Teams Books

I had not seen this movie, but I was so glad that I bought it. It was wonderful!!!!!

I found this movie utterly predictable and Dennis Hopper's performance as the town drunk only tolerable. Gene Hackman is the new high school basketball coach in basketball crazy Hickory, Indiana in 1951. He is a man with a past, although it is not as dark as it initially appears. Hopper plays Shooter, the town drunk whose son is on the seven man team. Despite his sodden brain, Shooter has a superb understanding of the game and Hackman selects him to be his assistant coach. You know immediately that Shooter is going to sober up and become a real coach. The scenes where Hackman is thrown out of the game and Shooter must take over are forced and unrealistic; Hopper is unconvincing as a person stressed out over the combination of alcohol withdrawal and having to take charge.
Even the scene when Hackman is attending a town meeting where the purpose is to decide whether he should be fired lacks a great deal of tension. It is not out of the apparent politeness of the townspeople, there is a lack of passion among all participants. This is supposed to be a town passionate about basketball and a coach passionate about the game.
I was bored throughout the entire movie and struggled to watch it through to the end.

Love this movie! I love the flavor of Indiana more than anything. Visited that state and the area they speak of many times in my youth. Great inspirational story. Just a quick note...a joke is lost in the subtitles mid-way through the semi-national game. After being fouled out of the game, Coach glares at his player, for which the subtitles read "It was for the team". The line is actually "it was Dentyne", throwing back a joke Coach said in an earlier huddle. Being deaf helps with these things! Amazing movie still.

GREAT SPORTS MOVIE! INSTEAD OF REVIEWING MOVIE, WHICH WE ALL KNOW IS A GREAT SPORTS MOVIE, JUST WANTED TO SAY THE BLU-RAY PICTURE IS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT OVER MY OLD DVD. I'M ONLY REPLACING MY OLD MOVIES THAT I LOVE BUT LOOK BAD ON MY NEW HDTV. WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THE PICTURE QUALITY ON THIS. THE ONLY DRAWBACK TO THIS BLU-RAY IS THERE AREN'T ANY EXTRAS EXCEPT FOR A TRAILER. BUT IF YOUR LOOKING FOR BETTER PICTURE QUALITY, YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED.

Hoosiers DVD

I don't know how I missed this film when it came out in 1986. It is a story of a middle-aged basketball coach and his last chance for redemption. It is suppose to be loosely based on a true story (whatever that means). Gene Hackman does a great job as the coach with Dennis Hopper as a supporting actor.

Of course every body knows that all Indiana boys play basketball, just nail a basket to the side of a barn and start shooting, right? Unfortunately basketball is more than simply shooting the ball through a goal.

The movie is set in Indiana in 1951, a little before my time as a high school basketball player. It does raise some questions with me such as how much difference can a coach make at the high school level? Mine made all the difference in the world, but I was fortunate to have Coach Jerry Wayne Shelton. I suspect they can make less of a difference at the colligate level.

Highly recommended for any one who played high school basketball.

Gunner March 2008

I had not seen this movie, but I was so glad that I bought it. It was wonderful!!!!!

I found this movie utterly predictable and Dennis Hopper's performance as the town drunk only tolerable. Gene Hackman is the new high school basketball coach in basketball crazy Hickory, Indiana in 1951. He is a man with a past, although it is not as dark as it initially appears. Hopper plays Shooter, the town drunk whose son is on the seven man team. Despite his sodden brain, Shooter has a superb understanding of the game and Hackman selects him to be his assistant coach. You know immediately that Shooter is going to sober up and become a real coach. The scenes where Hackman is thrown out of the game and Shooter must take over are forced and unrealistic; Hopper is unconvincing as a person stressed out over the combination of alcohol withdrawal and having to take charge.
Even the scene when Hackman is attending a town meeting where the purpose is to decide whether he should be fired lacks a great deal of tension. It is not out of the apparent politeness of the townspeople, there is a lack of passion among all participants. This is supposed to be a town passionate about basketball and a coach passionate about the game.
I was bored throughout the entire movie and struggled to watch it through to the end.

