Book review - "The Yankee Years"

I just finished reading "The Yankee Years" by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci. It is the story of Torre's 12 seasons as the Yankees' manager. The 475-page book could be summed up as follows: "Jeter good. A-Rod bad."

Actually, it's not quite that simple. The bigger story is: "Players who were on the championship teams of 1996-2000 good. Players who joined the Yankees in 2001 and later bad."

I have no doubt that Torre was treated poorly by George Steinbrenner and the rest of the Yankees front office during the last couple of years of his tenure. However, the book seemed to be just a long string of complaints about how things weren't as good as they had been during the dynasty. I think we all have a tendency to long for the "good old days", not realizing that those days weren't always so good.

The book ends when Torre's contract isn't renewed after the 2007 season. Since then, he has gone on to manage the Dodgers, while the Yankees won the 2009 World Series. It was a shame how things ended, but I guess that all good things eventually come to an end.

Final thought on the book: an interesting read, but I'm glad I got it from the library rather than paying for it. Overall, it was worth reading for Yankees fans.