Yankee Stadium
A Tribute
85 Years of Memories: 1923-2008
Les Krantz
Reviewed by Megan Chance
Before I begin this review of the informative and nicely designed YANKEE STADIUM, there is something you should know about me: I am only nominally a sports fan. If not for my husband, (a Seattle native so consistently taken for a New Yorker that it’s become a family joke) I would pay almost no attention to sports at all. He is not just a sports fan — he is a Yankee fan, and has been his entire life. Our last trip to New York included a pilgrimage to Yankee Stadium, where we stood outside because we couldn’t get tickets and mingled with fans going to the game. In 1994, I spent the afternoon of the night I won a RITA award watching a game at Yankee Stadium, which went on so long I had to leave before it was over, and even then I almost didn’t make the awards ceremony. And I am (according to my husband) personally responsible for the Yankees losing the World Series to the Diamondbacks, because the game went awry the moment my husband, who was out of town, called me on the phone.
This is all to explain why I was reading the timely YANKEE STADIUM, A TRIBUTE, in the first place — a book that gave me the knowledge required to have what may indeed be the first intelligent and long-lasting conversation I’ve ever had with my husband about the soon-to-be-demolished stadium. I even managed to shock him with a fact I learned from the book that even he didn’t know: Mickey Mantle and long-time Yankee announcer Bob Shephard started with the Yankees on the same day.
As casual a fan as I am, I enjoyed this book a great deal. The historian in me loved the pictures, which really serve to showcase the traditions and mystique of the Yankees and the stadium, and the articles which feature not just the history of the stadium itself, but of the games and events that took place there, as well as the players themselves. It also includes a companion DVD hosted by Reggie Jackson — a nice touch.
The book is laid out chronologically within sections, starting with “Magical Moments,” and “October Classics,” and ending with “Not Just Baseball,” which details events other than baseball that took place at the stadium, such as the Ali-Norton fight and the tribute to victims of 9/11. The design lends itself very well to browsing, as a self-contained essay can be read in only a few minutes, and you can easily skip around. There are quite a few sidebars as well–many consist of lists such as: “Yankee Stadium No-Hitters,” or “Yankee All-Time Save Leaders,” but several feature human interest stories like that of Lou Gehrig (including the full transcription of his famous “The Luckiest Man” speech) and others are a bit more esoteric, such as one about the Reggie Bar — a candy bar created in the 1970s to honor Reggie Jackson.
Sportswriters truly are poets of the modern age, and Mr. Krantz is no exception. The book is easy to read, reverent and informative. I was left feeling that the world will be a smaller and sadder place when the old Yankee Stadium is gone. I hope those Yankee ghosts will cross the street to the new stadium, but even if they don’t, this book is a fine tribute to a tradition of pride and excellence, and to a stadium that has been the symbol of America to many generations.
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About the Reviewer:
Megan Chance is the critically acclaimed, award-winning author of several novels. Her first book won Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA award for excellence in Romantic Fiction, and since then, her novels have received several awards and award nominations. The Best Reviews has said she writes “Fascinating historical fiction.” A former television news photographer with a BA from Western Washington University, Megan Chance lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two daughters. Visit her website at www.meganchance.com.
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