Love this movie! I love the flavor of Indiana more than anything. Visited that state and the area they speak of many times in my youth. Great inspirational story. Just a quick note...a joke is lost in the subtitles mid-way through the semi-national game. After being fouled out of the game, Coach glares at his player, for which the subtitles read "It was for the team". The line is actually "it was Dentyne", throwing back a joke Coach said in an earlier huddle. Being deaf helps with these things! Amazing movie still.

GREAT SPORTS MOVIE! INSTEAD OF REVIEWING MOVIE, WHICH WE ALL KNOW IS A GREAT SPORTS MOVIE, JUST WANTED TO SAY THE BLU-RAY PICTURE IS A HUGE IMPROVEMENT OVER MY OLD DVD. I'M ONLY REPLACING MY OLD MOVIES THAT I LOVE BUT LOOK BAD ON MY NEW HDTV. WAS VERY PLEASED WITH THE PICTURE QUALITY ON THIS. THE ONLY DRAWBACK TO THIS BLU-RAY IS THERE AREN'T ANY EXTRAS EXCEPT FOR A TRAILER. BUT IF YOUR LOOKING FOR BETTER PICTURE QUALITY, YOU WON'T BE DISSAPOINTED.

Hoosiers DVD

I don't know how I missed this film when it came out in 1986. It is a story of a middle-aged basketball coach and his last chance for redemption. It is suppose to be loosely based on a true story (whatever that means). Gene Hackman does a great job as the coach with Dennis Hopper as a supporting actor.

Of course every body knows that all Indiana boys play basketball, just nail a basket to the side of a barn and start shooting, right? Unfortunately basketball is more than simply shooting the ball through a goal.

The movie is set in Indiana in 1951, a little before my time as a high school basketball player. It does raise some questions with me such as how much difference can a coach make at the high school level? Mine made all the difference in the world, but I was fortunate to have Coach Jerry Wayne Shelton. I suspect they can make less of a difference at the colligate level.

Highly recommended for any one who played high school basketball.

Gunner March 2008

Quick enjoyable read. Some interesting commentary on team dynamics and the social problems teams encounter. I wish more solutions/suggestions were offered.

Nice reminder on what should we do during project.
We all know these things, but often we forget on them.

This book is a collection of short essays on how real people's productivity in software industry is affected. It is about human aspects of software development. There is a great variety in the material for such a small volume (about 250 pages). For example, it covers this:

1. The key to software development is people. People are not drones nor they are easily replaceable. They work by themselves and require not constant pushing, but careful motivation. If you don't trust your people you are in trouble. People are a capital investment.

2. Mind-intensive jobs require concentration, hence a private and quiet environment. Breaking the worker's flow leads to frustration and dive of effectiveness.

3. Teams require efforts to form and keep running, but the effect could be miraculous. There is nothing that could stop a running team. (Btw, I tend to call this a locomotive force myself).

4. Methodologies (the big-M ones) don't matter, same for the processes. Technologies and stuff, they never replace people who really understand and love what they are doing.

The book is of most interest to project managers or even upper level managers (may all our managers follow these advises please ?).

What can you do with the book being a software developer ? Not much, just look around and see if you like it where you work now. And take actions.

[quote]
If you've smiled ruefully at any of the characterizations in this book, it's time now to stop smiling anf start taking corrective action. ... It's supposed to be productive, satisfying fun to work.
[/quote]

The second edition differs from the original book in that an all new part VI is added, a few short chapters. Written many years later in a perceivably different tone. It's not just that the authors admit in its preface

[quote]
The first five parts were written by two yongish middle-aged consultants who spent most of their time working at the project level, part VI is written by two gnarled and grizzled old consultants who now spend appreciably more of their time working at organizational levels. ... Part VI is concerned with with the design of entire organizations that include development work.
[/quote]

but it is also that it is written in less confident and undoubted way. I see it as good, after all there is no universal truth, it is all just a food to the reader's thoughts.

