THE BOOK REVIEW: SPAHN, SAIN and TEDDY BALLGAME & other intriguing reads

The prolific Bill Nowlin is at it again. "Spahn, Sain and Teddy Ballgame" edited by the Boston baseball sage (Rounder Books, paper) is focused on a corner of Boston baseball history - a season when the Braves won the pennant and the Red Sox lost a one game play-off game to the Indians and missed out on meeting their cross-town-rival in the World Series.

Filled with information, many photographs never before seen, with bios and insights into legends like Ted Williams, Warren Spahn, Johnny Sain, Dom DiMaggio and other not so well known figures who played for the Sox and Braves, SPAHN, SAIN and TEDDY BALLGAME is must reading for Hub baseball fans and will provide lots of hours of top reading for all sports fans. It is a special book about a special summer.

An exquisite look at the last game of Craig Biggio "The Final Game" (photographs by Michael Hart, Bright Sky Press, 106 oversized pages) is a fitting tribute to the long time Houston baseball star. Fans of the Astros superstar will want this book as a keepsake. "Benchclearing" by Spike Vrusho (Lyons Press, $16.95, 298 pages, paper) is a survey of battles, pushing, shoving and spitting matches through the years in major league baseball.

With the NYC Marathon upon us - -what better book to have than "A Rave Like no Other" by Liz Robbins (HarperCollins, $24.95, 336 pages). In depth, weaving her carefully crafted narrative with the stories of so many diverse runners, The New York Times sportswriter tells in splendid prose the exciting tale of the 26.2 mile journey that thousands and thousands through the years have taken through the streets of the Big Apple. Highly recommended.

"How Football Explains America" by Sal Paolantonio (Triumph, $24.95, 211 pages) is an interesting attempt focusing on many known items but packaging them in such a way that a lively little tome has been created shedding light on the gridiron sport's grip on all of us. If you want Paolantonio's up close and personal ruminations of why we love football so much this is the book for you.

More football reading but more biographical is "The Genius" by David Harris (Random House, $26.00, 385 pages). At once a personal story and also as the sub-title proclaims a book about "How Bill Walsh Reinvented Football and Created an NFL Dynasty" - this work is a winner especially for fans of the 49ers. The team has fallen on hard times but to read "The Genius" is to be transported into another era, a golden one.
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Harvey Frommer, now in his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books, is the author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Red Sox Vs Yankee: The Great Rivalry." Frommer's REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) an oral/narrative history was published in September 2008 as a reprint version of his SHOELESS JOE AND RAGTIME BASEBALL.
Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed.
FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in the millions and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

Harvey Frommer "Dartmouth's own Mr. Baseball" Dartmouth Alumni Magazine/ HARVEYFROMMERSPORTS.COM
REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (Definitive Book) "New & Notable" Amazon.com http://www.hnabooks.com/images/sites/9/redirects/yankees/

"Outstanding performance" ROGER KAHN/
"Spectacular"FOX SPORTS.COM/
"Essential keepsake"TIMEOUT NY/
"Stunning oral history"NY ONE/
"A must. Grand slammer."ESPN/
"Frommer delivers."NY DAILY NEWS/
"One of the finest."BRONXBANTER/
"Glorious oral history."WFAN/
"Best one.Great book"XM RADIO/
"Absolute classic"CBS RADIO/
"Beats any Yankee Book hands down"BEHIND.BOMBERS.COM/
"Brilliantly, beautifully documments."BLOGRADIO "Dead solid perfect"/"Amazing details "SPORTSOLOGY/
"Mother of all look backs."TBS SPORTS/
"Marvelous"NJ JEWISHNEWS/
"Definitive"ST.PAUL PIONEER PRESS/
"Masterpiece."BOY OF SUMMER/
"Must Have"PINSTRIPE PRESS/
"Rewarding,grounded prose "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED"
Photopanorama"HISTORYWIRE.COM/
"Most excellent."EYE ON SPORTSMEDIA/
"Spectacular"MSN/

Remembering Yankee Stadium: THE NINETIES

(For your reading pleasure adapted from REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT, on sale everywhere, buy it now)

Back when he assumed principal ownership of the New York Yankees on January 3, 1973, Steinbrenner had said, "We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned. I won't be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all. I've got enough headaches with my shipping company.”

