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A Legend in the Making: The New York Yankees in 1939

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In his introduction the Richard Tofel notes the inspiration he drew from Richard Reeves's work on President Kennedy and David Herbert Donald's biography of Abraham Lincoln. The result of that inspiration is obvious. As you read Tofel's description of the progress of the '39 Yankees you feel as though you are there, living right along as the season winds to its foregone conclusion. In fact, it is only the inevitability of the Yankee victory, a runaway from the start, that occasionally slows the narrative. But that is not Tofel's fault. He more than makes up for the absence of a pennant race with several rich character portaits, partcularly of McCarthy and Gehrig. The sad recounting of the end of Gehrig's career, including a wonderful recreation of the day that Gehrig gave his "luckiest man on the face of the Earth" speech is alone worth the purchase price.

Up front, I acknowledge that I have been a lifelong baseball fan. Growing up in South Chicago, I saved every penny I could from paper routes, caddying, setting pins at the local bowling alley (which, yes, dates me), cutting lawns, washing cars, and stocking the shelves of the local grocery inorder to afford going to as many Cubs and White Sox games as my funds allowed. Otherwise, I listened to radio broadcasts of home and away games. Our family was the first in the neighborhood to have a television set; I could then watch the games with my grandmother, another diehard baseball fan. She loved the Cubs, endured the White Sox, and shared my excitement when World Series games were televised. So much for where I have been and still come from. Today, for various reasons, I have much less interest in Major League baseball.

Also up front, I want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Tofel's account of the Yankees' 1939 season. It is exceptionally well-written. True, thanks to several dozen books I have already read, I already knew much of what he shares in this volume. Even so, he enabled me to return to a very special season in the history of Major League baseball, one during which there were so many transitions occurring. For example, Lou Gehrig was deteriorating (dying, in fact) while Joe DiMaggio was taking his rightful place as one of the greatest Yankees among so many outstanding players. The book follows an obvious but appropriate format: Pre-Game Warm-Up, followed by one chapter per each of nine Innings, then a Post-Game Report. Along the way, Tofel focuses on the key players and on the key games with the Yankees' strongest competitors. Along the way, when not recounting action on the field, Tofel pauses to discuss -- with sensitivity as well as insight -- human relationships which were neither revealed nor acknowledged until many years alter.

Some have challenged Tofel's use of the word" pure" but I do not. I think he means that the quality of play in combination with the professionalism of the players "between the lines" invested that Yankee team with a certain purity of deportment. Of course, at that time, players were literally owned by the teams which employed them. True, the color barrier would not be overcome until eight years later (1947), about the same time the U.S. military services were finally integrated. It was not until 1954 that the U.S. Supreme Court declared school segregation constitutionally illegal. Then and now, our society was not perfect and Tofel nowhere suggests otherwise.

Given all that, the 1939 Yankees handled themselves with uncommon style and grace...with a self-assurance many then viewed as arrogance. Nonetheless, even today, when wearing the pinstripes and playing in Yankee Stadium as a Yankee for the first time, veteran players such as Jason Giambi say that they get goose bumps and feel lightheaded. Until 1939, that was probably not true. After they won the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds, the players' brief celebration in the clubhouse was cut short by manager Joe McCarthy: "Cut that out! What are you, a lot of amateurs? I thought I was managing a professional club. Why, you're worse than college guys." The chastised players then listened silently and intently as McCarthy shared his thoughts about "lost games they might have won during the championship season."

For whatever it may be worth, the only other books on baseball which I enjoyed reading as much as this one are Red Smith on Baseball and Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer. Now if only the Cubs or the White Sox could win a World Series....

Dick Tofel's new book on the '39 Yankees is a line-drive to gap just left of the monuments, a "rope" like the ones that Joe D. used to devliver, it's going - going -gone, that book is out of here, a home run, a four- bagger, a veritable trip around the bases, and -- if they count the runners on base -- many will come to regard this as a a grand slam. Tofel brings us back to a time when baseball was more than a game. Must reading for anyone who ever wondered how America came to have a National Pastime.

Facinating book----of a team and era not as well known to modern baseball fans. An argument can be made that this team ranks, along with the 1927, 1961 and 1998 Yankees as one of the greatest teams of all times. The 1939 team completed a four game sweep of the Reds in the World series--capping off their fourth consecutive world's title---a feat only equaled by the 1949 - 1953 Yankees.

The year 1939 also marked the end of Gehrig's consecutive game streak; an early televised broadcast of a Brooklyn Dodger's game, the opening of the Hall of fame and an expansion of night baseball. With storm clouds of war gathering over Europe, 1939 may have been the last season unsullied by the prospect of World war.

Author Tofel does a fine job in capturing a feel for the era.

He only had 28 at-bats in 1939 before famously ending his streak of 2,130 consecutive games played, but Lou Gehrig casts a long shadow over "A Legend in the Making", which chronicles the Yankees season from April through October. I was surprised to learn, for instance, that Gehrig continued to travel with the Yankees long after learning of his death sentence -- and long after the July 4th "luckiest man" speech at Yankee Stadium. As "Legend in the Making" proves, Gehrig continued to travel with the team in uniform, and was even present throughout the World Series in New York and Cincinnati. I never knew that before.

