Download The New York Yankees of the 1950s Mantle Stengel Berra and a Decade of Dominance David Fischer 9781493038923 Books

Product details Hardcover 280 pages Publisher Lyons Press (April 1, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1493038923

The New York Yankees of the 1950s Mantle Stengel Berra and a Decade of Dominance David Fischer 9781493038923 Books Reviews

• This book on the Yankees of the 1950s provides the reader with a matter-of-fact account on the team's dominance during this decade. The reader will also be provided with tidbits of information that took place in the world of other sports and America during this decade. Having been fortunate to have been a baseball fan (of the Tigers) during this decade since 1951 the names and incidents that took place in baseball and America were very memorable to me.
  
  However, if you are looking for a story of the decade with an emphasis on the Yankees you won't find it here. Instead you will be treated to a summary of the decade and the players that were on the Yankees' team. I realize that baseball fans are big on statistics but I'm not. Along with statistics and game play-by-play may be fine for some fans but it is not for me. If you like this, then fine, you won't be bothered by this. An interesting bit of trivia you may want to file away is that Johnny Sain was the last pitcher to pitch to Babe Ruth and the first one to pitch to Jackie Robinson.
  
  I found an error on page 105 in which the author states that both runners held their base when Willie Mays made his famous catch off of Vic Wertz whereas, in reality, Larry Doby, the runner on second, was able to tag up and move on to third base. Also, a photo on page 12 is listed as Vic Raschi, Hank Bauer, and Casey Stengel. I'm not sure of the identification of Raschi is correct. It looks like Gene Woodling to me. Besides it would seem more appropriate for it to be Woodling since Stengel platooned both Woodling and Bauer.
  
  I found the book to be an okay read and if you grew up in the 1950s you may find this to be an interesting read. If not, and you want to familiarize yourself with this decade with an emphasis on the Yankees you may enjoy it more.
• The book captured the spirit of the Yankees and was a honest appraisal of the players on and off the field. It would have an appeal for someone who lived through that era. I doubt that younger readers would enjoy the book as much.
• Best baseball book I have ever read and I have been reading them for fifty years. In addition to chronicling the achievements of these great teams and players, the author interweaves short accounts of important 1950s US social, political and cultural events that provide important perspective and context for those who did not experience the time first hand, which is of course, going to be most of the people who read this book. For those of us that were there, there are some pointed reminders of the good, the bad and the wacky and the irretrievably lost. But also there are the memories that will, at least temporarily, supplant the worst of today. Character portraits of the Yankee players, manager Casey Stengel and general manager George Weiss are detailed, warts and all, but Fischer is neither adoring nor muck racking in his portrayals of these personalities, some of them very controversial in their time, He relates the events as they occurred and I found myself drawing my own conclusions and never battling the presenter's bias as one must do with the chroniclers of today's culture. Fischer does not attempt to compare 1950s baseball to the current game and I think this is to his credit. His text is rich enough for a reader of any age to discern the basic similarities and the glaring differences between an era long gone and the giant marketing scam that the game has become today. 1950s Yankee great Mickey Mantle once said, "After I hit a home run, I had a habit of running with my head down. I figured the pitcher already felt bad enough without me showing him up rounding the bases." Filed under the arcane concept 'sportsmanship'. So I enjoyed reading about the Yogis, Caseys and Bauers and can easily wait for March when baseball talk turns to silly beards, hairdos and launch angles and the "action" consists of strikeouts, lazy pop flies and the occasional home run. Today, I eagerly anticipate telecasts of Curling - it is more of a team sport, more competitive and often more entertaining. But no nursery school dances or running around mouth open like a demented maniac. Hell, you'd slip on the ice. With clear, concise, non-pretentious prose, Fischer has not only created an important sports document, but an admirable work that any non-fiction author would be proud of. A marvelous read for all ages.
• During the decade of the 1950’s, the New York Yankees had an incredible run of success. They won the World Series for the first four years of the decade as part of a streak of five consecutive championship seasons. Then they followed up with four more American League pennants and two more World Series championships in 1956 and 1958. This amazing decade of baseball in the Bronx is the subject of this book by David Fischer.
  
  Using numerous sources for his research such as newspaper articles and other books, Fischer relives each year of Yankees baseball and shares some anecdotes about the star players. These include players whose careers peaked earlier and ended in the 1950’s (Joe DiMaggio), those who began play in the 1950’s and continued (Mickey Mantle) or those who just began later in the decade (Elston Howard). While the writing is not greatly detailed or insightful, a reader will learn much about the players and manager Casey Stengel.
  
  As like any other book that describes a team or athlete during a certain time frame, this book will make references to important social or political events during that time. The topics are varied, such as television, cars, civil rights and President Eisenhower. Sometimes these are smoothly woven into the baseball text and at other times, they seem to be added simply because they occurred during the year that the exploits of the Yankees are currently being discussed.
  
  If a reader is a very knowledgeable, well-versed Yankee fan or historian, then he or she may already know about most of the material in this book. If the reader is a casual fan or is just interested in learning why New York was the dominant baseball team of the 1950’s then this book is for them.
  
  I wish to thank Lyons Press for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.