Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees From Before The Babe To After The Boss (2012) - Plot & Excerpts
Whether you're a Yankees fan or not, you can't help but to love the history of the game, the team, and the stats. Growing up as a Yankees fan, I happened to see some of the great games that were talked about in the book. The size of the book may scare some, but once you get into reading, it is filled with fun facts, articles, and commentary by players present and past, managers, and other players for other teams who have a begrudging respect for the Yankees. I'd recommend this book to any Yankees fan, or anyone who loves the game. I've been excited to read this book ever since it was given to me by my boyfriend as a 20th birthday gift. He's a White Sox fan, but he was once a Yankees fan, and since they're unlikely to ever have to meet in any real battle, I'll let him root for both.I had few problems with the writing of Marty Appel. He's obviously a tremendous Yankees fan, and has a big respect for the history. One tiny complain is that he did make some cutesy jokes about the emergence of more women fans. At a time when he could have very simply just said, more women fans decided to come to games, probably because it was finally more acceptable, he tended to say that woman fans were coming to the game probably because of the cute new faces on the field. Which may have also been true--but I think a mention of the women fans who had been Yankee fans all their lives but when it wasn't acceptable to go to games should have gotten a mention as well. Also, he did have a tendency in his writing to do things like mention someone, go on a tangent, and then continue, "He..." as if the tangent hadn't happened, which would require some back-tracking. I sometimes needed to look up some terms as well--I don't blame Appel for needing to check what an RBI or a .500 season was, but every once in a while he would use a nickname that he had never or would never explain. There were at least two nicknames used that I will never know who he was referring to.But those are small complains relative to the history that Appel created. Reverent and sticking to the facts while maintaining a deep love of the team nonetheless, he didn't skip over the losses or the unfortunate seasons. Sometimes he went a bit quickly through the championship seasons, actually, which seemed odd, but he had a deep and reverent understanding and description of the star teams and the non-star teams as well, and a long and good explanation of the Steinbrenner years in between wins. Things I thought he did particularly well: Lou Gehrig just in general, as well as his illness and farewell; Bucky Dent's famous homer; Yogi Berra's run on the team; and descriptions of Yankee Stadium, the new, the renovated, and the old. He also did a good job of tying in the PR (makes sense as he was the PR director for several years), legacies, etc. that went into the Yankees as well as the game itself, as that's a big part of being a Yankee fan. It was engrossing and incredible. I loved reading about the Yankees; I grew up through the Core Four and I loved hearing the details of all the stories of the Yankees I vaguely knew. I loved reading the details, the players, the bios of players like Mattingly, Ruth, DiMaggio, Munson, the ones I knew and the ones I didn't, them all. I knew about 27 championships, I knew about the Core Four, I knew vaguely that we had a great history, but I didn't know it in detail, and now I'm proud to say I do. This is a Yankees history written for Yankees fans by a big Yankees fan, for those who know the history probably less than someone who wants to learn it (I realize that from experience with my dad, who would either agree emphatically and tell an accompanying anecdote when I told him what I'd learned, or shake his head and rant off on why it was wrong) (that said he usually nodded, so still, kudos to Appel). Probably my favorite parts other than Gehrig and Dent and Berra as cited above were the parts I recognized. The 2000 World Series against the Mets I remember vividly as the first time I became interested in baseball, at age 5, when I came home and said, "Daddy, I'm a Mets fan!" because all the kids on the bus (including the cute boy, naturally) were, and he said, "Okay, honey, but two things: first, you'll be sleeping in the garage, and two, your grandpa is coming to visit you from the grave." That night, I became a Yankees fan, and I rooted for the Yankees all Series with everything I had.I remember the 2009 World Series as the first I watched, in earnest, actually knowing all the rules of baseball (I'd known the rules for a while by then, but it was the first World Series that I watched all the way through) (it was the first in a while that had the Yankees in it, after all). I remember challenging the classmates who were Phillies fans the next day. 27 World Championships. I did my best to rub it in their faces. All I'll ever have to say is "27" to shut up any fan of any other team who tries to challenge my Yankees. I doubt any team will ever approach that many.And I remember history that goes beyond all that. I remember sitting in the 2009 stadium so we could see it before it was gone and watching the Yankees win their last game and sweep the Sox; jumping up and down when "Enter Sandman" came on. And I remember sitting in the new one, in 2013, to say good-bye to Matsui on Matsui Day (getting a free bobblehead) who had re-signed as a Yankee so that he could retire as one. To say good-bye to Mariano himself, too, who had announced he'd be retiring after the season. Jeter went up and hit a homer on his first hit. Mo came out to save the game. Soriano hit the clincher. It was a fantastic game.Telling my dad the things I'd learned, he started rattling off stories of rooting for the Yanks in his childhood, of my grandma watching the Yankees even after her eyesight had begun to fail, staying up all night to see the late night games even though her usual bedtime was something like 9, of his grandpa at baseball games and yelling to his mom that Bucky Dent had hit the homer, quizzing my sister and I on Yankees trivia and the Sox rivalry. For me, all these memories emerged as I read, everything that connects me to a Yankee. One night, I took my Yankees hat off the dresser and put it on my head as I read about Gehrig's speech. It felt right.That's what this book is about. It's a fitting tribute to the Yankees and their fans. And it was a blast to read.
What do You think about Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees From Before The Babe To After The Boss (2012)?
Exhaustive (and exhausting) history of the Yankees. Still a great read for sports history buffs.
—Revan
I think I might be ready for Gravity's Rainbow now, cuz this book had 900 characters too...
—rootconnection
Good bathroom reading about the history of the Yanks
—cait
I loved this book! A must read for Yankee fans.
—AshleyC
