The Pride and the Pressure: A Season Inside the New York Yankee Fishbowl (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Derek Jeter
Jason Giambi
Bernie Williams
Gary Sheffield
Alex Rodriguez
Johnny Damon
Melky Cabrera
Hideki Matsui
Bobby Abreu
Jorge Posada
Mariano Rivera
Chien-Ming Wang
Robinson Cano
Mike Mussina
Randy Johnson

“The Yankees always said they valued players who could handle the white-hot spotlight, could handle life in the Yankee Fishbowl.”
--from The Pride and the Pressure

What’s it really like to wear the pinstripes? This riveting account from New York Post writer Michael Morrissey takes readers inside the clubhouse of the 2006 New York Yankees and reveals what really goes on behind the hype, the media glare, and the roar of the fans surrounding the most fabled organization in the world of professional sports.

The New York Yankees began the 2006 season with baseball’s highest payroll and sky-high expectations—and more challenges than other any Yankee team in history. From owner George Steinbrenner right on down, the team took an urgent, almost militaristic, approach toward winning their twenty-seventh world championship. Morrissey had full access, chronicling the ups-and-downs on the field and the public and private skirmishes that defined their season:

·Why manager Joe Torre and general manager Brian Cashman chose to stay on for another season, despite chafing under Steinbrenner in 2005
·The saga of Alex Rodriguez: his peculiar relationship with the fans and the media and the crushing scrutiny that shaped 2006
·How Johnny Damon, the fun-loving, former Red Sox superstar, assimilated into the Yankee line-up and clubhouse
·How Jason Giambi quietly overcame a steroid scandal and became a reliable, formidable power once again
·How the acquisition of Bobby Abreu at the trade deadline redefined the Yankees, attempting to overcome serious injuries to Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui that nearly derailed the team’s prospects
·An unexpected role for Bernie Williams, a huge fan favorite whose Yankee career seemed to be over until team injuries drew the aging star back into the line-up
·Why the Yankee pitching rotation never felt bulletproof – from inconsistencies by Randy Johnson to the embarrassing injury streak suffered by Carl Pavano
·How Yankee superstar and captain Derek Jeter handled relentless expectations to win the World Series, guided the team through disastrous injuries, and faced stinging accusations of not supporting teammate Alex Rodriguez


Nothing in sports compares to the prestige and weight of wearing the pinstripes. THE PRIDE AND THE PRESSURE takes Yankees fans behind the scenes and brings it all to life.

About the Author

MICHAEL MORRISSEY has been covering Major League Baseball since 1997 and has been a baseball writer for the New York Post since 2000. He has been honored in The Best American Sports Writing three times, and national television and radio outlets frequently seek out his expertise. He lives in New York.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (March 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385520867
• ISBN-13: 978-0385520867
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #813,194 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Tabloid Columns Disguised As a Book, April 10, 2007

By	Karen Lee "Karen" (New York, New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This whole book is a collection of tabloid-like articles telling us more than we really need or want to know about some of the Yankee players. For example, Hideki has raging acne and a large collection of porn. Jeter isn't very nice to Miguel Cairo (I didn't know that and I'm sorry. I like Miguel).
The writing style is very irritating. Morrissey obviously did a lot of taping and includes many long quotes from the players, verbatim. Often they didn't bother to finish their sentences or spoke disjointedly, and we are expected to read their minds to know what they meant to say. I am a dedicated Yankee fan and still didn't know what was meant a lot of the time.
Publication of the book seems to have been rushed to coincide with the opening of another season of controversy starring the mortal enemies, Derek and Alex. Don't buy it. It's already outdated because, as of this week anyway, A-Rod is doing great - having hit a walkoff HR and being pushed out of the dugout by Jeter for a curtain call. If you must keep up with the Yankees' behind-the-scenes personal stuff, read the NY papers in hard copy or online. There is nothing wrong with some good gossip. But this is just junk

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I WAS DISAPPOINTED IN THIS BOOK!, March 20, 2007

By	Big Frankie "BF" (Souf Bronx) - See all my reviews

I was disappointed in this book. I felt that it was cut and pasted from every post game newspaper interview that I read last season. I thought that it was put together very quickly and without much thought. Maybe I expected more? Morrissey basically reguritates quotes that were written in the NY newspapers last season. There was little in this book that captivated me to want to read more. He has a chapter about Melky Cabrera and writes about Matsui almost the entire chapter, even though Matsui has his own chapter earlier in the book. I was hoping that he would take us into the inner workings of the New York Yankees and he really does not. If you are a die-hard Yankee fan, you will get nothing from this book that you don't already know. It feels like you are reading old newspaper quotes from the 2006 season. He offers little to no perspective of the 2006 season to the reader. Its just quote after quote after quote...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars awful, April 24, 2007

By	Rob "Rob" (Staten Island, NY) - See all my reviews

This was like reading a year's worth of newspapers at once. There is absolutely nothing worthwhile that even the most casual Yankee fan doesn't know. (Jeter and A-Rod don't get along? you're kidding!) This was clearly slapped together and put out to coincide with the start of the baseball season. I read a lot of baseball books and this is waaaayyyyy at the bottom.