Memories of Yankee Stadium by Scott Pitoniak, Joe Torre (Foreword by)

From the Publisher

When it was completed in the spring of 1923, it was regarded as one of America's true architectural marvels-a ballpark that, in time, would rival the Roman Coliseum. In the 84 years since Babe Ruth christened it with a home run, Yankee Stadium has became the most famous sports venue in America, if not the world, playing host to the New York Yankees, the most successful sports franchise of all time. But the big ballpark in the South Bronx hasn't just housed baseball icons such as Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, and Mantle.

Library Journal

This upcoming season will be the last at both of New York City's stadiums. Of course, the house that Ruth built, and the Yanks who played there, get greater bibliographic attention than Shea or the Mets. Fischer's offering is indeed rendered like a scrapbook, so there's little text, but it manages to skim gracefully through nine decades. Krantz's includes an original DVD documentary. It's got all of the classic moments, via photos and text, from Babe's 60 homers to Gehrig's and Ruth's farewells, and onward with hitting streaks, pitching aces, and future hall of famers.

Pepe's approach is to cover 50 "moments" in Yankee franchise history, mostly the heroic ones but including such notorieties as the Peterson-Kekich wife swapping and an early Billy Martin episode. Pitoniak's work is different. Billed as an oral history, it uses the stadium as the lens through which a deeper selection of moments and memories are shown, interpreted by a more comprehensive selection of men connected to the team-sometimes simply by devotion. As with Tom Jones's Working at the Ballpark (reviewed above), women get surprisingly short shrift, given that the book is not merely about players. Nonetheless, this is highly recommended. Strong writing and large-format photos make Pepe's a keeper, too, while Fischer's is optional and Krantz's is recommended where demand warrants lots of Yankees books.

Product Details

• ISBN: 1600780563
  
• ISBN-13: 9781600780561
• Format: Hardcover, 240pp
• Publisher: Triumph Books
• Pub. Date: March 2008
• Sales Rank: 28,683