As things turned out, however, he was anything but hands off. That is, until July 30, 1990, when he was forced to surrender control of the Yankees. He was banned from baseball for life by Baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent for alleged payments he made to a gambler in New York City seeking to gain damaging info on outfielder Dave Winfield.

When the news of the banning reached the fans that day in Yankee Stadium, they chanted: “No more George.” They had had enough of “the Boss” for a while. Denied access to his spacious office at Yankee Stadium where a favorite pillow proclaimed: “Give me a bastard with talent,” Steinbrenner in exile was “the Big Guy in the Sky,” the man who wasn’t there but who really was watching things play out through the 1990 season.

His presence or absence seemed to make little difference to the 1990 team whose season was largely a disaster. There were some high points like the time during an August 2nd game when rookie first baseman Kevin Maas hammered his 10th home run in just 77 at bats, the fastest any player reached that mark. The Stadium's short right-field porch seemed tailor-made for the southpaw swinger, and Maas finished 1990 with 21 home runs in only 254 at-bats. But he was the exception for that squad rather than the rule - -the team finished dead last in batting average, a pathetic .241.

The 1990 Yankees had but one starting pitcher who won more than seven games, nine-game winner Tim Leary. But he also lost 19 before Stump Merrill showed some pity and took him out of the rotation. When the season mercifully came to a close, the Yanks wound up 21 games behind Boston in the AL East, the first time during Steinbrenner’s time that his team finished in last place. One had to go back to 1913 to find a Yankee team with a lower winning percentage. Only the Yankees of 1908 and 1912 lost more games. Ironically, the Stadium box office registers just kept on ringing. The Bombers drew a healthy 2,006,436 to the big park in the Bronx.
A survivor, “Stump” Merrill lasted through 1991 as field boss of the Yankees. Among the dubious and memorable moments of the season was the 479 foot homer Seattle's Jay Buhner hammered over the left-field bullpen, the shelling of Oakland outfielder Jose Canseco by Yankee fans who pelted him with assorted objects like an inflatable doll‚ a cabbage head, and a transistor radio among other objects, and the honoring of Joe DiMaggio on the 50th anniversary of his 56 game hitting streak.

RICH MARAZZI: During the pre game introductions players were brought out to the first and third base lines, and I, as one of the four umpires working the Old Timers’ game, was called out to the home plate area. I remained there through the introductions. When the national anthem ended, I walked over to DiMaggio.
“Joe, thanks for the memories,” I said.
Whenever DiMaggio saw me with a press tag around my neck, he was tentative. But whenever he saw me in my umpire’s uniform, he would put his hand out to me, like we were old buddies. And that's what he did this day.
I met my childhood heroes - Ned Garver, Mickey Mantle, Mike Garcia -- the former top pitcher. I always wanted to meet Mike. I found him in a locker stall, giving himself dialysis treatment. He was half the size he was when he pitched. I had a nice interview with him.
I umpired second base most of the time but did get to umpire the plate three times. I made sure my son would warm me up during the week so my arm would not turn on me when I had to throw the ball back to the pitcher.

The 1991 Yankees finished with a 71-91 record, 20 games behind the Toronto Blue Jays, in fifth place. The team results were less pathetic than the ’90 season, but still underwhelming. Attendance at the Stadium dropped to 1,863,733, placing the Yankees 11th out of 14 American League teams. Average attendance per game was just 23,009.

