Frank Graham, Tom Meany, David Halberstam, Glenn Stout, Buster Olney, Tom Molito, Jane Leavy and Marty Appel have all written excellent books about the New York Yankees, but Marty Appel has created a new benchmark with his new book, Pinstripe Empire.
Appel has become every young fan’s father and every older fan’s younger brother. Pinstripe Empire takes fans on a journey from the first days of the New York Highlanders to the 2011 lost season of the New York Yankees.
Did you know that the Yankees’ first park was really named the American League Grounds or just “the American Park? Or that the Highlanders were first referred to as the New York Americans (the New York Giants were the New York Nationals) or the Greater New Yorks?
“Highlanders” was difficult to fit into newspaper headlines. Fred Leib, according to Appel, wrote that one of the editors at a New York newspaper decided to simply call the team “the Yanks.”
Why the Yanks? The reason was patriotism. Baseball was regarded as the American game and the New York Americans played at the American League Grounds. Yanks or Yankees was a logical choice.
Appel tells the story of the Yankees as a story. The book reads smoothly, sequentially and chronologically. With Pinstripe Empire, Appel has achieved one of the most difficult things to do. He has written a reference book that is like a story.
Younger fans that never saw Yankee Stadium before it was renovated in 1974-75 will feel as if they were in the original ball park. Older fans will compare the new Yankees’ park that opened in 2009 with Yankee Stadium and wonder why.
Appel worked for the Yankees from 1968-77. He was appointed the team’s Public Relations Director in 1973 and he was their television producer in the 1980s and 1990s.
It is doubtful if any individual knows more about the Yankees and their players than Appel. Pinstripe Empire allows readers to “pick Appel’s brain” and to virtually be a teammate of Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra,Thurman Munson, Sparky Lyle, Derek Jeter, Mariano and the other magnificent Yankees.
Jane Leavy wrote The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood. She met Mantle only once, which required her to conduct many interviews with individuals that knew Mantle. Leavy wrote an excellent book based primarily on secondary sources.
Pinstripe Empire relies primarily on primary sources, namely Marty Appel and his friendships with Yankees players and management.
I have followed the Yankees since 1951, which is even longer than Appel, but I will always be grateful for Pinstripe Empire because I and all baseball fans now have access to the Yankees’ players and team that is unavailable to a fan.
Pinstripe Empire has allowed me to once again feel the resentment the Yankees created when they had Phil Rizzuto replace Jim Woods in the announcing booth in 1957, but when Appel writes about Rizzuto’s broadcasting career, I remember why I love Rizzuto.
Baseball fans, not only Yankees’ fans, have a great experience ahead of them.
