Joe Torre

"The Yankee Years" covers Joe Torre's years as Yankee manager from the mid 1990's to the mid 2000's. The events Torre describes are now 10 to 20 years old, but as someone who lived in the New York area during that time, the book was a great walk down memory lane. The descriptions of some of those great Yankee Championship years, memorable games and players brought back many, many memories. The great plays, great players, and great comeback victories were exciting to remember. At times, for games which I didn't remember clearly, I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat, so to speak, anxious to hear about the next pitch or the next batter so see if the game would end in a dramatic victory or a disappointing loss.
Yankee fans should like the first half of the book a lot, since that covers a streak of four World Series Championships. The last half of the book may not be as pleasing, since it describes Yankees losses in the playoffs and years when the Red Sox managed to best the Yankees. But all in all, baseball fans from that era should enjoy recalling memorable plays such as Jeter's memorable "flip" game against Oakland in the 2001 Division series, Aaron Boone's 2003 playoff walk-off home run, the Alex Rodriguez clubhouse tensions, George Steinbrenner's management over reactions, and dozens of other stories from those memorable Yankee Years.
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Cuando Joe Torre tomó posesión como manager de los Yankees en 1996, no habían ganado una Serie Mundial en dieciocho años. Durante ese tiempo, diecisiete managers habían intentado hacerse con las riendas del equipo de béisbol más famoso de América. Todos fueron despedidos por George Steinbrenner, el dueño del equipo. Después de doce exitosas temporadas —con doce apariciones consecutivas en los playoffs, seis títulos de la Liga Americana y cuatro Series Mundiales— Torre dejó los Yankees como el más querido manager del béisbol. Su mayor cualidad fue saber tratar a jugadores como Alex Rodríguez, Mariano Rivera, Jason Giambi, Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens o Randy Johnson. Aquí, por primera vez, Joe Torre y Tom Verducci llevan a los lectores dentro de los propios Yankees, mostrando lo que de verdad hizo falta para mantener al equipo en lo más alto del béisbol mundial.… (mais)