By 1992, Stump Merrill was gone, replaced by 36-year-old Buck Showalter. He had progressed from “Eye in the Sky” to third base coach to hitting coach to manager. The losing ways continued for the fourth season in a row. Ten games below .500, the Yanks finished 20 games behind first place Toronto in the AL East, but there was some incremental progress - for the first time since 1987, they finished (tied) in fourth place. . . .
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Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published September 1, 2008 as well as a reprint version of his "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball.". Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of one million and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

Harvey Frommer "Dartmouth's own Mr. Baseball" Dartmouth Alumni Magazine/ HARVEYFROMMERSPORTS.COM

REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (Definitive Book) "New & Notable" Amazon.com http://www.hnabooks.com/images/sites/9/redirects/yankees/

"Outstanding performance" ROGER KAHN

"Spectacular" FOX SPORTS.COM

"Essential keepsake" TIMEOUT NY

"Stunning oral history"NY ONE

"A must. Grand slammer."ESPN

"Frommer delivers."NY DAILY NEWS

"One of the finest."BRONXBANTER

"Glorious oral history."WFAN

"Best one.Great book"XM RADIO

"Absolute classic"CBS RADIO

"Beats any Yankee Book hands down" BEHIND.BOMBERS.COM

"Brilliantly, beautifully documments."BLOGRADIO "Dead solid perfect"

"Amazing details" SPORTSOLOGY

"Mother of all look backs."TBS SPORTS

"Marvelous"NJ JEWISHNEWS

"Definitive"ST.PAUL PIONEER PRESS

"Masterpiece."BOY OF SUMMER

"Must Have"PINSTRIPE PRESS

"Rewarding,grounded prose" SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

"Photopanorama"HISTORYWIRE.COM

"Most excellent."EYE ON SPORTSMEDIA

"Spectacular"MSN

Remembering Yankee Stadium: EIGHTIES

(For your reading pleasure adapted from REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT, on sale everywhere, buy it now)

The 1981 World Series was Yankees versus Dodgers, the third match-up between the two storied franchises in five years. A 9-2 win at Yankee Stadium in Game Six gave the world championship to Los Angeles.

KEITH JACKSON (GAME CALL, ABC-TV):
Watson hits it high in the air for the center fielder Ken Landreaux, this should do it...and the Dodgers are the 1981 champions of baseball.

PRESS RELEASE (BOX)
I want to sincerely apologize to the people of New York and to the fans of the New York Yankees everywhere for the performance of the Yankee team in the World Series. I also want to assure you that we will be at work immediately to prepare for 1982. –George Steinbrenner

FRED CLAIRE: Steinbrenner’s apology came in the form of a release which he passed out after we won the series. I though it was strange. The Yankees had given all they could to win. There was really no need to apologize for an all out effort by your team.

“The Boss” did much more than apologize. He kicked ass and rolled heads. He demeaned Dave Winfield, who had managed but one hit in 21 at-bats in the Series. Having signed him to a huge contract, Steinbrenner was furious at "Winny," dubbing him “Mr. May,” a sarcastic reference to Winfield’s peak performance in May and poor performance in the Fall Classic.
On January 22, 1982, Reggie Jackson irritated by Steinbrenner putdowns, signed as a Free Agent with the California Angels.

The commencement of the 1982 season at the Stadium was a hard time coming and as far as Yankee fans were concerned – largely not worth waiting for. Bob Lemon, who had managed the final 25 games in 1981 last only through 14 games in 1982.

On April 6th, almost a foot of snow cancelled Opening Day against Texas and the next game, too. It was April 11th before the ballpark was finally in shape for playing baseball. In recognition of how hard the grounds crew worked to make the field ready, crew chief Jimmy Esposito was given the honor of throwing out the first ball. The Yankees lost both games of an Easter Sunday doubleheader to Chicago. But at least their season was finally underway.
The roster had what Yogi Berra would call “deep depth” with a pitching staff featuring splendid southpaws Ron Guidry, Tommy John, and Dave Righetti. Goose Gossage was a flame-throwing stopper. Still, even with all that talent, the Yankees could not get it going. In June, they were 9 1 /2 games out.

