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Those Damn Yankees: The Secret Life of America's Greatest Franchise
This paperback edition of Dean Chadwin’s widely-discussed book has been expanded to include the Yankee’s World Series appearance in the 1999 season. The New York Yankees have won twenty-five championships, more than any other American professional sports franchise. The team’s rich history includes a color bar, the towering home runs and bottomless appetites of Babe Ruth, the early and intensely lamented death of Lou Gehrig, frequent labor disputes between players and owners, and the free verse of Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto. The 1999 season has emerged as one of the franchise’s most memorable both on and off the field. As the squad raced through an all-time record for victories to win the World Series, observers wondered whether the club’s stadium would return to its wandering ways of a century ago. The Yankees abandoned Baltimore in 1902. After seventy-five years in the Bronx, Yankee management are now pursuing a move to Manhattan or the suburbs that could tap into millions of public dollars. Those Damn Yankees is a riveting and unconventional foray into the murky underworld of baseball, from the incipient sexual desire of young girls visiting the Derek Jeter on-line fansite to the boozy macho heart of the Yankee Nation in the now-endangered bleachers. In compelling asides, Dean Chadwin looks at issues such as baseball’s cult of memory, numerology in sport and society, the emergence of an anti-competitive baseball league of haves and have-nots, and a sporting cartel’s exploitation of inter-city economic warfare.
272 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1999
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February 20, 2023
The New York Yankees will never be anyone's definition of an "underdog." Even more than a decade removed from their last World Series title, they remain the gold standard for how a franchise is run in sports. George Steinbrenner's children continue to run the team, albeit divorced from the volcanic flair that distinguished "the Boss" and his tenure at the helm. This book, written when the Yanks were in the midst of their late Nineties resurgence, doesn't get all its predictions right. But it does shed a light on why "when the Yankees are good, baseball is better" isn't necessarily the case.
"Those Damn Yankees: The Secret Life of America's Greatest Franchise," by Dean Chadwin, examines the recent (as of 1998) history of the team, showcasing the season when the Bronx Bombers won a historic number of games and charged into the World Series against the San Diego Padres like it was a series of exhibition games. The Yankee teams of the late Nineties won with about as much personality and flair as a board of directors at a Fortune 500 company, yet they did win. And Steinbrenner naturally chose this time to continue his ongoing quest to get the hell out of the Bronx, demanding a new stadium in midtown Manhattan that then-mayor (and current disgraced-lackey-of-Trump) Rudy Giuliani was trying his damnedest to make happen on the taxpayers' dime (eventually the team would get a new stadium, but still in the Bronx). And the issue of competitive balance, or the lack thereof when Steinbrenner merely had to open up his wallet to buy all the talent available on the free market, was an issue. If the Yankees could steamroll through the American League and World Series, what chance did any smaller-market team have?
Time has not been kind to the Yankees, perhaps: since their last dynasty, they've won a total of one World Series (in 2009) and, while occasionally in the mix, haven't yet come back to being the team of legend. However, a world in which the Yankees aren't dominant is actually good for baseball. Chadwin shows how, during the Yankees' previous dynastic runs (the Thirties through the early Sixties), they made it that much harder for other teams to draw a crowd, and when Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, the lily-white Yankees didn't even try to sign a Black player to the major-league roster for years (they had Black and Latin players in the minor-league system, but traded away potential game-changers to preserve their all-white roster). That the Yankees dominated during an era when Black players were excluded should be a mark against them, in the eyes of Chadwin (and I'm very much open to the argument, because competitive balance wasn't there when half of the talent pool that Major League Baseball could've drawn from was excluded by the owners and the commissioner). And the Yankees have continued to be the team that excludes, with the aforementioned efforts to exit the Bronx and record-high ticket prices to cull through who can and cannot attend a game, even a mid-day summer game, much less a playoff or World Series appearance.
