Pinstripe Empire
The New York Yankees from Before the Babe to After the Boss
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Now Updated Through the 2020 Season
An exciting history of the world's greatest baseball team from a former Yankees Public Relations Officer.
"A riveting and comprehensive history of the Yankees" – New York Times
Is there a sports team more synonymous with winning than the New York Yankees? The team of Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Berra, Ford, Mantle, Jackson, Mattingly? Of Torre, Jeter, and Rivera? Of forty American League pennants, twenty-seven World Championships, and nearly forty Hall of Famers?
Like so many great American institutions, the Yankees began humbly, on the muddy, uneven grass of Hilltop Park. Eighteen years later the little second-class franchise won its first pennant. Today, the Yankees are worth more than a billion dollars.
It's been nearly seventy years since Frank Graham wrote the last narrative history of the Yankees. Marty Appel, the Yankees' PR director during the 1970s, now illuminates the team in its hundred-plus years of glory: clever, maneuvering owners; rowdy, talented players; great stories behind the great stories. Appel heard tales from old-timers like Waite Hoyt, Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, and Whitey Ford, and has remained close to the organization ever since. He gives life to the team's history, from the demise of Hilltop Park in the 1900s to the evolution of today's team as an international brand. With a wealth of photographs, this is a treasure trove for lovers of sports, the Yankees, New York history, and America's game.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this affectionate fan's notes to the team, former Yankees public relations director Appel regales baseball fans everywhere with a fast-paced, exhaustively and exhaustingly detailed, year-by-year chronicle of the team's history. He covers the team from its beginnings in 1903 right up to the 2011 season, when Derek Jeter became the first Yankee to reach 3,000 hits and also to pass Mickey Mantle for most games played as a Yankee. Appel recreates the excitement and the debates over building Hilltop Park in Washington Heights, the first stadium for the team, then known as the Americans. He narrates the growth of the team as it moves from Hilltop Park to the Polo Grounds to the various incarnations of Yankee Stadium, and the growing enthusiasm among New Yorkers for the team. He reminds us that the now famous Yankee pinstripe uniforms first debuted in 1912, disappeared for two seasons, and then returned for good in 1915. In this definitive history, Appel avidly narrates the already well-known stories of the colorful players (the beloved Ruth, the bad boy Mantle, the now forgotten team player Bobby Richardson) and managers (the volatile Billy Martin and the wisecracking baseball genius Casey Stengel) whose passion for the game, athleticism, and dedication to the Yankee pinstripes helped create the franchise we know today.
