New Book Chronicles One of Sport’s Most Storied Teams

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact: Tony Viardo
Sourcebooks, Inc.
630-961-3900 ext 234
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Has It Really Been a Yankee Century?
New Book Chronicles One of Sport’s Most Storied Teams

"Yankee fans who can't learn enough about their favorite team will think they died and went to heaven with all that Frommer offers on each page."
—Publishers Weekly

In the world of politics, the term is “polarizing.” It’s used for people and organizations that evoke strong feelings, both positive and negative. If you looked up that word in a sports dictionary, however, you’d find a picture of The New York Yankees. No other team in Sport is more simultaneously loved and hated than the embattled Yanks. But by the same token, no other team is more storied, more celebrated, or more woven into the fabric of American culture than the Bronx Bombers.

As far as baseball is concerned, the last hundred years have truly been a Yankee Century. So claims Harvey Frommer, author of Yankee Century and Beyond: A Celebration of the First Hundred Plus Years of Baseball’s Greatest Team (ISBN: 978-1-4022-1002-0; November, 2007; $17.00 US / $22.00 CAN).

Yankee Century captures 106 years of Yankee life in reflections, stats, facts, and historic images. From their beginning as the New York Highlanders, playing in Manhattan's Hilltop Park in 1903, to reigning over Major League Baseball as it entered a new millennium—with World Series Championships in '96, '98, '99 and 2000—the Yankees represent a century-long legacy of triumphs and defeats, legends and lore, as an enduring symbol of America's favorite pastime.

More than just an atlas of statistics, Yankee Century contains reflections, quotes and profiles from individuals who are at the heart of the Yankee Mystique. Personalities include: Mel Allen, Yogi Berra, Chris Chambliss, Don Larsen, and Bob Sheppard. It also includes tributes to the greats: From Mickey Mantle to Don Mattingly, Vic Raschi to Allie Reynolds and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter.

Destined to become the defining chronicle of the Yankees’ first hundred years, Yankee Century and Beyond is a must-have collector’s volume not only for Yankee fans, but for anyone who appreciates the history and relevance of American Sport.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Harvey Frommer is a noted sports journalist and historian, the author of thirty-eight books on sports, including Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball and The New York Yankee Encyclopedia, as well as autobiographies of legends Nolan Ryan, Tony Dorsett and Red Holzman. He has also written, along with his wife, hundreds of articles for newspapers, magazines and on the internet.

Frommer is a sought after public speaker, and a regular on radio and television sports shows. He is a professor at Dartmouth college and a long time Yankee fan who wrote for Yankees Magazine for sixteen years.

FIVE O’CLOCK LIGHTNING

Media Contact: Mike Onorato
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 201-748-6361 / monorato@wiley.com

"The 1927 Yankees may or may not have been the best team ever, but surely this is the best book about that concentration of talent."–George Will

"An engrossing and entertaining look at a mythical baseball team. Ride the trains and chew the tobacco and have fun."—
Leigh Montville, author of “The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth”

Five O’Clock Lightning:

Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the Greatest Baseball Team in History,
The 1927 New York Yankees

By Harvey Frommer

The 1927 New York Yankees are widely regarded as one of the greatest baseball teams of all-time. From the “Murderer’s Row” lineup to the near mythic status that surrounded them in Prohibition-era New York City and elsewhere, celebrated author Harvey Frommer tells the fascinating story of the greatest season of baseball’s greatest team in FIVE O’CLOCK LIGHTNING.

Based on an oral history, long-buried letters, and diary notations, FIVE O’CLOCK LIGHTNING: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the Greatest Baseball Team in History, The 1927 New York Yankees (Wiley; November 2007; $24.95; Cloth; ISBN: 9780471778127) paints a vivid portrait of the best team in baseball chasing greatness in Jazz Age New York City just before the Depression changed everything. Told in chronological order and through colorful details from the 1927 Yankees’ private and public lives, as well as the kinds of minutiae baseball fans love (salaries, batting orders, standings, stats) and stories about the complicated task of building a cohesive team from a collection of superstars, FIVE O’CLOCK LIGHTNING reveals the hidden history of America’s greatest ball club, from the team’s compilation in the 1926 off-season (only one year after the Yanks’ disastrous ’25 season) to the World Series’ final pitch.

About the Author:
Harvey Frommer (New York, NY, and Lyme, NH) is a well-known oral historian and sports author who has written 39 sports books and has appeared on numerous television and radio programs. Cited in the Congressional Record and the New York State Legislature as a sports historian, he is Professor Emeritus, City University of New York, and a professor at Dartmouth College in the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies program.

* * *

Five O’clock Lightning:
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the Greatest Baseball Team in History, The 1927 New York Yankees
By Harvey Fommer
Wiley
Publication Date: November 2007
$24.95, Cloth
ISBN: 978-0-471-77812-7


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Has It Really Been a Yankee Century?

New Book Chronicles One of Sport’s Most Storied Teams

"Yankee fans who can't learn enough about their favorite team will think they died and went to heaven with all that Frommer offers on each page."
—Publishers Weekly

In the world of politics, the term is “polarizing.” It’s used for people and organizations that evoke strong feelings, both positive and negative. If you looked up that word in a sports dictionary, however, you’d find a picture of The New York Yankees. No other team in Sport is more simultaneously loved and hated than the embattled Yanks. But by the same token, no other team is more storied, more celebrated, or more woven into the fabric of American culture than the Bronx Bombers.

As far as baseball is concerned, the last hundred years have truly been a Yankee Century. So claims Harvey Frommer, author of Yankee Century and Beyond: A Celebration of the First Hundred Plus Years of Baseball’s Greatest Team (ISBN: 978-1-4022-1002-0; November, 2007; $17.00 US / $22.00 CAN).

Yankee Century captures 106 years of Yankee life in reflections, stats, facts, and historic images. From their beginning as the New York Highlanders, playing in Manhattan's Hilltop Park in 1903, to reigning over Major League Baseball as it entered a new millennium—with World Series Championships in '96, '98, '99 and 2000—the Yankees represent a century-long legacy of triumphs and defeats, legends and lore, as an enduring symbol of America's favorite pastime.

More than just an atlas of statistics, Yankee Century contains reflections, quotes and profiles from individuals who are at the heart of the Yankee Mystique. Personalities include: Mel Allen, Yogi Berra, Chris Chambliss, Don Larsen, and Bob Sheppard. It also includes tributes to the greats: From Mickey Mantle to Don Mattingly, Vic Raschi to Allie Reynolds and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio to Derek Jeter.

Destined to become the defining chronicle of the Yankees’ first hundred years, Yankee Century and Beyond is a must-have collector’s volume not only for Yankee fans, but for anyone who appreciates the history and relevance of American Sport.