This book was written in 1999, so a lot of the predictions that Chadwin makes are steeped in the moment and don't reflect what happened after. Baseball is arguably no longer "the national pastime," with football becoming the sport that most people prefer to watch (and arguably the most powerful league in sports). The Yankees still belong to the Steinbrenner family, and they still reside in the Bronx. And the dynasty of the late Nineties came crashing down in 2001, against the plucky Arizona Diamondbacks in the wake of 9/11, and while the Yankees could certainly mount a comeback to the championship level of those teams, they haven't quite done so yet. No telling if they will get an infusion of charisma along the way, but it's safe to say that the corporate structure of the team in their outlook doesn't leave a lot of room for working-class appeal if you're not already a Yankee fan in your soul. "Those Damn Yankees" isn't for Yankee fans, I guess, unless they want to take a cold shower and see how their favorite team has had a less-than-glorious past. But it's a refreshing and bracing book for those of us who look askance at the notion that the Yankees could be America's favorite team. They certainly could be, but that's not necessarily a good thing.
"Those Damn Yankees: The Secret Life of America's Greatest Franchise," by Dean Chadwin, examines the recent (as of 1998) history of the team, showcasing the season when the Bronx Bombers won a historic number of games and charged into the World Series against the San Diego Padres like it was a series of exhibition games. The Yankee teams of the late Nineties won with about as much personality and flair as a board of directors at a Fortune 500 company, yet they did win. And Steinbrenner naturally chose this time to continue his ongoing quest to get the hell out of the Bronx, demanding a new stadium in midtown Manhattan that then-mayor (and current disgraced-lackey-of-Trump) Rudy Giuliani was trying his damnedest to make happen on the taxpayers' dime (eventually the team would get a new stadium, but still in the Bronx). And the issue of competitive balance, or the lack thereof when Steinbrenner merely had to open up his wallet to buy all the talent available on the free market, was an issue. If the Yankees could steamroll through the American League and World Series, what chance did any smaller-market team have?
Time has not been kind to the Yankees, perhaps: since their last dynasty, they've won a total of one World Series (in 2009) and, while occasionally in the mix, haven't yet come back to being the team of legend. However, a world in which the Yankees aren't dominant is actually good for baseball. Chadwin shows how, during the Yankees' previous dynastic runs (the Thirties through the early Sixties), they made it that much harder for other teams to draw a crowd, and when Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, the lily-white Yankees didn't even try to sign a Black player to the major-league roster for years (they had Black and Latin players in the minor-league system, but traded away potential game-changers to preserve their all-white roster). That the Yankees dominated during an era when Black players were excluded should be a mark against them, in the eyes of Chadwin (and I'm very much open to the argument, because competitive balance wasn't there when half of the talent pool that Major League Baseball could've drawn from was excluded by the owners and the commissioner). And the Yankees have continued to be the team that excludes, with the aforementioned efforts to exit the Bronx and record-high ticket prices to cull through who can and cannot attend a game, even a mid-day summer game, much less a playoff or World Series appearance.
This book was written in 1999, so a lot of the predictions that Chadwin makes are steeped in the moment and don't reflect what happened after. Baseball is arguably no longer "the national pastime," with football becoming the sport that most people prefer to watch (and arguably the most powerful league in sports). The Yankees still belong to the Steinbrenner family, and they still reside in the Bronx. And the dynasty of the late Nineties came crashing down in 2001, against the plucky Arizona Diamondbacks in the wake of 9/11, and while the Yankees could certainly mount a comeback to the championship level of those teams, they haven't quite done so yet. No telling if they will get an infusion of charisma along the way, but it's safe to say that the corporate structure of the team in their outlook doesn't leave a lot of room for working-class appeal if you're not already a Yankee fan in your soul. "Those Damn Yankees" isn't for Yankee fans, I guess, unless they want to take a cold shower and see how their favorite team has had a less-than-glorious past. But it's a refreshing and bracing book for those of us who look askance at the notion that the Yankees could be America's favorite team. They certainly could be, but that's not necessarily a good thing.
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January 3, 2022Ugh. This book tried my patience more than any in recent memory. The thesis of Chadwin’s screed, I guess, is that the Yankees are bad for America and bad for New York City in every possible way you can imagine and in about twelve other ways you couldn’t imagine. He writes from the perspective of an unapologetically smug liberal Marxist and, maybe this is just my post-graduate school hangover talking, but his arguments and tone are so tedious they made me want to root for the Yankees and go back in time and vote for both Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush (both times) just to spite him. Those are five things I would not normally talk about wanting to do. . .