And this is a great food too.

I expected the book to contain practical advice. The book covered many undesirable situations and business settings. There were no recommendations made on how to improve a bad situation. The book merely reported on the bad environment. If you are in an unpleasant work environment and want to know there may be others worse off then you, you may like this book.

Providing an overall rating for this book was extremely difficult, and writing this book review was not an easy task. This difficulty is due to the nature of "Peopleware". This DeMarco work enjoys what appears to be a solid 5-star rating, and to some degree this is a very reasonable collective assessment. Without discussing at length all of the reasons I think this book should instead be assigned less than 5-stars, I think my reasons fall into two categories: (1) the original work was penned in 1987, and due to the industry pervasiveness of many of the ideas presented by the authors, a lot of the material can no longer be considered extraordinary, and (2) the cohesiveness of each chapter and the flow from chapter to chapter is less than optimal - in other words, it is a bit choppy. Now I realize that there exist many in the software industry that can gain great strides in their respective workplaces by reading this book and understanding how best to apply the provided advice, which is why I give this work 4-stars rather than 3-stars, but I must say that I was just disappointed by all the hype about this book, from a year-2007 perspective. And simple math obviously will conclude that 20 years have passed since the original publication. The 8 new chapters added by the authors in 1999 really do not communicate many ground-shaking ideas. In my opinion, Chapter 33 is the only one of these new chapters that personally provided me any insight. And the premise of this lone chapter is simply that "the ultimate management sin is wasting people's time". The simplistic line graphs that accompany this chapter provide some substance to the discussion about project staffing, but again this chapter still seems to be geared toward individuals who do not bother to keep up with the insight shared in industry periodicals. Despite all of these drawbacks, however, there are some strong areas of the book that are worth reading by all software industry professionals. These strong areas are more comparable to the content of timeless classics like "The Mythical Man Month", "Waltzing with Bears" (also by DeMarco and Lister), or "Death March" (see my reviews for all of these books), and are worth reading even if just to provide discussion starters within your organization. These chapters include "Vienna Waits for You" on working smarter and project deadline pressures, "Quality-if Time Permits" where the authors state that "Quality, far beyond that required by the end user, is a means to higher productivity", "Parkinson's Law Revisited" on estimations and productivity, "You Never Get Anything Done Around Here Between 9 and 5", "Brain Time Versus Body Time" on understanding the work day of a technology worker, "The Self-Healing System" on process, and "Teamicide" and "Open Kimono" on team jell. Realize that there are 34 chapters in this book. The bottom line is that this book on productive projects and teams, targeted at a software industry audience - although perhaps not overly impressive from a holistic perspective - is still heartily recommended.

More than a book, this "How-To Guide" will help you hire GREAT people - every time. Hire With Your Head teaches you how to define, locate, attract, interview, assess, negotiate, and close A-players. The concepts contained in Hire With Your Head give our organization a strategic advantage over our competition. Understanding Adler's concepts are mandatory for our entire recruiting team. You can't go wrong with this book... order it today!

Ryan Cook, SPHR
VP Recruitment Operations
Sparqpoint Solutions

Hiring with your Head is an excellent resource for new recruiters and veteran recruiters as well. For me this book gives me the big picture of the recruiting process. We may be doing some of the steps correctly but if wee can not see the big picture of how it all works together you are very likely wasting time. The performance base hiring process has helped me adjust my own interviewing and I am already seeing results. It has been fascinating to see how it really works.
Mandy Calvert
Executive Recruiter
Premier Executive Solutions

Yes, I have been a big fan of Lou Adler, I have registered to his website and they always have interesting articles and web casts.

The book was detailed, well written and very informative. I have many years recruiting experience and his book was very welcoming. A good to have book.


Thanks for the continuous support Mr. Adler!

If you have the opportunity to attend his webcasts, please do so.. He is a definite leader in his profession.

