(Cheap college textbook) The Yankee Years
February 12th, 2009 | 
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RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “SAY IT AIN’T SO… JOE!!
The first thing any true baseball fan needs to know… if you’re considering reading this Cheap college textbook… is that you do not have to be a Yankee fan to enjoy it. The author has done an absolute stellar job in encapsulating an entire genre of baseball history... that effected such an enormous generational change in the “grand-old-game”… that it’s extremely hard to believe… that this covers only the twelve year period from 1996 thru 2007. Unfortunately for our former national pastime… and for all lovers of baseball… both young and old… the enormous amount of front page detail… and backroom gossip… and sizzling scandal… that is hypnotically… presented by this talented author… does not shine a kind light… on the men and game… we wish to idolize.
I am not a Yankee fan… but I’ve always admired… respected… and watched in awe… from the other side of the field… as Joe Torre… carried himself with such dignity… even when immersed… in the burning cauldron of hell… known as Steinbrenner. A lot of people may have forgotten what an outstanding ballplayer Joe Torre was during his playing days… in fact he was the *MOST-VALUABLE-PLAYER* in the National League in 1971 when he played for the St. Louis Cardinals… and led the league in hitting with a 363 average. Joe had been fired from three previous managerial jobs before the Yankees hired him… and this story follows Joe from his first day through his twelve… never dull… years as Yankee manager. These years resulted in six World Series appearances… and four World Championships. The World Championship that Joe won in 1996 his very first year as Yankee skipper… was the first World Title… the once mighty “Bronx Bombers” had won in eighteen years! You’d think life would be nothing but cotton candy and sea shells… after a debut like that… but behind the scenes… things were even worse than the dysfunctional family… that the tabloids portrayed.
What’s becomes totally apparent… is that Joe’s ability to literally be an amateur “psychiatrist”… and handle everything from a meddlesome owner… who thought he was part General Patton… and part Hall Of Fame Yankee manager Joe McCarthy… to multi-millionaire… egomaniacal ballplayers… to dealing with the untold masses of reporters and journalists in the media capital of the world… was nothing short of astonishing. Joe and his co-author pull no punches in describing the changing of the Yankee guard… from “old-school”… proud… pinstripers… like Captain Derek Jeter… Paul O’Neill… Tino Martinez… and pitcher David Cone… who despite not being a daily “position” player… stood up as a leader… in front of the whole team… at every crucial turn… these were the kind of players Joe loved… and he would do anything for them. As the core of these players left or retired… it was no longer the Yankees… whose mantra was… “A-DESPERATION-TO-WIN”. When Alex Rodriguez joined the team… the author remains… a “stand-up-guy” in his writing… just as he was in the clubhouse. Joe shoots straight from the hip… in describing the major difference between Captain Jeter… and “A-Fraud”… Jeter only cared about victory… “A-Fraud” cared about his statistics.
Two major subjects that have literally changed the entire game of baseball are covered with “no-holds-barred”… the first is steroid and drug use… in fact according to the Mitchell Report… at some point during the 2000 and 2001 season… drugs were provided to… “Jason Grimsley, Chuck Knoblauch, Denny Neagle, Glenallen Hill, David Justice, Mike Stanton, Jose Canseco, Jim Leyritz and Andy Pettitte… plus… Roger Clemens. That’s ten players… minimum! On a twenty-five man team… that’s “at- least” forty-per-cent of your players… using performance enhancing drugs. And of course… that’s before Alex Rodriguez joined the team in 2004… and the absolute *UP-TO-THE-MINUTE-BOMBSHELL* released to the public yesterday… February 7, 2009… is that Rodriguez failed baseballs steroid test in 2003.
The second major subject covered in this Cheap college textbook… is happily… more positive… and should be of interest to all fans… regardless of their team affiliation… and that’s the drastic changes… in the way teams… scout potential ballplayers… and the way they calculate… who they should trade for. This all came to pass… because of the advantage… in monetary riches the Yankees had over other teams. Competitive teams had to dig deeper… and use every ounce of knowledge they had… to try to combat their lack of money. Quoted heavily in this engrossing analysis is Billy Beane of “MONEYBALL” fame… and the Yankees hated rivals… the Boston Red Sox… who completely re-invented the way to build a winning team. One such example was… “INTELLECT AND PLAYER DEVELOPMENT IS WHERE BOSTON LAPPED THE YANKEES. THE RED SOX, FOR INSTANCE, BECAME SO INSATIABLE ABOUT THE POWER OF INFORMATION THAT THEY DEPLOYED EXPERT NUMBER CRUNCHERS TO THE NCAA HEADQUARTERS IN KANSAS TO INPUT EVERY AVAILABLE STATISTIC ON ALL COLLEGE PLAYERS IN HISTORY INTO A DATABASE. THEY THEN CROSS-REFERENCED THOSE NUMBERS AGAINST THE PERFORMANCE OF THOSE COLLEGE PLAYERS WHO MADE IT TO THE BIG LEAGUES, AND FROM THERE THEY DEVISED THEIR OWN TABLES OF HOW COLLEGE PERFORMANCE MIGHT HELP PREDICT MAJOR LEAGUE PERFORMANCE-INFORMATION THAT WOULD BECOME CRITICAL IN THEIR DRAFT-DAY DECISIONS.”
I predict this Cheap college textbook will become a modern baseball classic… as it digs into intricate details… not only on the field… but in the executive offices… which are now so much more tightly intertwined with scouting… along with the tawdry clubhouse… locker room… and “drug-den”… that baseball has unfortunately become.
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