The Yankee Years

By: Tom Verducci, Joe Torre

Narrated by: Tom Verducci

Length: 8 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's Summary

Twelve straight playoff appearances. Six American League pennants. Four World Series titles. This is the definitive story of a dynasty: the Yankee years.

When Joe Torre took over as manager of the New York Yankees in 1996, the most storied franchise in sports had not won a World Series title in 18 years. The famously tough and mercurial owner, George Steinbrenner, had fired 17 managers during that span. Torre's appointment was greeted with Bronx cheers from the notoriously brutal New York media, who cited his record as the player and manager who had been in the most Major League games without appearing in a World Series.

Twelve tumultuous and triumphant years later, Torre left the team as the most beloved and successful manager in the game. In an era of multimillionaire free agents, fractured clubhouses, revenue-sharing, and off-the-field scandals, Torre forged a team ethos that united his players and made the Yankees, once again, the greatest team in sports. He won over the media with his honesty and class, and was beloved by the fans.

©2009 Joe Torre (P)2009 Random House Audio

How to Make the Best Yankee Years Boring

Love the Yankees. Love Joe Torre. The book seemed disjointed and made the most exciting baseball seem unexciting. Maybe because the book jumps around in time rather than telling the history of Torre's years chronologically. I think more emphasis was placed on losing than on the exciting pennant years. It just seemed ... dull. It also seemed like Torre was reluctant to do the book, and there are very few interesting stories about the ballplayers. You would think there must have been some amazing stories, but they weren't in the book.

Marginally interesting for non-Yankee fans

Though not a Yankee fan, I have followed baseball for four decades and was hoping to deepen my understanding of the sport--or at least to find out something new and interesting about the Yankee teams of the last decade. But this is a pretty bland account of the Torre years. I'm guessing that the stuff he left out is probably much more interesting than what was included.