Thank you Lou Adler. Hire with your Head is a great resource for recruiting. This book not only explains why you need to use performance-based hiring but it tells you HOW to follow through with implementing the process. This book is going to be an excellent tool for me to utilize in coaching my hiring managers to help me create accurate job requirements based on Performance Profiles. Hire with your Head is a great resource for any person involved in the hiring and screening of potential employees. I just wish someone gave me the book earlier in my career!

Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams
Fairly new to recruiting, this book is a must have for all hiring managers. It is an invaluable tool for any individual given the great responsibility of hiring for any organization.

This is a book I've read several times. I'd like to know where Mr. Brock found out so much about Charlie sweazy, Asa Brainard et al, to make these characters come alive the way they do. There were a few political issue editorials Darryl brought into the story. But these surely do not detract from the book. I wish I had Andy Leonard as a brother as well.
You will hate to see the end of this book as it is entertaining(and historically accurate) from first page to last. As I said earlier, it's my favorite baseball book and one of my favorite of any genre.

This is one of the greatest baseball novels ever written. If you like baseball,time travel,romance and "rooting for the good guys" this is a book that will never get old. I'm sorry they never made a movie if it. However I doubt Hollywood could do it justice. Superb!!!!!!!!!!

I love time travel novels and I love baseball; so this is one of my all-time favorite books. I enjoyed reading how baseball was played in its infancy and learned things that I never knew. A great book!

Note: I made some Mormon angry because of my negative reviews of books out to prove the Book of Mormon, and that person has been slamming my reviews.

Your "helpful" vote is greatly appreciated. Thanks


A very short review is not necessarily a bad review. You don't want to re-tell the whole story. I try for the hook that will make a person want to read this book. In my opinion, you should read long reviews after you read the novel. Read a short review first.


I love this novel! A modern man goes back to 1869 and joins the Cincinnati "Red Stockings" baseball team. He falls in love and also introduces many new ideas, including the selling of hotdogs and bunting. He also finds a treasure. A super fun mystery and time-travel story.

I don't usually like "fantasy" books, but this one is exceptional. It's sort of like Harry Potter: you suspend disbelief on about page 15, and from there on it's a joyous, rollicking ride! The author did a magnificent job of researching his subject and all the other historical events that he interweaves in his story. The hard part was when I was down to 25 pages or so and knew that it was all going to end. I didn't want it to end! Wonderful book for baseball fans, those who enjoy Mark Twain, and historical buffs.

Coach Summit is without a doubt the absolute best college basketball coach-male or female ever. And she doesn't even have to throw chairs. My hat's off to her and her program. Talk about integrity, work ethic and understanding of the game. Her book shines as a testament to her abilities. You have a lot to learn, Geno.

"Raise the Roof", along with "Reach for the Summitt", is a must read for anyone with an interest in collegiate sports, particularly women's basketball. It gives you an insight into the world of Lady Vol basketball and a deeper appreciation of why the Lady Vols phenomenon is more than just a team or a basketball program. It gives you an awareness of why Lady Vol basketball is more aptly described as a tradition. It also gives you a feel for why in Pat Summitt's world losing is rare, unacceptable, and necessary, all at the same time. The book is a testament to why her players adore her and why they choose the Tennessee way and tradition rather than play elsewhere. Candace Parker, arguably the best player to date to wear the orange, remarked recently, "I came to Tennessee because I was one of those people lining the court [for an autograph as a 7th grader] to see coach Summitt and the Lady Vols [during a Depaul-Tennessee game]... To be a fan of women's basketball is to be a fan of Tennessee. And that's a responsibility that we have to represent our school. It's something we don't take for granted." You get to feel why every loss by the Lady Vols is a grief session. You get to feel why Chamiqua Holdsclaw, arguably Tennessee all-time most prolific scorer, wept inconsolably after a loss in her last game in the orange. The book is also a monument to what one woman from a humble beginning with an unwavering passion to succeed has helped to guide a generation of women to excel as individuals while ultimately doing, in the Tennessee way, that which is for the greater good of the team and by extension preserve the Tennessee tradition. You will come away with a sense of why Pat Summitt is the ultimate motivator in women's basketball today.

