Customer Reviews

Now Pitching for the Yankees: Spinning the News for Mickey, Reggie and George

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Did you ever wonder what it would be like to work for George Steinbrenner in the front office? Marty Appel had the "pleasure" as the key P.R. guy for a couple of very important years when George "re-entered" baseball and the "new" Yankee stadium opened. I could not put this book down. My only regret is that Marty quit around the early part of 1977 and not 1997. This book is a "must" for anybody who wants to know what goes on when the press is not looking!

Unlike Maury Allen's disappointing "All Roads To October", which presented itself as a comprehensive overview of the Steinbrenner era but was just a dull, lackluster personal memoir with skimpy rehashings of old info, Marty Appel doesn't pretend to offer us anything more than his own personal memoir of working with the Yankees from 1968 to 1977, where he rose from a college student given the job of handling Mickey Mantle's fan mail, to the demanding position of director of Public Relations. And what a fascinating memoir it is, offering an up-close look at the Yankees from the latter days of the dreary CBS years of the early 70s, through the return to glory in the early years of George Steinbrenner's tumultuous ownership. Appel offers anecdotes that range from the spellbinding (being present when Gabe Paul made his phone call to Bobby Murcer telling him he'd been traded) to the poignant (running after Horace Clarke to say goodbye to him following Clarke's trade, and being the only member of the Yankee organization to so much as say goodbye to the perpetual symbol of 1965-74 Yankees mediocrity) to the comical (Willie Randolph's insistence on wearing #30 when Appel and clubhouse man Pete Sheehy had been trying to keep it unofficially retired after Mel Stottlemyre's release).

This book is a must for all Yankee fans who grew up in the 70s and ranks as a great supplement to Philip Bashe's comprehensive overview of the era "Dog Days." Don't miss this one!

The best behind the scenes look at the Yankees since Bronx Zoo and Ball Four. Appel is the author of a number of baseball books but this is his best as he goes back to his earlier days to recount the tales of toiling for George and the Yanks. Many stories are brand new here, at least for me, and it is a pleasure for Yankee fans and Yankee haters to recall them. A great beach or bleacher summer read.

A delightful tale...and it is all true! Marty Appel has had the privilege of a career that baseball fans dream of. His passion for the Yankees and skill in spinning a story, make this book a joy from first word to the last. Marty's journey is filled with humor, inside stories and characters that make up baseball and the New York Yankees. Read about the heart and soul of a team that is a legend, by someone who loves the game and the people in it.

Not only is this an enjoyable tale...it's true. For an insider's look at a career that combined a love of the Yankees with an exceptional talent for enthusiatically telling their story, this is the book to read.

Share in the history and the personalities that made up Marty Appel's professional world. Dream along with Marty as he builds a career at the epicenter of his passion...with the New York Yankees.

Posted 5:49 p.m., December 12, 2001 - Bruce M.
If I may add another book to the list. The best baseball book that I've read this calendar year is Marty Appel's Now Pitching for the Yankees. Marty worked in the Yankees' public relations department from 1968 to 1977, and shares loads of funny and insightful stories about the CBS Yankees and the Yankees of the Steinbrenner Era. The book is well-written, flows smoothly, and strikes me as honest without "hatcheting" people in and around baseball. I'd recommend the book to both Yankee and non-Yankee fans.

I saw Marty Appel at a bookstore, telling stories from this book, about his life as a baseball fan, who, while working for the Yankees during the lean CBS years and the early Steinbrenner years, never lost touch with...being a fan. This is a really great book, with some great "behind-the-scenes" stories, that make the old Yankees seem more human, yet still heroic baseball players. As a Mets fan descended from Brooklyn Dodger fans, I'd still recommend this book for all baseball fans.

Marty Appel served in the Bronx Bombers' public-relations office for nearly nine years, and was the PR director during the tumultuous early George Steinbrenner years (from 1974 to 1977). Appel's "Now Pitching For the Yankees" recalls the turmoil of that period -- and Appel's ability to function under pressure --with wit, a keen eye for detail and sensitivity.

None of the long hours Appel spent at the ballpark, the turmoil he witnessed, or the high-pressure tactics of owner Steinbrenner have dimmed his appreciation for his colleagues and bosses. It comes through in the pages of this warm, often touching memoir.

The boldface names are there -- including Steinbrenner, Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson -- along with less-famous but pivotal Yankee characters like clubhouse man Pete Sheehy, team execs Michael Burke and Gabe Paul, and Appel's mentor in public relations, Bob Fishel. (It even mentions the writers: Appel's anecdote about one scribe's losing battle with bladder control in Boston is priceless.)

Appel also reflects on his vibrant post-Yankees career, including a bittersweet period with the Atlanta Olympics and a still-thriving stint as a baseball author (subjects include early baseball star King Kelly, former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and former Yankee captain Thurman Munson).

"Now Pitching for the Yankees" is a good find for anyone who loves baseball, cherishes its history and appreciates the people behind the scenes who make it happen.

Only if you really know your New York sports would you realize that Marty Appel's in a much more unique position to write a tell-all book about the 1970s Yankees than many other athletes. During his progression over 10 years from Yankees' fan-mail gopher during the Horace Clarke years, to PR director during the 1976 World Series, Appel had once-in-a-lifetime encounters (with the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Mike Burke, Gabe Paul, George Steinbrenner and ... Oscar Gamble) every single day.

"Now Pitching...", finally out in paperback, shows Appel's origins as a Yankees fan when everyone else was rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and how he turned his love for the game into a career (when everyone else was watching the NFL). Most of the book covers the Yankees from 1968 to 1976, Appel's reign. Although many of the stories are familiar to baseball readers from what seems like 100 other books, only Appel is giving you the inside view. Nowhere else will you get such insider detail about Oscar Gamble's infamous haircut, Sparky Lyle's theme music, or George Steinbrenner's management style.

The book flags a little -- only a little -- when Appel leaves the Yankees and makes his mark in other ventures, such as team tennis and local NYC broadcasting. The most interesting part focusses on Appel's brief fish-out-of-water turn with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics organizers.

Marty Appel's been a very lucky guy -- who else gets to be friends with both Mickey Mantle and Billie Jean King? "Now Pitching for the Yankees" is several cuts above your standard baseball autobiography.

I have read all the great Yankee books like Balls, Bronx Zoo, Number One, The Best Team Money Could Buy, and I can honestly say this is the best of them all by a long shot! I have read this book three times and find myself reading certain chapters again and again. I am 35, and this book takes me back to the sites, smells and sounds of the mid-70s when Gabe Paul and George Steinbrenner were putting together the beginnings of a dynasty. You'll find yourself remembering just what you were doing when the Bobby Bonds-Bobby Murcer trade and the signings of Catfish and Billy Martin were taking place. The birth of free agency is also looked at in a way more understandably than I have ever seen in any medium. No review can say enough about how fantastic a read this book is. So many baseball books are just regurgitative facts that you can get from old newspapers and magazines. This book is a true fan's insider look at the most most storied franchise and it's return to glory post-Mantle.