"Legend in the Making" is at times a throwback to the old school of baseball non-fiction, describing a single season with occasional reference to social and historical goings-on. It's similar to Robert Creamer's volume on 1941, or David Halberstam's books about the summer of '49 and October '64. The difference is that Richard Tofel focusses exclusively on the team he argues is the greatest in baseball history: the '39 Yankees.

In another sense, "Legend" is also a work of progressive baseball analysis, influenced by the research of Bill James, and the writing staff of ESPN.com (primarily Rob Neyer). The book is willing to debunk a few myths, such as the one about Gehrig voluntarily quitting the linuep. Some newly-favored statistical measure are used to distinguish the Yankees from their hailed 1927 counterparts. There's a lot of discussion about when Gehrig may first have gotten sick, including a discussion about the little-known 1938 Western in which he starred. Tofel breaks down his '38 statistics month by month to look for evidence that the ALS may have set in by mid-summer. The answer? probably not.

"Legend" breezes from month to month, anecdote to anecdote, and makes for a satisfying read. Player biographies are mixed in with game descriptions, although sometimes a sharper editorial hand would have been welcome. The description of Opening Day, for example, is interrupted three or four times to tell us about certain key players, so that it seemingly takes forever for Red Ruffing to pitch his shutout. Elden Auker's nostalgic "Sleeper Cards and Flannel Uniforms" is cited in the biography, but an eerie Gehrig story retold in that book did not make its way into this one.

The 1939 World Series is not the best known Fall Classic. It is not easy to make a four-game sweep seem suspenseful, especially when the Cincinnati Reds held a lead for only a few innings in one game. Tofel, however, does a good job recreating a lost world, in which Series games didn't sell out, and were played in sunshine in under two hours.

Tofel shows how the media reported the 1939 season from day to day. Before the revelation that Gehrig had ALS, we see newspaper columnists deriding his play. Not everyone present in the Stadium for his speech was aware he was dying. The most stunning revelation? That, before the '39 season, the Yankees forced Gehrig to take a pay cut. That revelation alone is worth the cover price.

Richard Tofel's capable treatment of the dominant 1939 New York Yankees is much like reading a solid sports column about the previous day's game. "A Legend in the Making" is factual, interesting and engaging, but it is also unmemorable, cliche-ridden and intolerably nonanalytical. Although Tofel writes with a crisp style and salts his observations with vital facts and otherwise esoteric information, "Legend" fails to pesuade the reader as to why this particular Yankee club was the progenitor to the idea of dynastic domination of the sport.

In certain respects, Tofel set an impossible task for himself. At the onset, the reader knows that the Yankees dominated the American League in 1939, the pennant race being over, seemingly, by mid-July; the club swept Cincinnati in the World Series. By winning its fourth consecutive World Series, the Yankees achieved a height no other club had reached. Tofel cannot create any tension or anticipation in his description of the season; his drawn-out account of the World Series lacks drama. Since the reader already knows the outcome of both the season and the Series, Tofel must present an argument as to why this particular club deserves a book-length treatment. In this respect, "Legend" is simply not successful.

The 1939 Yankees were very much an "ensemble" ballclub. Aside from the emergence of Joe DiMaggio as the centerpiece of the team, the Yankees featured strong performances from players whom they had cultivated from their farm system. Tofel tantalizes us with useful data about the successful performances of '39 Yankees who emerged from the system but fails to discuss how and why the Yankee farm system emerged as superior to the other clubs in the American League. Nor does Tofel spend any significant time comparing the '39 Yankees with the storied '27 Yanks. If the '39 Yankee team is "legendary," why is its most signifcant and enduring memory Lou Gehrig: his consecutive-streak ending, his diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and his wrenching "Luckiest Man Alive" speech? Given manager Joe McCarthy's pivotal presence in the dugout does Tofel spend no time comparing his strategies (driving his players mercilessly, insisting on absolute perfection, playing his hunches with his pitching staff) with those of other American League managers? Tofel himself admits that many of the players on that fine team had "czreer years;" that admission alone weakens his argument that this particular club was legendary.

"A Legend in the Making" is not without its strengths however. Tofel is superb in shedding light on the McCarthy-Gehrig confrontation over the Iron Horse's consecutive game streak; his description of Gehrig's physical and emotional state during the July 4th tribute is profoundly moving. The author's research sheds light on the terrible care players received when hurt; that the '39 Yankees performed so brilliantly with so many of its key players nursing debilitating inujries attests to the resolve of the players. Joe McCarthy's contribtions to the success of this team are capably described; to a generation of young boys who have no idea what it means to "dress like a Yankee," Tofel's admiration of the skipper is refreshing. Perceptive biographical sketches abound and truly serve as the backbone of the book.

