How certain players required special attention/needs , Clemens, and that others were so stats centric it hurt their performance as a team player and a member of the family, Rodriguez. The book shows how Steinbrenner was a boss who was involved with his team, even if it was in eccentric ways, to his state of declining health and a back burner role. One quote of Steinbrenner's that I particularly enjoyed was when a player threw a bag of chips ( I think it was chips) or something and it wound up hitting the boss. He just stood there and said "Who threw that?" upon finding out who it was he stated, "I knew it was you because it didn't hurt." Classic Steinbrenner! One thing I didn't like was how the Boss grew so accustomed to winning the World Series that he expected it to happen every year. The years that it didn't he viewed as a total failure. Now granted they lost the 01 and 03 World Series but, damn those were two amazing seasons and postseason runs!

It was interesting to read how baseball as a whole was changing. From batting percentage and gut feelings being the end all be all to how on base percentage and information became king in baseball. How revenue sharing gave weaker clubs a chance to compete against big teams like the Yankees. Baseball today really is a different world than how it was even in the late 90s.

Torre then writes about the gradual falling out of favor with the management to the point where they were gunning for Torre. That is what made me sick to my stomach. This man who brought the Yankees out of an 18 year post season slump to 12 out of 12 playoff appearances. Going to the World Series 6 times wining 4, 3 of which were back to back! Having the team give amazing season after amazing season, making sure the Yankees were the best team in baseball every year, and the management grew pompous and wanted to get rid of him because they weren't advancing to the World Series. Now I am all for don't let your managers get complacent but damn give the guy some slack. Towards the end all he wanted was a 2 year contract so as not to feel like he had his head in a noose and retire after the first year in it. But no they chose to sideline him.

Before I get ahead of myself with another rant I will end it here with this is a great book to read regardless of whether you are a Yankees fan or not. Not only does it chronicle his tenure with the team well but it peers inside the world of baseball as a whole during those years and how things transformed in this fast paced world we live in today. Definitely give this book a read if you are a fan of Baseball.