Raise the roof is very good. i have read the book so many times that the front is about to come off. I love coach summitt and the lady vols. This is a book that i would like to be buried with. The stories are great and the season was the best i ever saw. GO LADY VOLS!!!!

Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! Pat Summitt is genuine, frank, and honest in her emotions and actions toward her life, her teams, and her family. What a ride!

Read about the 1997-98 basketball season when the lady Vols aimed for a three-peat. The history-making season comes to life in this book.

but i'm sure this book was good. the toilet paper amazon sent me was very good too. this writer is solid, good entertainment and very talented. i wish i had this book instead of the TP but the TP they sent me is very good too.

This is Swain's first novel featuring the character Jack Carpenter. Hopefully it is not his last. Swain has created a unique anti-hero in Carpenter, an ex-cop who specializes in finding missing and abducted children. The action is non-stop, the pace fast and furious. Swain has chosen to set the novel in Florida and it lends perfectly to the steamy action. If you enjoy fast-paced thrillers, you will not want to miss this book.

I have read over 700 mystery novels over the years. This novel is the best that I have read in several years. It should be a hands down winner of both the Edgar and the Shamus.

This was my first read from author James Swain and boy what a first impression he has made on me!!! I'm telling you just cannot go wrong when you buy this book! He has created a fantastic character in Jack Carpenter that you love to root for and given him a tightly woven plot to show off his skills while giving us the perfectly timed humor! Oh man... I had fun reading this book! I am looking forward to THE NIGHT STALKER!!

If you like thrillers, this is a good choice. The plot is straight-forward. The protagonist is a sympathetic figure - a police officer fired from his job for losing control and pounding on a serial killer he arrested. Jack Carpenter, the ex-officer, is broke, separated from his wife, and living in a tiny place above a bar on the beach in south Florida. But the serial killer has a slick attorney who is getting him out of prison, based on Jack's impulsive action. And the killer is out for revenge against Jack and women who testified against him. Jack has to act quickly to save his life and the lives of the women. The fast-moving story reads smoothly, and tension keeps building to a blistering climax.

Team Yankee is quite an interesting book. Harold Coyle describes a war between the Warsaw Pact and NATO in 1985 in great detail. But don't expect this to be like Red Storm Rising, this book focuses entirely on small unit tactics with zero politics. The action starts immediately at the beginning of the second chapter, and it never stops.

The battles are realistic and the tactics are described in great detail in the text as well as the maps that are in the book. The maps really help you figure what's going on and what platoons are moving where, etc.

The story focuses on Captain Sean Bannon of Team Yankee, a military unit deployed in Germany during the Cold War. When war breaks out in 1985, he must lead his unit to victory. There are several other main characters including several other tankers, and an infantry sergeant. This is definetly a book you don't want to miss.

This book is, IMHO, the finest of the cold-war era military novels, and one of the finest military novels ever written, includng the writing of Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester.

The only book that can compare is Clancy's "Hunt for Red October", and it does not give as good a feeling as being there as does Team Yankee.

If you like military novels, or just good writing, read this book.

This was the second Coyle book I read (the first being "God's Children") and once again I was compelled by his gripping battle scenes and poignant view of today's combat environment. The story flows well and was generally enjoyable and engaging.

However, by the end of the book I became disappointed because of the constant, repeated stupidity of the opposing forces. I felt cheated because it never seemed that the U.S. forces won due to good strategy & tactics as much as because the enemy used tactics a learned high school student would shun. Don't get me wrong, the book is a good read. I only wish Coyle would create an antagonist with some brains to serve as a challenging foil for our heroes.

Setting aside all the geo-political baggage of the day, Coyle finds his real strength with one tank platoons story in WW III. It's a shame he never went back to this style. A real shame, as this is terrific, exciting stuff you wont find else where.

