Joe Torre

The listed authorship of this book is deceptive, as it gives the impression that this is an "as told to memoir." But the book is all written in the third person, clearly by Verducci, not Torre, as a history of those years that Joe Torre managed the Yankees. Obviously, Verducci spent many hours interviewing Torre for this (as well as many other sources), as the book heavily relies upon quotes from Torre and on Torre's memories of events. My guess is that Torre included his name as co-author show more in order to avow his support for and approval of the contents of the book. Or maybe it was a marketing decision. Or maybe both.

At any rate, this is an excellent, excellent baseball history, and not just for Yankee fans. Verducci does a great job of describing the in and outs, the personalities, the drama and melodrama, of the 12 seasons that Joe Torre managed the Yankees, including the incredible run of championships at the beginning of Torre's tenure. But Verducci also does a great job of placing all those events within the context of the developments going on in and around the Yankees in the world of major league baseball in general. Both the steroid situation and the changes in scouting and player appraisal heralded by the arrival of the "Moneyball" philosphy are covered well, for example.

This is a smart, well-written, in-depth book, of interest to all baseball fans, I would think, not just for Yankee fans. show less

This is so much more than the payback, tell-all book of the press reports. Sure, there's the revelation that Roger Clemens had trainers rub hot liniment on his testicles before heading out to pitch, and more, but there is also informed discussion of the character of the Yankees over time and how it changed, the bio-mechanics of pitching, and more. I am fascinated. most of all, this is a history and discussion of how change came to baseball, seen from Torre's perspective. The changes include show more sabermetrics, revenue-sharing and the advent of Bud Selig. show less

Very well written, not surprisingly... Verducci is the best baseball writer around (not including the Baseball Prospectus/Seamhead types... that's a different kind of writing).

Not nearly as controversial as the trailers would have had you believe, but there are enough cringe-inducing private clubhouse moments to ask yourself why Joe found in necessary to write this book.

The Yankee Years by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci

As a die hard Red Sox fan reporting on a book about the Yankees let me first say this:

YANKEES SUCK!

Okay now that I have taken care of all of the housekeeping items I will begin the review. As you are reading this you might ask, what is a Red Sox fan doing reading a book about the Evil Empire? Hearing this question I might answer, because if there was any one good thing ever in the history of the Yankees organization, it was Joe Torre. Torre is a show more class act and a consummate professional. What I will never be able to get through my head is why the Yankees ever let this man go. Let’s look at the hard facts; Torre managed the Yankees for 12 successive seasons. The Yankees made the play-offs in all 12 of those seasons (this is a mind boggling feat, I know people will argue that the Yankees always had (by far) the largest payroll in the league, but still making the play-offs each year is very impressive). Of those 12 seasons the Yankees went to 6…..count ‘em 6 World Series. And of the 6 World Series, won 4 of them. These stats are mind blowing, half of Joe’s tour of duty ended with the Yankees playing in the last games of the MLB season.

Ok, so the Yankees organization is not satisfied unless the team wins the World Series, so they decide since they hadn’t won the Series since 2000 that it was time for a change. So what happened? They fired Joe Torre who went on to manage the LA Dodgers and brought them to the 2nd round of the play-offs; a team that didn’t make the play-offs in 2007. The Yankees then hired Joe Girardi as their new manager. Girardi in turn brought the Yankees to a thrilling World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies. No wait I’m a little off……..oh ya here we go…….Giradrdi’s Yankees didn’t even make the play-offs (for the 1st time in 13 years). Oh and as a side note to the argument about the Yankees having the highest payroll in the league during the Torre years, they still had the highest payroll last season under Girardi.

But I digress The Yankee Years although thoroughly different from the book I expected it to be was a pleasurable read. Especially Chapter 10 End of the Curse; a detailed description of the 2004 ALCS where the Boston Red Sox came back from an 0-3 deficit (1st and only time a team has come back and won down 3 games in a best of 7 series in Major League Baseball history) to overthrow the Yankees and went on to win the ’04 World Series.

The media had touted this book as blasphemous account of Torre’s years with the Yankees. These media reports even suggested that the Yankees might consider entering clauses into employee contracts banning them from writing about the Yankees during or at the conclusion of there employment. I didn’t find any such treachery documented within the pages of this book. It certainly included tidbits of information that would not be readily available to a fan of the game, but there was by no means any ill begotten secrets scrolled upon the pages.

This book is just as the title states; The Yankee Years. It is about the Yankees during the 12 year period of Joe Torre’s management reign. If you are looking for a Joe Torre memoir, then you haven’t found the right book. But if you are interested in what happened over the last 12 years in the Yankee organization, then this book is certainly worth the read. show less