The Yankee Years

By: Joe Torre, Tom Verducci

Narrated by: Michael Kramer

Length: 16 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

A dramatic and revelatory account of Joe Torre’s 12 years as manager of the New York Yankees.

Joe Torre is the most successful - and most respected - baseball manager of the modern era, steering the Yankees to six American League pennants and four World Series championships. When he left the team in 2007, it was front-page news around the country. Famously diplomatic during his tenure with the Yankees, Torre finally speaks out about what it was like building and managing the dynasty during those 12 glorious and tumultuous years. Written as a third-person narrative with Sports Illustrated Senior Baseball Writer Tom Verducci, The Yankee Years is a thoughtful, utterly honest, and gripping behind-the-scenes look at the Yankees organization from top to bottom.

©2009 Joe Torre (P)2009 Random House

Great "Tell It Like It Is" book!

And yet Torre has a way of being honest and critical without attacking his former Yankee players. This book gives you great insight into major league baseball and playing in New York.

More than a memoir!

The books contains great stories from a great manager during some great years with some great teams. But more than that, Torre/Verducci provide insight into sports psychology, philosophy of leadership, transitions in the sport and more! Some quotes from interviews are used more on multiple occasions, but to good effect drawing out different nuances of particular contexts. Kramer's reading is an excellent performance and adds to the read.

Meh

There will be moments of great interest but there is a redundancy to this book. The typical old school vs new school narrative plays out with minimal introspective about the debate over and over in the second half. not enough time is spent on the actual championship years while it feels like the ARod years are covered to death. The book is not bad and Torre (rightfully) comes off sympathetic, but for a book co-authored by a journalist, it feels data light, and personal narrative heavy. It would have been nice to have some input from individuals with differing or at least objective perspectives.

Torre didn't write this book

If this book had been marketed honestly it would have listed Tom Verducci as the author, with Joe Torre. I expected to listen to a first-person account of Torre's tenure with the Yankees. Instead I got a third-person account written by Verducci with Torre prominently quoted. The Yankee Years also included several non-Yankee baseball occurrences that occurred between 1996 and 2007. This was not a bad thing and it offered some perspective. Verducci also offered up a lot of "so what" statistics that, given what we learned in the book, would have been more interesting to Brian Cashman than to Joe Torre. Rarely do I suggest a book should have been shorter but, in this case, I think we could have learned everything that we wished to learn in about 10 hours. I've heard Michael Kramer narrate other works and he generally does a good job. In this book, however, his monotone weared on me after a while. Not a bad book, but it could have been better.

Well Titled

What did you love best about The Yankee Years?

This book is a very comprehensive chronicle of Joe Torre's time as manager of the Yankees (as the title accurately indicates). I have always been a Torre fan ever since he broke in as a player with the Braves. In fact, at that time (remember, this was pre-Johnny Bench) I thought Joe Torre might end up being the best hitting catcher in MLB history. While I very much appreciated all of the detail and rich insights this book provided, I wish it would have covered more of Torre's career----both as a manager and as a player. I also appreciated the insights on the other key Yankee figures during that era, e.g. coaches, ownership and especially players. In fact, the only negative for me (and here I obviously part with other reviewers) was the narration. Who picks these narrators anyway?! Michael Kramer may very well do a fine job with other books (as long as the reader does not object to unconscionable pronunciation errors of proper nouns), but his voice and intonation did not work for me with this book. Sometimes when I struggle initially with a narrator, I will become accustomed to his voice within the first hour or so and then be fine the rest of the way through, but not this time. And also, BTW, my criticism of his flagrant mispronunciation of names is not limited to unusual names and obscure players. Very annoying and frankly inexcusable.

What other book might you compare The Yankee Years to and why?

The Best Team Money Can Buy, by Molly Knight---a book I consider superior to this one.

Would you be willing to try another one of Michael Kramer’s performances?

Not unless I found the content irresistible, and even then, I would probably buy the book (hard copy).

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

None that I haven't already noted.

Any additional comments?

Write another book on Torre that includes his time before and after the Yankees.

I hate the Yankees..... Even more now

If you're a baseball fan this is a must. It's a great story and I learned a lot of stuff I didn't know. I knew Steinbrenner put his nose in everything but had no idea. I hate the Yankees but I've always been a fan of Joe Torre.

Amazing

A look inside the Yankees in a way that only the leader can describe it. Great audio book.

Excellent Book for Non-Yankee Fans

I loved this book! The narration is excellent and the behind the scenes look at baseball is outstanding. I'm not a Yankee fan at all, but I loved every word of this book.

Joe Torre and his Yankee years

Quite simply the best sports book I have ever listened/read. And there are plenty of those.
I am not a baseball fanatic, yet the little stories within the game a fascinating.
Also what was great were the descriptions of relationships among players within the team.

Something For Everyone Here

And i mean that because i really loved the Torre teams (especially the early ones) Fans of the Yankees will have much to enjoy, reminicingly celebrate, and even laugh about, while Red Sox, and other non Yankee fans are generously served tons of ammo. There’s just so much information, often opinionated, but good and vast. It’s hard, however, to be convinced Torre’s Yankee years were a sad thing though, as the book’s emphasis on bitter details really should only be understood as the authors personal observations - when many things are said you either aren’t told or just have to focus much harder than other audio books if you want to know who is being portrayed as the speaker at any given moment throughout. Narration is profoundly sub par. But i recommend it nonetheless.