The 50 Greatest Players in New
York Yankees History is a 300 page book that opens with “Introduction:
The Yankee Pedigree” before covering the top 50 players. The introduction
covers the Yankee beginnings in Baltimore, the move to New York in 1905, the move
to the Polo Grounds in 1915, and the storied success in the following decades.
That history is brought forward to the super stars of today in an overview
format before covering the author's decision making process in ranking players.
Three factors weighed into
the author's decision making process. He considered the “Level of Dominance” a
player achieved with the team such as batting tiles, pitching awards, or some
other offensive or pitching statistic. That same type of information was
considered internally to determine how a player ranked among his other Yankee
players when factoring in the era the player performed in as clearly, over
time, baseball is a very fluid sport with numerous changes in the players and
the game itself over the years. Also important was how much the player impacted
the team on and off the field and what impact his presence had on the Yankee
legacy. It is worth noting that only the period a player was with the Yankees
was considered for the above determinations.
By author Robert W. Cohen’s standards
he determined that Number one is Babe Ruth with Dave Righetti coming in at
number 50. In between are Yankee's such as Derek Jeter (number 6), Alex
Rodriguez (number 12), Rich Gossage (number 36), Sparky Lyle (number 41) and
many more. Each chapter covers the players biography while a Yankee as well as
informative about the context of the player in history. Each chapter has a
career highlights section that covers “Best Season” and “Memorable Moments/Greatest
Performances” as well as “Notable Achievements.” The “Notable Achievements”
section is in bullet point format and especially suitable for settling trivia
arguments.
Starting on page 263 after
the top 50 players, the author designates a starting team and pitching staff as
well as a second team. Author Robert W. Cohen than goes on to list the next 50
players deserving of honorable mention. That includes such notables as Wally
Pipp (number 52), Lou Piniella (Number 60), C.C. Sabathia (number 61), Tommy
John (number 76), and Garry Sheffield (number 100). While not as comprehensive
in detail as the main part of the book, each player has a listing of their
stats with the team under the heading of
“Yankee Numbers” as well as their “Notable Achievements.”
Also included is a two page
index of common baseball terms, a biography of the source material used in the
book and a six page index. An author bio page detailing the author's baseball
credentials and other accomplishments close the book.
While surprisingly void of
any photographs at all, there is a wealth of information on the profiled
players in The 50 Greatest Players in New York Yankees History. The book
is a comprehensive educational resource for fans and non-fans of the Yankees.
Those looking for scandalous details won’t find much, if any, in this book.
Those looking to find more about the accomplishments of various players and the
context of the time they played will find much to savor in this excellently
done reference style book.
It should be noted that this
is a reprint edition of a book released previously last year through another
division of the same publisher. This 2013 edition of the book was done before
the recent news regarding Alex Rodriguez came out regarding his use of
performance enhancing drugs and other issues.
The
50 Greatest Players in New York Yankees History
Robert
W. Cohen
Taylor
Trade Publishing (The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.)
2013
ISBN#
978-1-58979-815-1
Paperback
(also available as an e-book)
300
Pages
$19.95
I received an ARC of this title due to my
participation in the “LibraryThing Early Reviewers” group for my use in an
objective review. As such, my above
review appeared there first before appearing here on the blog.
Kevin R. Tipple ©2013
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