"THE
OLYMPIAN" -Olympia, Washington
"A
Yankee Century" ($16, Berkley). Baseball's spring training
does not truly reside in the deserts of Arizona or near the sands
and swamps of Florida. It resides in the hearts and minds of children-turned-adults,
who carry with them years of baseball lore and feelings (rational
or not) of intense rivalry.
So the paperback version of "A Yankee Century" is just
the ticket for warming up to the first crack of the bat. As one
raised on the Baltimore Orioles, I can do nothing else but hate
(rationally or not) the Yankees.
That said, 100 years of Yankee baseball is a walk through much of
baseball history. Harvey Frommer's book covers so many of the details
that fans love to savor that it's irresistible.
Frommer stays out of the statistic pit (although there are plenty
of numbers), instead making a winning delivery out of stories and
quotes that will help baseball fans stay sane on a rainy late-January
afternoon.
...............................................................
KNoxNews.com, Scripps Howard NEWS
Fall
baseball books look like winners,
by
BRUCE DANCIS,
October 2, 2002
"Baseball books, like the first pitch of the season, usually
come out in the spring. But this year, a remarkable group of books
about different aspects of the national pasttime have been published
just in time for the playoffs and World Series. Here are some short
reviews of the most notable.
"A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years
of Baseball's Greatest Team" by Harvey Frommer (Berkley, $26.95,
428 pages. Frommer, the author of more than 30 sports books, presents
lots of facts, including a Yankees timeline, a who's who of players,
managers, coaches and front office types, a look at the best and
worst Yankees teams, quotes by and about the Yankees and a bunch
of team stats and a quiz..."
...............................................................
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Frommer slices and dices information about
the team in thousands of ways. If there is a statistic about the
team a reader wants to know, more than likely it can be found in
the pages of this compilation of facts and figures. Trivia buffs
could spend months digesting all the information that Frommer has
collected in this easily accessible work... Yankee fans who can't
learn enough about their favorite team will think they died and
went to heaven with all that Frommer offers on each page."
...............................................................
washingtonpost.com
"A definitive chronology of one of America's
legendary sports teams."
...............................................................
baseballology.com
"A Must have for Yankee fans and baseball
fans."
...............................................................
brothersjudd.com
"A Yankee Century may at first glance seem
like a special interest book, and it will indeed appeal particularly
to Yankee fans. However, because of their sheer dominance--it really
was their century--the history of the Yankees is to a unique extent
a history of baseball in general. Where 100 years of a team like
the Reds would inevitably have vast dry patches, we all know and
rooted vigorously for or against the Yankees of many different eras.
Thus while there are delights in store for the fanatic--like the
fact that Babe Ruth by himself had more homeruns (60) in 1927 than
the 2nd place team (the A's with 56) or that when Grover Cleveland
Alexander had his legendary confrontation with Tony Lazzeri, the
Yankee was just 22 years old, just a kid really--no one who follows
the game will have trouble finding material here that interests
them. Mr. Frommer has included copious illustrations and the book
is broken up into a wide variety of sections, from quizzes to profiles
to statistics. This makes the book very accessible and, in the best
sense, putdownable. It's a book that you want to delve into a bit
at a time and to skip around in, rather than to read in one sitting.
It's like a king-size Whitman Sampler."
...............................................................
purebaseball.com/bookshelf
"Harvey Frommer, one of the game's most prolific
authors, has come out with another gem in A Yankee Century: A Celebration
of the First Hundred Years of Baseball's Greatest Team (Berkley,
$26.95). Rather than a straight-forward prosaic history, Frommer
is just plain fun with his chapters on memorable moments; a Yankee
"who's who"; the best and worst in the long history of
the team; quotes and nifty nicknames; a "by-the-numbers"
look at the club; and a chapter on the "House that Ruth Built"
itself, an appreciation for the most cherished venue in all of sports."
...............................................................
Sacramento Bee, October 2002
"A slew of unusually good baseball books
arrive in time for playoffs"
...............................................................
Arnold Dean, WTIC, Sports
Talk
"It reads like a novel,
a terrific book by one of the most prolific sports authors in America.
So many unique things. The “March of Yankee Time” chapter has so
many insights and things odd and interesting about the Yankees –
I learned a lot. The book is very up-to-date through 2002.! Just
marvelous."
...............................................................
From
Booklist
More
fun than any other Yankee title this year is Frommer's gem. This
is the sort of book you want by your side during the season and
all through the long winter, to dip into to astound and amaze your
companions. The first chapter lists key dates in Yankee history;
the second covers the history of the stadium. There's a list of
memorable moments, of course, and a Yankee who's who. But best of
all is part 3: pages of one-liners and quips (Mark Grace on Arizona's
win in the seventh game of the 2001 World Series, "It's like
winning in the bottom of the ninth off of God!"), a whole list
of Yankee nicknames and catchwords, and a 100-question Yankee quiz
(with answers). And there are sidebars and lists and charts galore.
...............................................................
