PRINTThe Yankee Years - Review
Courtesy of Random House
May 20, 2009 | 12:00 p.m. CST
The Yankee Years by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci
George Steinbrenner, owner of the Yankees, always demands the best. In 1996, Steinbrenner chose Joe Torre as the team’s 18th manager in 19 years, and Torre miraculously stretched his employment to 2007. Steinbrenner’s decision was controversial as Torre had just been fired from the St. Louis Cardinals after five years of mediocre managing. Throughout its 500 pages,The Yankee Years praises Torre’s managing techniques unabashedly. But when managing the baseball team with the highest major league payroll how much success is based on his personal genius?
Torre’s cool and calm demeanor is revered in the book, which focuses on how Torre cracked the most intense team in baseball. It shows how Torre helped the team bond and enjoy playing the game. He’s portrayed as a sickly sweet father figure, similar to Mr. Brady in The Brady Bunch. “‘Guys, you’re uptight,’” Torre told them. “‘You aren’t having enough fun.’” Torre does his job while stressing the adorable childhood lesson that it doesn’t matter if you win or lose; it’s how you play the game.
The authors write in third person, which allows the reader to forget at times that Torre co-wrote the book with Tom Verducci. Verducci’s writing ability is impressive, even while considering the amount of bias present. They describe every scene with the perfect amount of detail and tension, completely captivating the reader. The book is told in chronological order, except when Torre characterizes each player. The amount of drama present in every baseball season will come as a surprise. Familiar with Yankees history or not, this book is worth the read just for the never-ending feelings of suspense.
Torre dishes about most of the team members but praises Derek Jeter’s talent throughout the book. Torre’s man-crush on Jeter is painfully obvious. He says Mariano Rivera fits in perfectly like Jeter and is happy that Jeter and Chuck Knoblauch welcome “the best pitcher in baseball” when Roger Clemens joins the team. In contrast, Torre is quick to call Alex Rodriguez high maintenance and needy. Torre paints many characters negatively but then confuses the reader when he procedes to compliment them. At one point, he calls Rodriguez the “most talented player in baseball.” He similarly refers to Steinbrenner as uptight, dramatic and impossible to handle, but then says: “His bark was worse than his bite. He cared a lot.” Although Torre inserts these disclaimers throughout, it is obvious that the negative feelings Torre has toward Rodriguez and Steinbrenner far outweigh any positives.
Although the book might not be a completely accurate representation of Torre’s managing abilities, the authors do not hesitate to provide the reader with gritty details about the Yankees. Torre provides a list of 10 players who illegally took steroids during the steroid era; a list that includes Chuck Knoblauch, Denny Neagle, José Canseco, Jim Leyritz, Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens. He then asserts that although they took steroids, they were “no different than anybody else.” All of the details of this scandal are graciously handed to the reader as well as the dirt on each of the players’ demeanors and Torre’s bitter and scandalous departure from the team.
The Yankee Years presents black and white information that will never leave you confused about how the authors really feel on a subject. People either love or hate the Yankees and, like their famous uniforms, there is no gray area in the book. Verducci and Torre attempt to convert those still unsure of the Yankees, but they forget that this team doesn’t leave much room for uncertainty.
Twitter
Facebook
