Just finished reading this book - here is the review I posted on Amazon about it. I gave it three stars.
Let me just start out by saying that I thought this book was very well-written and extremely detailed. Verducci really gets deep into the heart of the MLB organization - not just the Yankees - and explains that world from a behind-the-scenes perspective that most of us don't get to experience. Anyone who is interested in the business aspect of MLB as well as how MLB as a whole has changed since the mid-nineties will like this book.
Here is my problem with the book however. It was NOT written by Joe Torre though that is how it was packaged to be sold - even putting his name above Verducci's. I bought it because I thought I would be reading a book by Torre who was assisted by Verducci. Instead it's Verducci's book and though it centers around Torre and the Yankees - it just has input from Torre in the form of quotations. Given that - it could have just as easily had Mike Mussina's name on the cover - who is used as a source just as much as Torre I felt.
Though the book is ripe with statistics and solid facts it is also ripe with gossip about the ownership, management, and players of the Yankees during the Torre Years. Given the deception in which Torre's name was used to sell the book I couldn't help but question the validity of many of the claims made about these folks by Verducci. Some of them were just down right funny (particularly the ones about Clemens) but I have to think that at least half of them were BS. Most of what was written about these folks was negative except for Torre, Mussina, and Jeter which I think is suspect.
I'm not a Yankees fan - but love baseball as a whole and I would recommend this book to the die-hard baseball fan. I'm not sure how I would take it if I were a Yankees fan since it is so negative to the team. In fact when it talks of the Red Sox it puts Boston in quite a positive light.
One thing is for certain - the book explains how and why the Yankees have gone from being great to just another team and how and why other teams are coming up and getting to the world series. It's way more complex than one would think and for that reason alone the book is worth reading.
Let me just start out by saying that I thought this book was very well-written and extremely detailed. Verducci really gets deep into the heart of the MLB organization - not just the Yankees - and explains that world from a behind-the-scenes perspective that most of us don't get to experience. Anyone who is interested in the business aspect of MLB as well as how MLB as a whole has changed since the mid-nineties will like this book.
Here is my problem with the book however. It was NOT written by Joe Torre though that is how it was packaged to be sold - even putting his name above Verducci's. I bought it because I thought I would be reading a book by Torre who was assisted by Verducci. Instead it's Verducci's book and though it centers around Torre and the Yankees - it just has input from Torre in the form of quotations. Given that - it could have just as easily had Mike Mussina's name on the cover - who is used as a source just as much as Torre I felt.
Though the book is ripe with statistics and solid facts it is also ripe with gossip about the ownership, management, and players of the Yankees during the Torre Years. Given the deception in which Torre's name was used to sell the book I couldn't help but question the validity of many of the claims made about these folks by Verducci. Some of them were just down right funny (particularly the ones about Clemens) but I have to think that at least half of them were BS. Most of what was written about these folks was negative except for Torre, Mussina, and Jeter which I think is suspect.
I'm not a Yankees fan - but love baseball as a whole and I would recommend this book to the die-hard baseball fan. I'm not sure how I would take it if I were a Yankees fan since it is so negative to the team. In fact when it talks of the Red Sox it puts Boston in quite a positive light.
One thing is for certain - the book explains how and why the Yankees have gone from being great to just another team and how and why other teams are coming up and getting to the world series. It's way more complex than one would think and for that reason alone the book is worth reading.
