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

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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.

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.

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.

This is a wonderful journey back through 7 decades of the Yankees, recalling memorable events through the eyes of players who were there - and who always share more with the passage of years. Madden's selection of players was perfect - people who were 'young and Yankees,' - and people who could tell a story. I read this out of sequence, jumping from one to another, much as Madden's travel across the country led him to interesting hometowns. My favorites were Tommy Byrne, Marius Russo and Ralph Houk, with special affection for Bobby Richardson, Bobby Murcer and Ron Blomberg. Of all the Yankee books out this year for the 100th anniversary, this one may prove to be the most fun.

There have been a whole bunch of book put out to celebrate the first century of New York Yankee, of which "Pride of October: What it Was to Be Young and a Yankee" by Bill Madden is one of the best. It is also one of the more different, consisting basically of a series of conversations (they would not really be considered "interviews") between Madden and 17 former Yankees (and one very special Yankee widow). The other common denominator, obviously, is that they have to be alive, which sounds stupid when you write it down like this, but matters because it leads to some interesting and poignant choices.

Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin have died, which leaves only Whitey Ford to talk about the hell-raising days in the Fifties. Madden does talk with Hall of Famers Phil Rizzuto, Yogi Berra, and Reggie Jackson, but the chief charm here is in names that do not come to mind. I have all the New York Yankees Topps baseball cards from the year I was born, so I recognize the names Tommy Byrne and Charlie Silvera, but I do not know a lot about them. However, the name that stands out is Marius Russo, one of the last remaining links to Lou Gehrig, because I do not think I had ever heard (or even read) his name before.

I became a Yankee fans in 1965; in other words, the year after they stopped winning championships. So my early memories are watching Mel Stottlemyre hit an inside-the-park grand slam homerun at Yankee Stadium and my biggest (early) heartbreak was when my favorite player, Bobby Murcer, was traded for my father's favorite player, Bobby Bonds. So while "Pride of October" starts with as far back in Yankee history as living voices can remember, it eventually gets up to the teams and players of our lives. Even if, like Ron Blomberg, they never played in a postseason game. When Madden has chapters on Bobby Richardson and Joe Pepitone back to back, you know you are getting a true cross-section of the guys who have played for the Yankees.

The one exception to this rule is Arlene Howard, the widow of Elston Howard, who was the first African-American ballplayer to play for the Yankees. I totally buy into the argument that the reason the Yankees went from first to worst in the 1960s was because the front office was racist and refused to sign any blacks when they probably could have signed anyone they wanted (Mantle, Mays and Aaron in the same outfield? Sure, why not?). The only way to touch on that issue is for Howard's widow to relate what it was lie, talking forth in the home in Teaneck, New Jersey where the city fathers once tried to keep her and her husband from occupying.

My recommendation is to do what I did, which was basically to only read one chapter a day. Just enjoy the Scooter's stories about his friendship with Gerry Priddy and be offended by the way the Yankees forced him to retire, before moving on to Russo's recollections of the Iron Horse, Cro, and Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons. There is a brief section of black & white photographs, that starts with Gehrig and DiMaggio kneeling side by side in Spring Training and ends with Paul O'Neill cleaning out his locker for the last time. The photographs are just the frosting on the cake, because the main treat here is just reading how Madden sat down with each of these individuals, who told their stories, with Madden supplying relevant information to fill in the gaps.

Baseball is a game of stories, and Bill Madden has transversed the United States to garner tales from a unique group of alumni, those who played for the New York Yankees through the twentieth century. The title is something of a misnomer. Some of Madden's subjects were never young Yankees. Reggie Jackson cut his teeth in Oakland, Lou Piniella caught fire in Kansas City, and Paul O'Neill even won a World Series ring in Cincinnati in 1990 before arriving at the East Coast. And even with the Yankee "lifers" interviewed for this work, many of the best remembered stories are about established ball players and their antics in their prime. Whitey, Mickey, Billy and Hank were hardly kids the night the Yanks trashed the Copa in 1957-in fact, it was Billy's 29th birthday that sparked the occasion. Yet this tale appears-more than once-among the multitude of memories along this nostalgic trail.

There are some interviews that actually do shed new light on Yankee history-or hagiography, if you will. Marius Russo's inclusion among Madden's subjects is fortuitous. One of the team's lesser known talents over the years, Russo, a left handed pitcher who joined the Yanks in 1938, was included in this work as one of the last living connections to the Iron Horse, Lou Gehrig. Russo sheds light on a remarkable Yankee pitching staff of 1939 remembered both for its depth and its sabermetrics. Seven starters finished the season with double figure wins: Ruffing [21-7], Hadley [12-6], Pearson [12-5], Gomez [12-8], Donald [13-3], Sundra [11-1], and Hildebrand [10-4]. Russo, added to the rotation late in the season [why?], went 8-3, including a 7-0 stretch in September. Russo would never win more than 14 games in any of his six Yankee seasons, but one of his most poignant memories involved fallout from the demise of Gehrig. When the Yankee team fell to fifth place in 1940, columnist Jimmy Powers of the New York Daily News reported that the entire team had been infected by Gehrig's "polio," as his affliction was then diagnosed. The report shook baseball and resulted in a $1 million lawsuit against the writer.

