Dog Days: The New York Yankees' Fall from Grace and: Return to Glory,1964-1976

Starting their streak in 1921, the Yankees compiled a record of 29 American League pennants and 24 world championships, although they lost the World Series in 1964, the year that opens this book. But the stars who had formed the nucleus of their winning teams for a decade before 1964, like Mickey Mantle, Elston Howard and Whitey Ford, were all in their 30s, old by baseball standards. What happened over the next 12 seasons is the subject that concerns Bashe ( Teenage Idol ) in his outstanding sports history. He recounts the story of flawed judgment of talent in the Yankees' minor league teams, unfortunate trades, the mishandling of the few above-average players, badly chosen managers (including the indulgent Ralph Houk, the distant Johnny Keane, the autocratic Bill Virdon and the alcoholic Billy Martin) and, in the last few years of the drought, of quixotic principal owner George Steinbrenner. Yankee-haters will love the tale of the kings of the diamond brought low, while Yankee fans will be buoyed by the happy ending, with a return to glory in 1976 when the Yankees won the American League championship--but lost the World Series to Cincinnati. (July)