He did have this one really good line about the recent trend of retro ballparks basically being “upscale baseball malls.” That’s pretty much right on the money, but I guess the idea of an upscale baseball mall doesn’t offend me quite as much as it does him. (People buying stuff! The humanity!)
But even more offensive to Chadwin are George Steinbrenner and Rudy Giuliani. And in case you forget, he reminds you of that on pretty much every page. He seems pretty okay with Castro, though.
Much of what the author argues is pretty pedestrian contemporary-humanities-and-social-sciences-grad-school stuff. (Everything’s racist. Yes, you should feel guilty about being born a man. Disney has secretly murdered your soul. And America is run by billionaire cowboys that ruin everything they touch because they hate you. But not as much as they hate black people. Hip, hip, hooray.) But he’s so strident it feels about three times as annoying as usual. Sometimes his arguments are such a stretch they seem to defy logic. I was especially annoyed by his proposition that all statistics before the fall of the color line be discounted—way too extreme and just unworkable. P.S.—I’m really tired of all this retroactive shaming of Major League Baseball over segregation. We should be grateful to baseball for helping lead the way in integration.
So yeah, to make a long story short (Too late!!) don’t read this book unless you’re a communist, a glutton for punishment, a grad student, or are writing your own book about the Yankees.
He did have this one really good line about the recent trend of retro ballparks basically being “upscale baseball malls.” That’s pretty much right on the money, but I guess the idea of an upscale baseball mall doesn’t offend me quite as much as it does him. (People buying stuff! The humanity!)
But even more offensive to Chadwin are George Steinbrenner and Rudy Giuliani. And in case you forget, he reminds you of that on pretty much every page. He seems pretty okay with Castro, though.
Much of what the author argues is pretty pedestrian contemporary-humanities-and-social-sciences-grad-school stuff. (Everything’s racist. Yes, you should feel guilty about being born a man. Disney has secretly murdered your soul. And America is run by billionaire cowboys that ruin everything they touch because they hate you. But not as much as they hate black people. Hip, hip, hooray.) But he’s so strident it feels about three times as annoying as usual. Sometimes his arguments are such a stretch they seem to defy logic. I was especially annoyed by his proposition that all statistics before the fall of the color line be discounted—way too extreme and just unworkable. P.S.—I’m really tired of all this retroactive shaming of Major League Baseball over segregation. We should be grateful to baseball for helping lead the way in integration.
So yeah, to make a long story short (Too late!!) don’t read this book unless you’re a communist, a glutton for punishment, a grad student, or are writing your own book about the Yankees.
April 1, 2017
Rating - 7.2
Expected more about the Yankee's players history than I did an economic malaise between the haves and the have nots in baseball; Does reinforce my general disdain to the rich owners in all sports
With so much culture in Yankee land the book could have been something special, but overall misses the mark as it does not stray from its beeline at all (spare the chapter on segregation and race)
Expected more about the Yankee's players history than I did an economic malaise between the haves and the have nots in baseball; Does reinforce my general disdain to the rich owners in all sports
With so much culture in Yankee land the book could have been something special, but overall misses the mark as it does not stray from its beeline at all (spare the chapter on segregation and race)
August 4, 2024
maybe more like 2.5
very informative and definitely changed my perspective on the Yankees; good overall political and economic analysis. didn’t love how it was written and sorta hard to get into initially. maybe i’m a Mets fan now.
very informative and definitely changed my perspective on the Yankees; good overall political and economic analysis. didn’t love how it was written and sorta hard to get into initially. maybe i’m a Mets fan now.
June 29, 2011
This is required reading for Yankee haters. But the best part is, it's not a vulgar narrative that just says they suck. You actually gets facts and stories about how the Yankees got to be the free spending, baseball destroying team that so many posers and fair weather "fans" profess their love for. I grew up with a Yankee fan father, and instead of using that as a convenient reason to jump on the bandwagon like everyone else, I stayed loyal to my state (Florida). So if you want more reasons to dislike the team beyond all of the phonies wearing purple paisley NY hats talking about all the championships they won, (despite the fact that most came before their parents were alive), then read this!