Another lesser-known Yankee interviewee was the observant bench jockey and reserve catcher Charlie Silvera, whose entire nine years of backing up Berra, Houk, and Howard produced only 429 at bats. Silvera recalls an obscure but impressive Casey Stengel accomplishment: winning five successive World Series with a depleted roster. The Yankees, under the rules of the day, carried two or three prospects who never made the team but counted against the 25-man roster. Silvera's recollections also highlight one of the secrets of the Yankee dynasty: a network of astute West Coast scouts who steered reports of promising young prospects to the East Coast Yankee front office that took such reporting seriously. Silvera as much as anyone recounts the awe that most players since 1920 have felt about donning the Yankee pinstripes. Silvera and others-including many of the household names--are as proud of their being Yankees as their personal stats as Yankees. In a year where Silvera, for example, did not get his first at bat until June 17 [1949], he still won his first of five consecutive World Series rings.

As all of the interviewed players wore Yankee pinstripes, it is hard at times to separate the individuals from the history of the team itself. And one era that Madden treats with considerable detail is the post 1964 Yankee decline. Some of the best interviews come from Yankees who played or managed through that ten year era: Yogi, Ralph Houk, Mel Stottlemyre, Joe Pepitone, Bobby Richardson, Ron Blomberg, and Bobby Murcer. There are many theories of the fall of the Roman Empire, nearly as many as to the decline of the Yankees in those years. The author and the players named above are in fair agreement that poor front office management [trading Roger Maris to St. Louis, for example], the failure of certain Yankee veterans to obey "one of their own," Yogi Berra, as manager, the free agent draft, the decline of the farm teams, and parity. One other applicable statistic: I looked up the 1965 Yankee roster, and discovered exactly one African-American in the starting lineup, Elston Howard [whose widow Arlene is the only non-player interviewed for this work], and one black pitcher on the staff, Al Downing.

As an interviewer Bill Madden is more Eddie Lopat than Vic Raschi. The questions arrive to the plate with a gentle thud in the catcher's mitt or get obscured in the dust in front of home plate. Madden has no problem getting his subjects to cry, but he is averse to making them squirm. Thus the free pass to Whitey "Slick" Ford, whose nickname comes from the old expression "city-slicker." Whitey's description of himself as a "professional drinker" in his playing days says nothing and says everything. It is no surprise he does not like to talk about Mickey and Billy, and Madden does not press.

But perhaps we should not be surprised that Madden is no Bob Woodward where investigative reporting is concerned. The author has covered the Yankees for a quarter century. I hardly think he would endanger the source of his bread and butter. It is in his vested interest in continue the legend, and he does this in a warm and congenial way. And we always have Jim Bouton for the hardball accounts.

Author Bill Madden has come up with a first rate book on significant Yankee players who have had distinguished careers with the team over the past several decades. The book reminds me of Roger Kahn's effort on the Brooklyn Dodgers of the early 1950's in which he traveled across the country to visit surviving members of that team. Madden has come up with a similar book on the Yankees with the only difference being the players that were interviewed didn't necessarily play on the same team. The oldest player interviewed by Madden was pitcher Marius Russo who concluded his career in 1946 with Paul O'Neill being the most recent Yankee included in the book. Madden interviewed the late Elston Howard's wife Arlene. Otherwise the book includes interviews only with still-living Yankee greats. The only disappointing omission from the book is Ron Guidry who certainly should have been included. However, Yankee fan or not, this is a first rate book for anyone who considers themself a baseball fan.

Just an UNBELIEVABLE book...the stories from both the most popular Yankees (Rizzuto, Ford, Berra) to the back-up catcher on the five straight championship teams in the 50's are all must-read. 18 chapters on 17 men (1 women - Arlene Howard, the widow of Yankee great Elston Howard) covers the all-time greats and the not so recognizable players. Modern guys like Jackson, Pinella, and O'Neil make sure that all eras are covered. The best baseball writer in the NY papers, has penned one of the best baseball books I have ever read.

I think this is the best book that I ever read. I couldn't put this book down. This is a good book for die hard Yankee fans or just people who love baseball. Bill madden goes out to find players from past Yankee seasons. This is a good book I recommend this book for all baseball fans.

Terrific Book! Unlike most baseball books that rehash the same old tales that have been told a thousand times, this book has plenty of new stories from popular baseball players of the last three generations. Thus, it has something new and entertaining for everyone. Everyone's favorite, Yogi Berra, has some new stories and tells us his true feelings about situations that have occured in his career. Whitey Ford takes us back to where he grew up in Astoria, NY., and has plenty of funny stories to relate. Bobby Richardson provides with his spirituality and how it affected those he came in contact with. Lou Pinella tells some wild tales, while Bobby Murcer lets us know about his feelings about Thurman Munson, and the hurt he felt in being traded from the team he loved. Reggie Jackson is Reggie... Paul O"Neil tells us many stories about the recent great Yankee teams. From the litany of players you can see this book takes us from the forties to the last year. It is interesting, humorous and a great read. My only complaint is tht it went to fast. Pick it up today.