On August 3rd, the White Sox took two from the Yankees at the Stadium and “the Boss” fired Gene Michael, who had replaced Bob Lemon, replacing him with Clyde King.
All season long Steinbrenner kept his circus jumping, seeking quick fixes. Beyond a trio of managers, he went through a merry-go-round of three hitting coaches, five pitching coaches, and 47 players. The chaos and the musical chairs did not make for an environment that suited a winning ball club.

The 1982 Yankees were not a winning club. They ended the season in fifth place, 16 games behind Milwaukee. They would not return to post-season play for the next 13 years. From that season until 1991, with George Steinbrenner having his say and having his way, the Stadium would become a mix and match of players and pilots. Highlighting the mayhem of the era were eleven managerial changes including the hiring and firing of Billy Martin six times. “They know what the bottom line is,” Steinbrenner said. . . .

Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published September 1, 2008 as well as a reprint version of his "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball.". Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of one million and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

Harvey Frommer "Dartmouth's own Mr. Baseball" Dartmouth Alumni Magazine//

REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (Definitive Book)
hear and see http://www.hnabooks.com/images/sites/9/redirects/yankees/

RAVES:
"Outstanding performance" ROGER KAHN/
"Spectacular" FOX SPORTS.COM/
"Essential keepsake" TIME OUT NY/
"Stunning oral history"NY ONE/"
A must. Grand slammer."ESPN/
"Frommer delivers."NY DAILY NEWS/
"Great.Glorious oral history."WFAN/
"Best one.Great book"XM RADIO/"Absolute classic..
"One of the finest products" "CBS-Radio/
"Beats any Yankee Book hands down" BRONXBANTER/
"This Book Was My Constant Companion For Three Days" BEHIND.BOMBERS.COM/
"Dead solid perfect"/BLOGRADIO/
"Amazing details "SPORTSOLOGY/
"Mother of all lookbacks."
"BOOGIEDOWNBASEBALL/"Spectacular"MSN/
"Marvelous "NJ JEWISHNEWS/"Definitive
"ST.PAUL PIONEER PRESS/
"Masterpiece. Broad, detailed, multidimensional."BOY OF SUMMER/
"Must Have" PINSTRIPE PRESS/"
"Rewarding,grounded prose"SPORTS ILLUSTRATED/
"Photo-centric panorama"HISTORY WIRE.COM

Remembering Yankee Stadium: The Seventies

(For your reading pleasure adapted from REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT, on sale everywhere, buy it now)

ROLLIE FINGERS: The Stadium bullpen was a good place to watch a ball game from. Sitting on the bench, you would pop your feet up on the fence. If you were hungry you could always give a kid a baseball and he would go and get you a hot dog.

RON SWOBODA: All kinds of things went on in the bullpens. Sometimes we would send out the back door for pizza. There were rumors that some young ladies would occasionally slip in through the back door. I was never involved in any of that, but it was entirely possible.

BILL LEE: The guys who worked at the Stadium, the ones who groomed the area, the ushers, they were the ones to be friendly with. That was how you got your food. You tipped them well and they would bring a pizza, anything.

RON SWOBODA: The folks who used to sit in the bleachers were interesting. You saw the same people every day. They were mostly guys, a bit older, all huge fans. You kind of wondered what they did. You could stand up next to the fence there in right field and just talk to them.

BILL LEE: Moe Drabowsky, who played for Baltimore, as the story goes, would get into the Stadium switchboard. Moe called the Queen of England one time. He called China one time. He called the Vatican.

The 1972 season ended with the Yankees at 79-76 in fourth place in the American League East. Their attendance was a puny 966,328, the only time that decade of the 70s that the Yankees would have a season’s attendance below a million at home.

However, they contended until the middle of September thanks to the superb relief pitching of Lyle and the solid hitting of Bobby Murcer.

