My Favorite Baseball Book of 2017

Baseball historian Marty Appel nails it perfectly in his book, Casey Stengel: Baseball's Greatest Character. The most successful Yankee manager ever, who then oversaw the most lovably inept ballclub ever, the '62 Mets, and the only man to have worn the uniform of all four New York franchises while they were based in New York.
Thanks to some unique sources, he gives you a bird's eye view of a player, skipper and raconteur whose major league life spanned the presidencies of William Howard Taft to Lyndon Baines Johnson.
This date (May 9th) is part of the Stengel legacy -- it's when the Mets obtained former Yankee pheenom Marv Throneberry in 1962.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cy Fynalists

Image
The last two nights, Jacob de Grom (above) and Max Scherzer (below) showed why they're the leading contenders for the NL Cy Young Award. Wednesday, in what was likely his final start of the season, the Mets ace threw eight innings of two-hit shutout ball. That lowered his ERA to 1.70. His 10 strikeouts helped him reach 1000 for his career. And thanks to just enough hitting support from Domonic Smith and Michael Conforto, De Grom earned the victory to finish 2018 with a winning record at 10-9. Scherzer made his statement Tuesday night, when he won his 18th and became the fifth pitcher this century to reach 300 strikeouts in a season. Though he's giving up a half-run a game more than de Grom, the three-time Cy Young winner has been just as dominant, while pitching with more consistent support. Two division rivals contending for the league's most coveted pitching award -- and doing it on otherwise-disappointing teams. ( My image of de Grom is from the May 18th Mets/Di...
Read more

Moving Up the List

Image
2015 has been a renaissance season for Albert Pujols. Leading the majors with 29 homers, the 10-time All Star has passed some pretty imposing names on the all time power list during 2015. Hall of Fame names such as Mike Schmidt, Mickey Mantle, Jimmie Fox, Willie McCovey, Frank Thomas and Ted Williams. This blast came against the Yankees back on June 14th and brought on this round of high-fives once he returned to the Angels dugout.
Read more

Wayback: 1966 Yankees Scorecard

Image
  Hit the rewind button and browse through a souvenir collection of a lost Yankees season that marked the end of an era. Sure, there were plenty of familiar faces: below Mickey Mantle, Tom Tresh and Roger Maris smile for the cameras in spring training.  Full of optimism and not ready to believe that 15 year dynasty was over.  But it is was. Instead of bouncing back following a shocking sixth place finish in 1965, the Yankees staggered out of the gate in ‘66, losing 10 of their first 11 and 16 of their first 20 games as manager Johnny Keane was fired and a new reality settled in.  There were new faces as well.  Bobby Murcer and Roy White would see brighter days; but not for more than a decade.   Fritz Peterson and Dooley Womack would be bright spots during a dark time; veterans Bob Friend and Lou Clinton were past their peaks.  Ruben Amaro’s Yankee time would be marred by injury.   Check out the back page ad.  The Sinclair brand and symbol wou...
Read more