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.