A Yankee Century: A Celebration Of The First Hundred Years Of Baseball's (Paperback)

~ (Author) "FEBRUARY 6, 1895 Babe Ruth is born at 216 Emory Street, Baltimore, Maryland..." (more)
Key Phrases: first designated hitter, doubleheader sweep, straight pennant, World Series, New York, Babe Ruth (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Frommer's contribution to books marking 100 years of Yankee baseball is a tribute to the flexibility of electronic databases as the author (The New York Yankee Encyclopedia) slices and dices information about the team in thousands of ways. Suffice it to say, if there is a statistic about the team a reader wants to know, more than likely it can be found in this compilation of facts and figures. In addition to the numbers, there are chapters devoted to Yankee Stadium; brief profiles of prominent players, coaches and owners; material on the best and worst teams; memorable moments; and an especially fun chapter on quotes by and about Yankees (highlighted, of course, by Casey Stengel and Yogi Berra). Trivia buffs could spend months digesting all the information that Frommer has collected in this easily accessible work. And while his prose isn't compelling, Yankee fans who can't learn enough about their favorite team will think they died and went to heaven with all that Frommer offers on each page.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

More fun than any other Yankee title this year is Frommer's gem. This is the sort of book you want by your side during the season and all through the long winter, to dip into to astound and amaze your companions. The first chapter lists key dates in Yankee history; the second covers the history of the stadium. There's a list of memorable moments, of course, and a Yankee who's who. But best of all is part 3: pages of one-liners and quips (Mark Grace on Arizona's win in the seventh game of the 2001 World Series, "It's like winning in the bottom of the ninth off of God!"), a whole list of Yankee nicknames and catchwords, and a 100-question Yankee quiz (with answers). And there are sidebars and lists and charts galore. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (October 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 042519177X
• ISBN-13: 978-0425191774
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #240,413 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VALLEY NEWS: A BOOK MADE WITH YANKEE FANS IN MIND., December 4, 2002

By	Marv Rothenstein (, Harrison,NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball's Greatest Team (Hardcover)

424 pages; ....

By Dan Mackie
Valley News Staff Writer
I shoulda been a Yankee fan.

Well, that's what I learned from reading A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball's Greatest Team, by Harvey Frommer. He's a teacher in the Liberal Studies program at Dartmouth College "and a longtime Yankee fan,'' according to the book jacket.

He's also major league prolific, the author of more than 30 sports books and a number of popular oral histories.

Yankee Century is a book for the fan, the true believer, for 12-year-olds tucked in at night in Yankee pinstriped pajamas (and for 40-year-olds tucked in at night in Yankee pinstriped pajamas, for that matter).

The Yankees, according to this telling, have been an assemblage of characters (Casey Stengel, Lefty Gomez, Yogi Berra) and demigods, (The Babe, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle). If the Dallas Cowboys are America's Team, then this was Heaven's Team. Greatness followed the players around like an adoring shadow.

Sadly, it's sort of true. In the last century, the Yankees have collected pennants and World Series victories as if they were routine stuff. The Yankees were the Big Dog, Microsoft, Joe Louis, General Motors. Other teams have risen up and taken their shots at greatness, but no other major league team has been as consistently good.

Time for an admission: I'm a Red Sox fan. History has not been kind: The Sox are the Titanic, the Yankees the iceberg. I read this book out of professional obligation. I've had my nose rubbed in the greatness of the Yankees all my life.

The Red Sox last won the World Series in 1918. The Yankees have since won 26 times. They've been feasting, while Red Sox fans have been left with bitter crumbs. But enough about the Red Sox, baseball's longest-running Shakespearean tragedy. ("My kingdom for a first baseman. ... Out, damn Bucky Dent! ... What fools these managers be!")

A Yankee Century takes the reader through New York's glory, and a couple of dry spells. It's mostly uncritical, the way sportswriting used to be, before reality and cynicism intruded. That's kind of refreshing in a way. If we wanted to think about labor strife and corporate shenanigans, we'd read the Wall Street Journal, not box scores. Alas, that's too simplistic, but baseball seemingly was meant to be a simple pastime.

Yankee Century offers all the highlights, funny quotes, trivia (Iron man Lou Gehrig pinch-hit for Pee-Wee Wanninger, not Wally Pipp, to start his historic streak), lists and quizzes a true Yankee fan might want.

Other fans wrestle with the question of whether all this Yankee success has been good for the game. Much of it has been due to smarts and talent, but much has also been due to the Yankees' dominant revenue stream. If you can't beat 'em, outspend 'em.

Yankee fans, of course, do not worry much about this. The last century was theirs and presumably the new one won't be bad, either

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How about that, folks?, March 2, 2004

By	Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball's Greatest Team (Hardcover)

In the northeast, the winter of 2003-2004 will be remembered as one of the snowiest, iciest, coldest and dreariest in recent memory. A YANKEE CENTURY was the perfect cure for those miserable days. Filled with the baseball history that took place on the sun-drenched field of Yankee Stadium, Harvey Frommer has provided us Yankee [and most baseball] fans with a warm nostalgia and a good feeling for the springs and summers to come.

With equal parts statistics and anecdote, the book is a well-balanced exploration into the most successful sports franchise in history. Peppered with wonderful photos (some that I had never seen before), this 400+ page book moves swiftly. The writing is respectful without becoming sentimental. And Paul O'Neill, who I will always remember as our favorite water-cooler kicking hothead, proves to be a sensitive and articulate commentator. Congratulations to both writers.

A YANKEE CENTURY is a great exploration into the Bronx Bombers, and by extension, to the history of 20th century baseball itself.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT, GREAT. BASEBALLOGY.COM, November 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First Hundred Years of Baseball's Greatest Team (Hardcover)

New York Yankees are the most popular, successful and enduring franchise in any sport. With all the amazing history that they have, can it be summed up in one book? The answer is no but this book does a great job of giving you a lot of their history in one book.

The beauty of this book is the little things, the attention that Harvey Frommer gave each page and each section. He listed so many facts in this book that any baseball fan would find this a great read.

The book has great quotes, timelines, short stories, player bios, full breakdowns of great records like the Joe DiMaggio hitting streak and when Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's record (the breakdown of Ruth's 60 is in the book too!). The quotes are great too and there is a lot of information in this book that has never been seen before like Mickey Mantle's Hall of Fame speech!

The nickname section is priceless and all of them are explained in good detail. The pictures are well above average too as you will see a younger Casey Stengel, Thurman Munson, Ruth, Mantle, Maris, and Mel Allen. That's right even the great announcers that have worked for the Yankees over the years get their moment in the sun too.

Expect a lot of Billy Martin mentions and Yogi-isms in this Yankee treasure. There are also mentions of movies and really anything that has happened to the Bronx Bombers like Yankee Firsts and Lasts. And this book even has every manager to ever put on the pinstripes.

This book will cost you just over twenty dollars, but for the money you get a ton of baseball knowledge so it is well worth it.Buy A Yankee Century Now