The 50 Greatest Yankee Games (Hardcover)

by Cecilia Tan (Author) "The Yankees have always had an expectation of greatness..." (more)
Key Phrases: reporters after the game, sac fly, bullpen ace, New York, Red Sox, American League (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
How do you pick just 50 great games from among the thousands played by the most successful franchise in pro sports? It's not easy, but Tan does a fine job choosing the most important contests from 100 seasons of Yankee baseball and recounting them in a gripping style. From Babe Ruth's "called shot," to Bucky Dent's devastating 1978 playoff homerun, to Aaron Boone's clinching blow in the 2003 American League Championship Series, most of the biggest events in Yankee history are brought to life in this book. One can argue with some of Tan's choices-and Yankee fans inevitably will-but that's half the fun. Tan, an experienced baseball writer and devoted Yankee fan, draws on research, contemporary press accounts and interviews she conducted with players such as Yogi Berra, Dwight Gooden, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Murcer and Whitey Ford to recreate the games and illuminate key moments. Tan displays a knack for narrative, developing entertaining, dramatic story lines even though the outcome is never a surprise. If you saw one of the games (or watched it on television), long-forgotten details will come flooding back. If you didn't see the game, you'll almost feel as if you were there. Yankee fans should enjoy this celebration of their favorite team.

Review
Tan, a baseball writer and die-hard New York Yankees fan, presents brief examinations of the 50 purportedly greatest games ever played by her team. The volume opens with the last-season game in October 1904, when 41-game winner Jack Chesbro flung a wild pitch, dashing New York's hopes of winning the American League pennant, and closes with Aaron Boone's walk-off homer against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield to defeat the Boston Red Sox in the 2003 American League Championship Series (ALCS). In between, Tan places Don Larsen's perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1956 World Series at the top of the Yankees's memorable contests, followed by game three of the 1932 fall classic when the Bambino supposedly belted the "called shot," and the single-game playoff for the 1978 pennant when Bucky Dent's roundtripper broke the hearts of the Red Sox nation. Given the astonishing collapse of the Yankees in the final four games of last year's ALCS, this work already seems in need of an update. Nonetheless, it provides light enjoyment, with the appearance of all the usual suspects: Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Jackson, Jeter, and the rest. Recommended for general libraries.—R.C. Cottrell, California State Univ., Chico (Library Journal, May 1, 2005)

"Tan does a fine job choosing the most important contests from 100 seasons of Yankee baseball and recounting them in a gripping style . . . . developing entertaining, dramatic story lines." (Publisher's Weekly)

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 047165938X
• ISBN-13: 978-0471659389
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #864,601 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Major Disappointment, March 10, 2005

By	Eric Paddon (Morristown, NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was not what I had hoped to see. 50 games are given the same kind of thumbnail sketch that I've seen too many times before in so many other books that the end result is an end product that just seems like a slapped together collection of information anyone can glean from books already out there. And if that isn't bad enough, some of Tan's choices for the 50 Greatest Games are mindboggling in their stupidity when contrasted with what gets left out. Who in their right mind would say that a game where Tony Fernandez hit for the cycle in 1995 was greater than Game 2 of the 1995 ALDS with Jim Leyritz's two run HR in the 15th inning? Or that the Jeffrey Maier game of the 96 ALCS should be left out, along with Games 4 and 5 of the 2001 WS? I almost got the feeling that Tan didn't want to write about multiple games from a particular postseason because that would have required too much effort on her part. Indeed, most of the lead-in for a game description consists of a recap of the entire season up to that point (which in itself eats up much of the brief time allotted for the game), and to do more than one game for a particular postseason would have required more detailed about the game and less filler time.

You also would have thought that Tan would at least go to the trouble of providing box score information on the games profiled, but we don't even get something convenient like that. And her description of the Babe Ruth called HR game contains a howling error when she reprints the so-called "Radio call" of Cubs broadcaster Quin Ryan. That call is a phony recreation done long after the fact, and Tan should have known that.

Books like this are IMO the worst kind because all they do is give the most rudimentary thumbnail sketch of a game without attempting anything fresh or insightful. If one is not as much of a hardcore fan and wants just an introductary primer to some of these games, it can perhaps be useful, but for the serious Yankee fan, don't waste your money.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent writing, presentation fair, April 8, 2005

By	A reader (New York) - See all my reviews

Greatest games books can be very boring; this one is anything but. The 50 greatest Yankees games are intelligently selected and thoroughly covered in 50 separate essays. The writing is solid and entertaining. However, the design of the book, with no box scores and only a tiny separation between each game essay, could be better.

5.0 out of 5 stars The 50 Greatest Yankee Games, March 8, 2008

By	Peggy Johnson "Yanksgal07" (New York) - See all my reviews

I received the book quickly and well packaged. The book was in excellent condition. Thank you