TONY FERRARO: Bobby Murcer used to sit in his chair and rock all the time. A friend of mine was in the furniture business. I asked him "Can you send me rocking chair? "
He said "Yeah, where do you want me to send it?"
"Send it to Yankee Stadium."

He sends the rocking chair, and we put it in front of Murcer's locker. "I'm getting tired of seeing you rocking in the chair," I told him. "You need a regular rocking chair." Then one day someone sawed the rockers off it. Who do you think that was? Sparky Lyle. He was a great guy for doing pranks. But Murcer had it fixed and before long, he was rocking again. When he was traded to San Francisco in 1975, he took the rocking chair with him.

On January 3, 1973, a group led by George Steinbrenner III purchased the Yankees from CBS for an estimated ten million dollars, a price called an "astonishing bargain" by some since the City of New York paid more than $1 million for a parking lot as part of the package.

Opening Day of the first year of Steinbrenner’s principal ownership and the last season of the old Yankee Stadium, the Yankees became one of the last Major League clubs to convert to non-flannel uniforms made of polyester. . . .

Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published September 1, 2008 as well as a reprint version of his "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball.". Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of one million and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.
Harvey Frommer "Dartmouth's own Mr. Baseball" Dartmouth Alumni Magazine//
REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (Definitive Book)
*****hear and see http://www.hnabooks.com/images/sites/9/redirects/yankees/ ****
+ RAVES:
"Outstanding performance" ROGER KAHN/
"Spectacular" FOX SPORTS.COM/
"Essential keepsake" TIME OUT NY/
"Stunning oral history"NY ONE/
“A must. Grand slammer."ESPN/
"Frommer delivers."NY DAILY NEWS/
"Great.Glorious oral history."WFAN/
"Best one.Great book"XM RADIO/
"Absolute classic.. "One of the finest products"
"CBS-Radio/
"Beats any Yankee Book hands down" BRONXBANTER/
"Brilliantly, beautifully documents" BEHINDTHEBOMBERS.COM/
"Dead solid perfect"/BLOGRADIO/
"Amazing details "SPORTSOLOGY/
"Mother of all lookbacks.” "BOOGIEDOWNBASEBALL/
"Spectacular"MSN/
"Marvelous "NJ JEWISHNEWS/
"Definitive "ST.PAUL PIONEER PRESS/
"Masterpiece. Broad, detailed, multidimensional."BOY OF SUMMER/
"Must Have" PINSTRIPE PRESS/"
"Rewarding,grounded prose"SPORTS ILLUSTRATED/
"Photo-centric panorama"HISTORY WIRE.COM

Remembering Yankee Stadium: Fifties

(For your reading pleasure adapted from REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUUM: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT)

The World Series competition for the Yankees in 1951 was the Giants of New York. They had a storybook season, chasing, catching and then conquering their hated rival Brooklyn Dodgers in a one-game play-off on Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.”

EDDIE LOPAT: All the reporters told us to watch out. “The Giants are hot,” they said. “They beat the Dodgers coming out of nowhere.” We didn’t believe what anybody told us or what they printed in the newspapers. The other teams had to beat us on the field. That was where it counted.

MONTE IRVIN: We were still on a high after beating the Dodgers in 1951 in that playoff game when we went up against the Yankees in the World Series. Without a chance to rest, we reported to the Stadium the next day. I got four straight hits and also stole home in the first inning.

My last time up, Yogi Berra said: “Monte, I don’t know what to throw you. You have been hitting high balls and low balls and curve balls. I’m gonna have you get a fastball right down the middle."
I really didn‘t believe Yogi. But sure enough Reynolds threw me a fastball right down the middle. I hit a line drive. The ball was caught. I really wanted that hit. No one had ever gone five for five in the World Series.

Fielding the first black outfield in World Series history - Hank Thompson, Monte Irvin and Willie Mays - the Giants defeated Allie Reynolds and the Yankees 5-1 with Dave Koslo going the distance for the win.