Harold Coyle's Team Yankee: A Novel of World War III (Presidio Press, 1987) was published a year after Red Storm Rising's triumphant debut in hardcover, and although it is thematically similar (Soviet forces invade West Germany after a series of crises escalate into an all out conventional war), Coyle's approach is very different from Clancy's. Instead of creating his own possible scenario for a NATO vs. Warsaw Pact confrontation, he asked for, and received, permission from British author (and retired General) Sir John Hackett to set Team Yankee within the scenario created in Hackett's two
"speculative fiction" books The Third World War: August 1985 and The Third World War: The Untold Story.

Team Yankee takes place within a two-week period in an August in the late 1980s. Since late July, a series of crises precipitated by the Iran-Iraq war has morphed into a clash between U.S. and Soviet naval forces in the Persian Gulf region. By August 1, word comes that NATO is mobilizing and ordering their armed forces, including Bannon and Team Yankee, to their wartime positions. Soon, the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact "allies" cross the Inner German Border in force. Team Yankee and the rest of NATO's forces in West Germany must then fight the invaders and stop them before the Red Army reaches the Rhine River. After that, assuming the Soviet attack bogs down, the mission will change from merely defending territory to taking offensive operations and pushing the invaders back. The question Coyle poses is, can American soldiers, using their weapons and tactics against superior numbers of Soviet and Warsaw Pact soldiers, defeat Russian weapons and tactics?

Readers familiar with Hackett's macrocosmic World War III will know the big picture, but first-time readers will be turning the pages to see who wins, who loses, who dies...and who survives in this outstanding first novel by a true master of the military fiction genre.

The only flaw, and this is not Coyle's fault, is that reality -- in the shape of the fall of communism and the end of the Cold War -- has made the novel's setting extremely outdated. Some of the then-modern weapons, such as the M1 main battle tank, have been since updated to M1-A2 standard, older weapons have been retired, and obviously there's no more Warsaw Pact.


All in all, it's an entertaining read.

We bought this and "New York Yankees: an Illustrared History,"for a Yankee fan. He keeps them on a table next to his favorite chair and each time we visit, there are more little bookmarks and notes. He had told us how much he was enjoying them, but the sight of that well used books showed us that we chose a perfect gift.

The Olympian

A Yankee Century" ($16, Berkley). Baseball's spring training does not truly reside in the deserts of Arizona or near the sands and swamps of Florida. It resides in the hearts and minds of children-turned-adults, who carry with them years of baseball lore and feelings (rational or not) of intense rivalry.

So the paperback version of "A Yankee Century" is just the ticket for warming up to the first crack of the bat. As one raised on the Baltimore Orioles, I can do nothing else but hate (rationally or not) the Yankees.

That said, 100 years of Yankee baseball is a walk through much of baseball history. Harvey Frommer's book covers so many of the details that fans love to savor that it's irresistible.

Frommer stays out of the statistic pit (although there are plenty of numbers), instead making a winning delivery out of stories and quotes that will help baseball fans stay sane on a rainy late-January afternoon.

The Olympian, Olympia Washington

This N' That with Tony Mack:
BLACK ATHLETE SPORTS NETWORK

BOOK REVIEW: A YANKEE CENTURY\\
***************************************************************

BRISTOL, CONN---Earlier this year, you may have read a book review I wrote on the historic relationship between Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson. That book was penned by noted baseball writer and historian Harvey Frommer.

Prof. Frommer has since come out with another historic baseball book, this time about the sport's most celebrated franchise.

Frommer, who authored "The New York Yankee Encloypedia", has now penned "A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First 100 Years of Baseball's Greatest Team".

Not only does Frommer give an oral history of the Pinstripes, but there are several rare photos of Yankee greats past and present.

From Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter, Lou Gehrig to Reggie Jackson, and all those in between, "A Yankee Century" is keepsake dream for fans of the Bronx Bombers and a nightmare for Yankee haters all over.

Even though this review is being written by a lifelong Met fan, I found this to be a very entertaining read.

