Much Ado About Nothing: The Yankee Years

The buzz, in early February, was all over Joe Torre's new book.  Co-written (read:  written) by Tom Verducci, the book was talked about all over the place, with leaks from different sections of the book securing its description as a "tell-all".

Torre found himself discussing the book just about everywhere.  Sirius Radio, WFAN in New York, ESPN.  Even on Larry King Live.

Every few days leading up to the February 3rd release of the book, new leaks would come out.

Teammates called Alex Rodriguez A-Fraud, Johnny Damon may not have been as good of a teammate as people think, problems with Kevin Brown and Carl Pavano.

It seemed to have all the markings of a juicy, insider's look at one of the most popular franchises during one of its most successful runs in team history.  I was excited. 

Then, I read it.

After over 470 pages, I was left feeling like I'd just seen any Eddie Murphy movie that has come out in the past 15 years.  The previews look great, you think you've got a winner, and once you're leaving the theater, you realize you've seen all the good parts in the preview, and the movie was otherwise lacking.

Not much difference here.

Verducci takes the reader through the 12 "yankee years" of Joe Torre, an interesting look (albeit protracted) at the changes that took place not only in the Yankee clubhouse but also throughout baseball.  Interesting, but not revealing.  Anyone following baseball or having read Moneyball at some point is at least vaguely familiar with the newfound obsession by baseball executives with statistical analysis, niche finding, and market exploitation to compete with the high spenders of the major leagues.  

This is where the book finds its demise.  As a concept, the "changes in baseball" idea isn't that original.  It's been done, several times over.  Not to mention that unless you were a Yankees fan, you wouldn't really care too much about what was going on inside their clubhouse at the time.  But, if you were a Yankee fan, the things you were reading about were pretty much common knowledge.

For instance, no one actually told me that players resented Kyle Farnsworth, Kevin Brown, and Carl Pavano.  But, I think I could've figured that one out of my own.  Did I know for a fact that Randy Johnson's struggles were linked to the pressures of NYC?  No, but pushing away a camera guy on his first day pretty much told me all I needed to know at the time.

There were some interesting stories, though.  One that sticks with me found George Steinbrenner walking through the clubhouse during spring training some years back.  Allen Watson, a mediocre middle reliever for the Yankees, was horsing around and tossed a bagel at a clubhouse attendant.  The errant throw hit Steinbrenner, who demanded to know who had perpetrated the crime.  Watson sheepishly admitted it was him, to which The Boss said, "I thought it was you, Watson, that's why it didn't hurt."

General overview:  Torre felt betrayed by the way the Yankees handled his final few years, the Yankees relied too much on statistics and big free agent signings post 2000, and made a ton of free agent pitching mistakes (not the least of which was Kei Igawa, who bullpen catcher Mike Borzello goes on record as saying he knew was terrible after catching only one session with him in his first February with the team).

Not too shocking.