From Society For American Baseball Research
"This detailed volume celebrates a legendary
century of Yankee history. Included in the book are rare photographs,
statistics, a Yankee quiz, introduction by Yankee great Paul O'Neill
and profiles of such legends as Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Babe
Ruth, Derek Jeter, Joe DiMaggio and more."
...............................................................
By Steve Powers, THE SPORTSPAGE
"The
book commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Yankees. Anecdotes
recounting great moments in Yankees history, such as Dave Righetti’s
no-hitter in 1983 and Mickey Mantle’s tape-measure home run in 1953.
I truly enjoyed reading through this book and even those who aren’t
Yankees fans may enjoy it."
...............................................................
CABLE RADIO NETWORK/SPORTS CORNER
"The book to give to Yankee fans, to Yankee haters - - pure
Yankee baseball told by a sports author pro. Highly enjoyable. If
you like baseball - you will love this book."
...............................................................
SPORTSBIZ
"A 400 page plus New York Yankees extravaganza!!
If you're a Yankee fan, you've got to pick it up. It has everything
- - lists, quotes, profiles, sketches, great game, teams, personalities.
A true celebration of the Yankees. Very interesting."
...............................................................
Publishers Weekly, October 7, 2002
Berkley also has a book with a very similar title--A Yankee Century
(Oct.). "Author Harvey Frommer was perfectly suited to do this
book," says Martha Bushko, associate editor at Berkley, "as
he is the author of over 30 sports books and wrote for Yankees magazine
for 16 years. [Retired Yankee outfielder] Paul O'Neill also wrote
the foreword, which makes this book a must-have for any Yankee fan."
...............................................................
From the Publisher
This handsome and
definitive volume celebrates a legendary century of Yankee history,
with:
-Rare photographs
-Statistics
-A Yankee quiz
-Introduction by Yankee great Paul O'Neill
-Profiles of such legends as Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Babe
Ruth, Derek Jeter, Joe DiMaggio, and many more
-Tales of rivalries, triumphs, and unforgettable moments on and
off the field
-The victories, sweeps, and stumbles
-Quotes, lists, tributes, and trivia
Imprint/Month/Year:
OCTOBER 02 BERKLEY HARDCOVER
Title: A YANKEE CENTURY
Author: HARVEY FROMMER
[FRONT COVER:]
A Yankee Century
A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball’s Greatest
Team
Introduction by [tk]
Harvey Frommer
Author of The New York Yankee Encyclopedia
[SPINE:]
Harvey Frommer
A Yankee Century
A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball’s Greatest
Team
[BACK COVER:]
[quote or excerpt tk]
[FRONT FLAP:]
Nothing defines America like baseball. And nothing defines baseball
like the Yankees. From their historic beginnings as the New York
Highlanders playing in Manhattan’s Hilltop Park in 1903, to their
reign as the modern-day dynasty that brought Major League Baseball
into a new millennium with World Series championships in ’96, ’98,
’99, and 2000, this team has given us a century of triumphs and
heartbreaks, legends and lore.
Now, this definitive album captures that century in words, stats,
and pictures. Included are exclusive interviews with luminaries
such as Mel Allen, Yogi Berra, Scott Brosius, Andy Carey, Chris
Chambliss, Jerry Coleman, Bob Feller, Monte Irvin, Ralph Kiner,
Don Larsen, Bob Sheppard, Duke Snider, and Don Zimmer, as well as
portraits of the greats from Mickey Mantle to Don Mattingly, from
Vic Raschi to Allie Reynolds, from Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio to Derek
Jeter.
There are picks and profiles of the greatest (and worst) Yankee
teams—sure to get a few arguments going. There are quotes, a quiz,
lists, trivia, and tributes—as well as tales of fierce rivalries
and unforgettable moments. You’ll experience the sweeps and stumbles,
the hallowed history of the House that Ruth Built, and the wackiness
of the infamous Pine Tar Incident. You’ll endure the suspense of
Larsen’s perfect game during the ’56 Series; watch Mr. October hit
one (and two and three) out of the park in ‘77; listen to Lou Gehrig’s
stirring 1939 speech; and experience the rollercoaster ride of the
2001 series, with two impossible come-from-behind victories followed
by the Diamondbacks’ snatching of the crown from the Yankees’ grasp.
For Yankee fans, or anyone who loves baseball, owning A Yankee
Century is like having a clubhouse pass to the most fabled franchise
in all of sports.
[BACK FLAP:]
[ART: AUTHOR PHOTO]
Harvey Frommer is the celebrated author of more than 30 sports
books, including the classics Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball,
New York City Baseball, and The New York Yankee Encyclopedia.
He wrote for Yankees magazine for 16 years. Together
with his wife, Myrna Katz Frommer, he authored the critically acclaimed
oral histories It Happened in Manhattan, It Happened in Brooklyn,
It Happened in the Catskills, It Happened on Broadway, and Growing
Up Jewish in America. Frommer is a professor in the Master of
Arts in Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College, and a longtime
Yankee fan.