One of the things that was enjoyable about the book is how Frommer has separate "Yankee Stories" on the well-known and lesser known ex-Yankees.

A humble Chris Chambliss talks about coming over from the lowly Cleveland Indians in a 1975 and then winning the pennant with a dramatic homer in the 1976 ALCS against the Royals.

Frommer also writes about the plight of Elston Howard, the first Black to play for the Yankees. His struggles on and off the field are chronicled along with a review of his very understated career as a player and coach.

The breathtaking and sometimes tumulous career of Reggie Jackson in pinstripes is also well chronicled. "Mr. October" had one of the greatest moments in Yankee history when he hit three homers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.

At the time, it gave the Yanks their first World Series title in 13 seasons and he would help them go back to the next season.

Among some of the other African American players that are featured in Prof. Frommer's book are Jeter, current third base coach and ex-captain Willie Randolph, Bernie Williams, and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.

The book also includes a comprehensive trivia quiz, quotes, anecdotes, and other entertaining features for all baseball fans, Yankee or otherwise.

If you know a true Yankee fan, it's a great addition to their library.

If you know a true Yankee hater, this will be a best way to start an arguement.

BOOK REVIEW: A YANKEE CENTURY
By Tony McClean
BLACK ATHLETE SPORTS NETWORK

BRISTOL, CONN---Earlier this year, you may have read a book review I wrote on the historic relationship between Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson. That book was penned by noted baseball writer and historian Harvey Frommer.

Prof. Frommer has since come out with another historic baseball book, this time about the sport's most celebrated franchise.

Frommer, who authored "The New York Yankee Encloypedia", has now penned "A Yankee Century: A Celebration of the First 100 Years of Baseball's Greatest Team".

Not only does Frommer give an oral history of the Pinstripes, but there are several rare photos of Yankee greats past and present.

From Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter, Lou Gehrig to Reggie Jackson, and all those in between, "A Yankee Century" is keepsake dream for fans of the Bronx Bombers and a nightmare for Yankee haters all over.

Even though this review is being written by a lifelong Met fan, I found this to be a very entertaining read.

One of the things that was enjoyable about the book is how Frommer has separate "Yankee Stories" on the well-known and lesser known ex-Yankees.

A humble Chris Chambliss talks about coming over from the lowly Cleveland Indians in a 1975 and then winning the pennant with a dramatic homer in the 1976 ALCS against the Royals.

Frommer also writes about the plight of Elston Howard, the first Black to play for the Yankees. His struggles on and off the field are chronicled along with a review of his very understated career as a player and coach.

The breathtaking and sometimes tumulous career of Reggie Jackson in pinstripes is also well chronicled. "Mr. October" had one of the greatest moments in Yankee history when he hit three homers in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.

At the time, it gave the Yanks their first World Series title in 13 seasons and he would help them go back to the next season.

Among some of the other African American players that are featured in Prof. Frommer's book are Jeter, current third base coach and ex-captain Willie Randolph, Bernie Williams, and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.

The book also includes a comprehensive trivia quiz, quotes, anecdotes, and other entertaining features for all baseball fans, Yankee or otherwise.

If you know a true Yankee fan, it's a great addition to their library.

If you know a true Yankee hater, this will be a best way to start an arguement.

In the northeast, the winter of 2003-2004 will be remembered as one of the snowiest, iciest, coldest and dreariest in recent memory. A YANKEE CENTURY was the perfect cure for those miserable days. Filled with the baseball history that took place on the sun-drenched field of Yankee Stadium, Harvey Frommer has provided us Yankee [and most baseball] fans with a warm nostalgia and a good feeling for the springs and summers to come.

With equal parts statistics and anecdote, the book is a well-balanced exploration into the most successful sports franchise in history. Peppered with wonderful photos (some that I had never seen before), this 400+ page book moves swiftly. The writing is respectful without becoming sentimental. And Paul O'Neill, who I will always remember as our favorite water-cooler kicking hothead, proves to be a sensitive and articulate commentator. Congratulations to both writers.

