Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee [Hardcover]

Bill Madden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2003

Legendary Yankees past and present sit down with award-winning columnist Bill Madden to offer a captivating portrait of what it's like to play for the Bronx Bombers. In his years of writing about the Yankees for the Daily News, columnist Bill Madden has earned the reputation as one of the premier journalists covering the team. Now, he combines his unprecedented access with his unique insight to provide an insider's look at America's most revered sports team. Madden sits down with 18 prominent Yankee players--from legends like Yogi Berra to recent greats like Paul O'Neill--and gets them to open up about what it's like to play for the sport's most loved, most hated, and most successful franchise. Introspective chapters include profiles of Phil Rizzuto, Whitey Ford, Don Mattingly, and Lou Piniella; Jerry Coleman, who explains why the Yankees to him are "not just a team but a religion"; and Ralph Houk, the manager of the 1961 Yankees team who rarely gives interviews. Other revealing portraits include Bobby Murcer, Reggie Jackson, and Joe Pepitone. A celebration of baseball at its best, this is the perfect book for anyone who ever dreamed of donning the blue pinstripes and winning one for the home team.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It is a testament to the depth of New York Yankee history that a sportswriter, albeit a very good one, can profile 18 people connected to the team's past and deliver an absorbing story that traces much of the team's story through the eyes of the men who were there. Madden's goal, to capture as much of the team's past as possible, led him to Marius Russo, one of the last players alive to play with Yankee legend Lou Gehrig. The chapter on Russo, as well as on other Yankee old-timers Tommy Byrne and Charlie Silvera, are especially enjoyable since they shed light on the pre- WWII Yankees, while bringing attention to three players who are not generally known by most fans. Madden (coauthor of Zim) writes with affection about each player, with an understanding of each one's place in Yankee lore. His choice to include Arlene Howard, widow of Elston Howard, the first African-American to play for the Yankees, is inspired, as it allows Madden to bring to life the difficulties Howard had in breaking the Yankee color line. One weakness: since many of the profiles are of men who were part of either Stengel's Yankees or the Bronx Zoo teams of the mid-1970s, Madden must repeat the highlights of those years in several different chapters. But this is a minor quibble, and Yankee fans will enjoy the perspective of what it was like to be young and a Yankee in a number of different eras.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Veteran sportswriter Bill Madden of the NY Daily News adds a standout in the current flood of books commemorating the New York Yankees' one-hundredth anniversary. In 18 interviews with former Yankee players or family members--starting with Phil Rizzuto and ending with Paul O'Neill--Madden asks the simple question in the title and gets some wonderful answers, which he reports with grace and wit. Each chapter begins with a photograph of the interviewee now. These are elegant and revealing images: Arlene Howard, widow of Elston, with his MVP award; Bobby Richardson with his Bible. Madden gets recalcitrant former manager Ralph Houk to talk, and he can hardly get the irrepressible Joe Pepitone to shut up. He also gets a warm and personal interview from Charlie Silvera, who was the backup catcher for Yogi Berra for five world championship seasons, and from Ron Bloomberg, the first notable Jewish Yankee and the very first DH ever. There's both pride and pathos in his interview with Donnie Baseball, Don Mattingly, who never won a world championship, and even more of the same with Paul O'Neill, who says he got more out of being Donnie's teammate than from anything else in his time as a Yankee. This one's a keeper. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books; 1ST edition (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 044652932X
• ISBN-13: 978-0446529327
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,792,878 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For more than 30 years Bill Madden has covered the Yankees and Major League Baseball for the New York Daily News. The author of several books about the Yankees, Madden is also the 2010 recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame's J.G. Taylor Spink Award. He lives in New Jersey.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Grand Slam, April 6, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee (Hardcover)

I've just finished reading Bill Madden's Pride of October. I couldn't put it down. When it is all said and done, this may be the best book on the Yankees--ever. This is a refreshing departure from typical baseball books, which are seldom more than protracted research papers. Madden visits Don Mattingly at his horse farm in Indiana, takes a tour with Whitey Ford of Whitey's old neighborhood in Queens, spends several days in South Carolina with Bobby Richardson, and finds the oldest living Yankee, Marius Russo, in Fort Myers, Florida (the Yankees didn't even know where he was!). Thanks, Mr. Madden, for the most honest, compelling and entertaining portrait of Yankee players I've ever read.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Chane To "Talk" To Your Yankee Heroes, April 22, 2003

By 

Louis M. DiLullo (Providence, RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee (Hardcover)

As a Yankee fan, did you ever wish you could just sit down with your heroes and ask them some interesting questions about themselves and their time with the Yankees? Well, in his book, Pride of October: What It Was Like To Be Young And A Yankee, Bill Madden makes our wishes come true. In a book that's as entertaining as the players and team it covers, Madden brings back so many memories of our past heroes.

For me, the book really hit home, when Madden sat down and talked with Bobby Murcer, who was a hero of mine as a youngster. In that chapter, Madden, through Murcer's words, tells the story of how disappointed Bobby was when he was traded from the Yankees after the 1974 season. When I read the passages, it brought me back to when I was fourteen years old and was crushed when I found out my favorite player was traded. Now, almost thirty years later, I realized Murcer was as devastated as I was.

Through Murcer, Lou Piniella, and Reggie Jackson, Madden also captures the very emotional days after the tragic death of Thurman Munson. Yankee fans who remember those sad days of August 1979, will have the strong emotions brought back when they read the words of Munson's former mates.

The book has many interesting tidbits about some very famous Yankees. For example, when talking to Phil Rizzuto, Madden, explains to us why Phil was and still is so scared of lightning. Yankee fans fondly recall how the "Scooter" would "bolt" from the booth as soon as he saw lightning. Well, when you read the book you'll find out why. You will also read how the events of September 11th, affected Phil's life.

An early chapter in the book deals with former Yankee pitcher, Marius Russo. Though I've been a die hard fan for over thirty years, I frankly never heard of Russo. Madden's chapter on Russo was special because Russo was a teammate of Lou Gehrig and the former Yankee pitcher tells how sad it was to see Gehrig suffer with ALS.

As a Yankee fan since 1967, I not only enjoyed the book, but also appreciated the fact that Bill Madden gave me a chance to "talk" to my heroes.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best n.y. yankee books from one who knows, April 7, 2003

By 

james wilson (new port richey, fl United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee (Hardcover)

a great perspective on a great american franchise, the new york yankees are always going to be part of our heritage.bill madden does what few others can do,he writes from real life encounters with some of our great heroes.a hard book to put down,easy to read and very enjoyable with real life stories and plenty of humor.i recommend this book by bill madden highly.