STEVE SWIRSKY: I was ten years old and a Yankee fan. My dad didn't have a lot of money but he came home one day with two tickets for the second ’51 World Series game.
I remember everything about that day - the smells, the walking around to the little shops, my dad digging deep to buy a cap and a hot dog for me. It almost glowed in my heart 'cause I used to listen to the Yankee games on the radio from all over the country even though there were times I could barely hear it.

We sat down the left field line underneath the overhang - 20 rows back. In those days poles held up the overhang. My seat had an obstructed view. But you know how some women are about little boys . A woman switched seats with me so I could see. It was Willie Mays who hit the fly ball that Mantle, playing right field, chased. Mantle was not the superstar that he was going to be, but there was a big hush when he went down. It seemed like the world stopped.

The 19-year-old Mantle, attempting to avoid a collision with Joe DiMaggio, twisted his ankle in the fifth inning on a sprinkler-head cover protruding from the outfield grass. He lay there, motionless. His right knee had snapped and was he was lost to the Yankees for the rest of the series.
No matter – the Yankees were loaded with talent and though the Giants had momentum, it was another world championship for Stengel’s guys on October 10, 1951 as Vic Raschi bested Dave Koslo, 4-3 before 61,711. That was the last World Series game Joe DiMaggio ever played in.

---

I am at work on my newest effort - - REMEMBERING FENWAY PARK: AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY, a companion book to REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (The Definitive Book) Fall 2008 (Abrams, STC). If you or those you know have specific stories and memories of times (first game, marker moments, oddity) at the Fens - please get in touch with me and hopefully we can set up a date and time for me to interview you. I would appreciate that.

Harvey Frommer is his 33rd consecutive year of writing sports books. The author of 40 of them including the classics: "New York City Baseball,1947-1957" and "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball," his REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM, an oral/narrative history (Abrams, Stewart, Tabori and Chang) was published September 1, 2008 as well as a reprint version of his "Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball.". Frommer sports books are available direct from the author - discounted and autographed. FROMMER SPORTSNET (syndicated) reaches a readership in excess of one million and appears on Internet search engines for extended periods of time.

BOOK SIGNING

REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (THE DEFINITIVE BOOK)
AN ORAL AND NARRATIVE HISTORY OF THE HOUSE THAT RUTH BUILT

Borders 57th and Park Avenue
Friday/ October 10, 7 P.M.

Look & Listen:
http://www.hnabooks.com/images/sites/9/redirects/yankees/
Harvey Frommer "Dartmouth's own Mr. Baseball" Dartmouth Alumni Magazine
***** REMEMBERING YANKEE STADIUM (Definitive Book) **** wcbsradio http://www.wcbs880.com/topic/play_window.php?audioType=Episode&audioId=2910500
http://www.hnabooks.com/images/sites/9/redirects/yankees/

RAVES:"Outstanding performance" ROGER KAHN/ "Spectacular" FOX SPORTS.COM/ "Essential keepsake" TIME OUT NY/ "Stunning oral history " NY ONE/ "Frommer delivers."NY DAILY NEWS/ "Great. Glorious oral history.""WFAN/ "Best one on Stadium.Great book "XM RADIO/ "Absolute classic. Bible of Yankee Stadium books."CBS-Radio/ "One of the finest products"/ BRONXBANTER/ "Beats any Yankee Book hands down" BEHIND.BOMBERS.COM/ "Brilliantly, beautifully documents stadium."BLOGRADIO "Dead solid perfect"/ BOOKREPORTER/ " A must. Grand slammer."ESPN/ "Spectacular" MSN/ "Marvelous photographs,stories"NJ JEWISHNEWS/ "Definitive "ST.PAUL PIONEER PRESS/ "Masterpiece" BOY OF SUMMER "Must Have" PINSTRIPE PRESS/"Amazing detail" SPORTSOLOGY