A YANKEE CENTURY is a great exploration into the Bronx Bombers, and by extension, to the history of 20th century baseball itself.

I could not put the book down.....fast reading and great stories and lots of humor.....one heck of a story teller....

Marty Appel served in the Bronx Bombers' public-relations office for nearly nine years, and was the PR director during the tumultuous early George Steinbrenner years (from 1974 to 1977). Appel's "Now Pitching For the Yankees" recalls the turmoil of that period -- and Appel's ability to function under pressure --with wit, a keen eye for detail and sensitivity.

None of the long hours Appel spent at the ballpark, the turmoil he witnessed, or the high-pressure tactics of owner Steinbrenner have dimmed his appreciation for his colleagues and bosses. It comes through in the pages of this warm, often touching memoir.

The boldface names are there -- including Steinbrenner, Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Joe DiMaggio and Reggie Jackson -- along with less-famous but pivotal Yankee characters like clubhouse man Pete Sheehy, team execs Michael Burke and Gabe Paul, and Appel's mentor in public relations, Bob Fishel. (It even mentions the writers: Appel's anecdote about one scribe's losing battle with bladder control in Boston is priceless.)

Appel also reflects on his vibrant post-Yankees career, including a bittersweet period with the Atlanta Olympics and a still-thriving stint as a baseball author (subjects include early baseball star King Kelly, former Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and former Yankee captain Thurman Munson).

"Now Pitching for the Yankees" is a good find for anyone who loves baseball, cherishes its history and appreciates the people behind the scenes who make it happen.

As a Red Sox fan, I was ready to read this and get whacked in the face with the hubris usually shown by anything Yankee. I was surprised by the balance shown. Marty Appel knows more about baseball than a lot of people running the game now. He was born about 30 years too late as people like Epsteil, Beane and Riccardi get to run ballclubs, while Mr. Appel 30 years ago had to come up through the ranks with Steinbrenner's Yankees no less. Mr. Appel also wrote an excellent biography on one of the first superstarts of baseball back in the 1800's--King Kelly. I recommend both books highly.

Only if you really know your New York sports would you realize that Marty Appel's in a much more unique position to write a tell-all book about the 1970s Yankees than many other athletes. During his progression over 10 years from Yankees' fan-mail gopher during the Horace Clarke years, to PR director during the 1976 World Series, Appel had once-in-a-lifetime encounters (with the likes of Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Mike Burke, Gabe Paul, George Steinbrenner and ... Oscar Gamble) every single day.

"Now Pitching...", finally out in paperback, shows Appel's origins as a Yankees fan when everyone else was rooting for the Brooklyn Dodgers, and how he turned his love for the game into a career (when everyone else was watching the NFL). Most of the book covers the Yankees from 1968 to 1976, Appel's reign. Although many of the stories are familiar to baseball readers from what seems like 100 other books, only Appel is giving you the inside view. Nowhere else will you get such insider detail about Oscar Gamble's infamous haircut, Sparky Lyle's theme music, or George Steinbrenner's management style.

The book flags a little -- only a little -- when Appel leaves the Yankees and makes his mark in other ventures, such as team tennis and local NYC broadcasting. The most interesting part focusses on Appel's brief fish-out-of-water turn with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics organizers.

Marty Appel's been a very lucky guy -- who else gets to be friends with both Mickey Mantle and Billie Jean King? "Now Pitching for the Yankees" is several cuts above your standard baseball autobiography.

Posted 5:49 p.m., December 12, 2001 - Bruce M.
If I may add another book to the list. The best baseball book that I've read this calendar year is Marty Appel's Now Pitching for the Yankees. Marty worked in the Yankees' public relations department from 1968 to 1977, and shares loads of funny and insightful stories about the CBS Yankees and the Yankees of the Steinbrenner Era. The book is well-written, flows smoothly, and strikes me as honest without "hatcheting" people in and around baseball. I'd recommend the book to both Yankee and non-Yankee fans.