Despite these strengths, "A Legend in the Making" does not deliver in the clutch. Avoiding responsibility for analyzing, for truly explaining his central thesis, Richard Tofel instead writes exactly as he describes himself, "a fan who finds himself back in 1939." The men who wore the pinstripes and those of us who love the national sport deserve better than that.

Author Richard Tofel chronicles the New York Yankees' 1939 season with the premise that it may have been the greatest baseball team ever.

In 1939, the Yankees won 106 games en route to their fourth consecutive pennant and a four-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. The Yankees posted a 1.31 ERA differential in the American League and scored 411 more runs than their opponents, both marks are league records. Seven pitchers won 10 or more games and eight batters slammed 10 or more homers. Philadelphia A's manager Connie Mack called the '39 Yankees "the greatest team ever."

The Yankees went 24-4 in May and were 50-14 with a 13.5 game lead over the Red Sox at the end of June. Tofel's book suffers from the fact that there was no pennant race. Instead, he focuses on the personalities and some of the other notable events of 1939, such as the first night game, the opening of the Baseball Hall of Fame and the increasing popularity of radio.

Tofel writes poignantly about Lou Gehrig's final season, his decline and his special day on July 4, which teammate Bill Dickey said was "the most emotional day of my life." Tofel says Gehrig may have had ALS as early as 1938.

While seven starters (Gehrig, DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, Lefty Gomez, Tommy Henrich. Bill Dickey and Red Ruffing), two executives (Ed Barrow and George Weiss) and the manager (Joe McCarthy) have been elected to the Hall of Fame, it's Tofel's ability to bring the lesser known players to life that is one of the book's major attractions.

Six pitchers who most fans have never heard of accounted for 62 of the Yankees' 106 wins. They are: Bump Hadley (12-6), Monte Pearson (12-5), Oral Hildebrand (10-4), Atley Donald (13-3), Marcus Russo (8-3) and Steve Sundra (11-1). Other bit players who Tofel brings to life include George Selkirk, Jake Powell, Buddy Rosar and Joe Gallagher.

"A Legend in the Making" is well researched, well written and interesting. This book can be enjoyed by any fan of baseball history. Certainly, this book should be on a must-read list for fans of the New York Yankees.

A very well written book about the 1939 Yankees. Tofel not only takes the reader, month by month, through the 1939 season, but he also highlights the world events that were taking place that year. Tofel makes a strong case for the 1939 Yankees being the greatest of all Yankee teams but one may make equally strong arguments for the Yankees of 1927, 1961 and 1998. Yes, those 1939 Yankees were a great team, but NOT alone the greatest of all. That title belongs generically to all the great Yankee teams, past and present. From any viewpoint, the Yankees are baseball's greatest team. They are today and they always have been. That is their reputation and that is their tradition. Its great to be a Yankee fan! Hey Mel Allen, "How about that?"

Most people remember the 1939 Yankees for only one thing...Lou Gehrig's heartrending speech. But this was a team that won 105 games, a then-record fourth straight World Series, and steamrolled all opposition in its path, including the Cincinnati Reds, taking the Fall Classic in four straight.

The '39 Yankees did it with an MVP season from Joe DiMaggio (.381), a stellar season from pitching ace Red Ruffing (22 wins), and brilliant performances from future Hall of Famers Red Rolfe, Lefty Gomez, Bill Dickey, and Joe Gordon, as well as stalwarts Tommy Henrich, Frankie Crosetti, and Johnny Murphy, and rookies Babe Dahlgren and Charlie Keller. These achievements and players are well-described in Tofel's book, along with the context of the times -- the Great Depression still in force, Hitler marching toward war, and the World's Fair. The book also looks at myths of the period, such as that ballplayers did it for love of the game and not money (it was actually the other way around)), while also looking at the conventions of the time: baseball had to remain segregated, and radio broadcasts would ruin baseball, not add revenue.

Through this book, the world of the 1939 Yankees -- flannel uniforms, sleeper cars, cheapskate owners -- comes back to life, and one realizes not only the differences between major league baseball of 1939 and that of 2009, but the incredible similarities -- players battling through injuries, facing the ends of their careers, teams struggling to keep up with the well-stocked Yankees, the Yankees themselves battling to keep up with their growing history. After reading this book, you realize that 1939 may be 70 years ago, but it's not so very far away.

THIS BOOK IS VERY WORTH WHILE. I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE BETTER. IT LACKED SPARK AND KIND OF PLODDED ALONG. A LITTLE BACKGROUND ABOUT MOST OF THE PLAYERS, MANAGERS, AND OWNERS WAS VERY GOOD. THE LAST DAYS OF LOU GEHRIG IS WELL WRITTEN AND VERY TOUCHING. THE TELLING OF THE SEASON AS WHOLE I THOUGHT WASN'T VERY DETAILED. BUT THE POSITIVES FAR OUT WEIGHT THE NEGATIVES IN THIS. A GOOD READ FOR ALL YANKEE AND HISTORIANS OF BASBALL. RECOMMENDED