How does one capture a ballclub's history when the team rewrites it each year? Lally, who coauthored The Wrong Stuff
with former pitcher Bill "Spaceman" Lee, has interviewed more than 100 baseball figures past and present, famous and obscure. Inevitably, his timeline ends following the Subway Series in 2000, meaning any subsequent Yankee history—their 2001 Series loss, the signing of Jason Giambi—is not covered. But the book is no less exhaustive a collection of Yankee minutiae; most engrossing is the debate surrounding Babe Ruth's famous finger-pointing preceding a home run, a lively discussion on the significance of Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak and the feud between Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson; however, testimony of 1939 Yankee Joe Gordon's slick glove is less riveting. Lally does a capable job of letting the players tell the story, but at times, the flashy phrasing and offbeat cultural references that pepper his narrative yank the reader out of the front row. Stating that a squad committed errors as often as Dorothy Parker flubbed bons mots or calling a pair of smooth infielders "twin Nijinskys" just won't resonate with bleacher bums. But Mickey Mantle's memory of Casey Stengel calling DiMaggio "The Big Dago" and the detailed dissection of the Subway Series—the games within the games, including several takes on the epic Roger Clemens–Mike Piazza bat-throwing showdown—will bring fans back in the game. (Apr.)
