Get the complete story of the Yankees, from Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter—with twenty-seven World Championships in between—in this “enormous home run” ( Kirkus Reviews ) of a middle grade adaptation of Pinstripe Empire , a celebrated keepsake for every baseball fan full of black and white photos from author and former Yankees PR director Marty Appel.
The New York Yankees are the team of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, Reggie Jackson, Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, and Carlos Beltran; the team of forty American League pennants, twenty-seven World Championships, and nearly forty Hall of Famers.
With more than a century’s worth of great stories, anecdotes, and photos, plus an introduction by Yankee television broadcaster Michael Kay, Marty Appel—who Bob Costas calls “a fine storyteller with a keen eye for detail”—tells the complete story of the Yankees from their humble beginnings, with no stadium to call their own, to today, when the team’s billion-dollar franchise presides over a rebuilt Yankee Stadium. Middle grade sports lovers, baseball fans, and Yankee acolytes will find a treasure trove of facts, tales, and insider details in Pinstripe Pride .
Richie’s Picks: PINSTRIPE PRIDE: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE NEW YORK YANKEES by Marty Appel, Simon & Schuster, February 2015, 288p., ISBN: 978-1-4814-1602-3
“Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio, A nation turns its lonely eyes to you” -- Simon & Garfunkel, “Mrs. Robinson”
“With Jackie Robinson having been in the majors for eight years, and with African-American players on the rosters of both the [Brooklyn] Dodgers and [New York] Giants, it became a source of irritation for many that the Yankees were still an all-white team. Black baseball fans supported the Yankees and went to Yankee Stadium both for their games and for Negro League games when the Yankees leased their park to those teams…
“But because the Yankees were winning every year, and leading the league in attendance, the team management unfortunately saw little reason to change a formula that was working. They thought those who were complaining were just ‘do-gooders’ and ‘troublemakers.’ They would bring a black player aboard when they felt the time was right--whatever that meant (it was never explained).
“And now, it seemed, the time was right. The player’s name was Elston Howard…
“Typically, the Yankees would play exhibition games on their way north to conclude each spring training, but that too came to a close in 1955, when too many cities they visited still had ‘colored only’ sections in the stands or restricted the team in other ways so long as they had Howard on the team.”
As a little kid, I wasn’t conscious of professional sports. But that changed when my grandfather returned home from a sales convention in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the city where the New York Yankees held spring training. My grandfather brought me a baseball signed by Yankees star pitcher Whitey Ford.
I still have that baseball. While I’m not much of a sports fan, I remain intrigued by what was--and some say still is--the premier sports franchise in the world.
PINSTRIPE PRIDE, an adaptation for young people of Marty Appel’s PINSTRIPE EMPIRE, is a satisfying narrative about the one-hundred-plus year history of the New York Yankees. Appel tells of exciting feats by baseball immortals like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Derek Jeter. The book also portrays the colorful, quirky, comedic and sometimes controversial characters who suited up in pinstripes, everyone from Casey Stengel to Billy Martin, Yogi Berra, Joe Pepitone, Reggie Jackson, and longtime owner George Steinbrenner.
We see changes in the real world that affected the baseball world such as the evolution from radio broadcasts to television to kinescope recordings to cable and now online broadcasts. We read about the “blue laws” that, for decades, forbade Sunday games in many cities. We learn how modern air travel led to the expansion of major league baseball to cities across the country. We see the manner in which innovations in other sports such as drafts and instant replay had an effect on baseball.
And, on the darker side, we see the impact of performance enhancing drugs upon the health of players and the integrity of the game. Of course, with baseball being a big business where players can earn millions of dollars, it is no surprise that there will always be some players and some team owners who will consider doing whatever it takes to win and break records.
Over the past 100+ years, when it has come to winning championships and breaking records, no other team in major league baseball has come close to the achievements of the New York Yankees. For many a young baseball fan or aspiring player, PINSTRIPE PRIDE will be a winner.
This was an enjoyable book that covers the history of the New York Yankees from the time they became the highlanders through the 2014 season. It was written towards young and/or new fans, and though the major items in team history are covered, older fans may not get much out of the book.
The book starts back in the early 20th Century with Ban Johnson having set up the American League and trying to get a team in New York. After the Baltimore Orioles failed, and over the objections of John McGraw, Johnson was successful. In 1903, The Highlanders arrived in New York. (The author, Marty Appel worked for the Yankees so he was in a rather unique position to write the book.) Appel proceeds to discuss the next 110 years, covering the lean years, the pennant winners, the World Championships and the colorful and important players that are part of the Yankee history. Some of the players include Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Mickey Mantle, Don Mattingly, and Derek Jeter, to name a few. He intertwines the stories of these men with the fame, fortune, and failures of the Yankee teams over the past century.
For adult fans who have read Pinstripe Empire, also written by Mary Appel, you won't need to read this book as this is essentially a children's version of that book. With that said, this is a great book for young fans, as well as new ones of any age. Though it focuses on the Yankees, I think that any new/young fan of baseball would enjoy it. Not only are the stories in the book interesting, it would be hard for a fan of the game of baseball to completely understand the history of the game without understanding the history of the most successful franchise in the game.
I have read some books on the Yankees before, most notably the acclaimed book, The Yankee Years, by long time coach, Joe Torre, but I liked this one the best. This is by Marty Apell, who was hired as a yankee announcer in 1992. There are so many great anecdotes in this book, I will just mention a few of my favorites, but there are many from all eras of the history of this great team. The stories of how the team started, and moved to hilly land the Giants were convinced would keep their fans from seeing them, was good, as was the story, of how the team went from being called the Yankees from their beginning name of The New York Highlanders, based on what some sports writers had nick named the team, and it just stuck. There are great stories about the two biggest bad boys on the team, ( Babe Ruth and Billy martin), and their tendacies toward, shall we say, unacceptable behaviour. It should be noted that when all the new stars were signed, there are stories about the signings, and the games that established their reputations, and, sometimes, even their actions away from the baseball diamond. My three all times faves are Dereck Jeter, Mickey mantle, and Mariano Rivera. What really impressed me, though, was how the team helped the people of the NYC recover their morale after the Sept. 11th attacks, and there is a whole chapter about that. If you are a Yankee fan, especially a new one, this can be one of the most entertaining and informative books on the extensive history of this great team !
This may be the second time I've used my "sports" tag. So...a history of The New York Yankees. I will order it for my middle school ball fans, but please don't ask me to read another one.