August 7, 2007
Gives a sports fan a glimpse into the Yankees franchise. A good read especially for baseball fans.
October 28, 2007
Any book that shows the Yankees for the fascist organization that they are is all right by me. :)
May 1, 2017
Had to read a baseball book to kick off, oops, I mean throw in the first pitch, for the 2017 season.
The action on the field of the 1998 season inspired author Chadwin to write this book, which he did immediately in 1999. This gives the story an up close and personal perspective on the excitement of that year, which Chadwin definitely conveys.
1998 season, a Golden year for the sport, had the Sosa - McQuire - Griffey - Vaughn home run fest, the Yankees winning the most games ever, a perfectly pitched game (by a damn Yankee), and a variety of other records that kept fans going to the ballpark and tuning in on radio and TV. A welcome resurgence of interest after the 1994 strike.
Chadwin appreciates all the players, whether they are Yankees or not. The ‘damn’ in the title is for the business side of the baseball and from his spot on the bench there’s not much good about it. Baseball is racist, homophobic, sometimes both, some teams too rich, too successful, too deep in the taxpayer’s pockets. He doesn’t blame the Yankee organization solely for these ills, but when he explains a problem he essentially adds …. Especially the Yankees.
We all know a fellow like Chadwin, one of those guys at work , or the sports bar or maybe on your softball team that has an opinion on about everything. It’s the same opinion and while at times it can be entertaining, it quickly gets repetitive.
The real damn Yankees to Chadwin aren’t on the field, they are Steinbrenner and Mayor Giuliani. He sure doesn’t like these fellows, who are apparently setting up the fall of western civilization.
As this book is more about the front office than on the field, I can’t imagine even Yankee haters getting much ammo to use out of this book, nor can I see Yankee lovers disliking it that much. I can just hear a Red Sox fan hurling an insult — “the municipal bond rate for your stadium sucks! “
Written in ’99 it does remind you of the excitement of that year, however it also severely dates the events. Steroids shortly after cast a pall over McGuire and Sosa. Various predictions, or more like rants, as we now know, didn’t turn out; Chadwin figures Steinbrenner will sell the Yankees in a couple years, the new Yankee stadium at taxpayer expense will be built in Manhattan, Cleveland will be a major financial power house.
In the last half of the book he offers various cures for all of baseball. The major one is that city governments should own their sports teams, especially in that damned New York! He really loves this idea, well I’m not sure he loves the idea, he just wants to take the Yankees from Steinbrenner, who cares if it’s a disaster for everyone else?
The action on the field of the 1998 season inspired author Chadwin to write this book, which he did immediately in 1999. This gives the story an up close and personal perspective on the excitement of that year, which Chadwin definitely conveys.
1998 season, a Golden year for the sport, had the Sosa - McQuire - Griffey - Vaughn home run fest, the Yankees winning the most games ever, a perfectly pitched game (by a damn Yankee), and a variety of other records that kept fans going to the ballpark and tuning in on radio and TV. A welcome resurgence of interest after the 1994 strike.
Chadwin appreciates all the players, whether they are Yankees or not. The ‘damn’ in the title is for the business side of the baseball and from his spot on the bench there’s not much good about it. Baseball is racist, homophobic, sometimes both, some teams too rich, too successful, too deep in the taxpayer’s pockets. He doesn’t blame the Yankee organization solely for these ills, but when he explains a problem he essentially adds …. Especially the Yankees.
We all know a fellow like Chadwin, one of those guys at work , or the sports bar or maybe on your softball team that has an opinion on about everything. It’s the same opinion and while at times it can be entertaining, it quickly gets repetitive.
The real damn Yankees to Chadwin aren’t on the field, they are Steinbrenner and Mayor Giuliani. He sure doesn’t like these fellows, who are apparently setting up the fall of western civilization.
As this book is more about the front office than on the field, I can’t imagine even Yankee haters getting much ammo to use out of this book, nor can I see Yankee lovers disliking it that much. I can just hear a Red Sox fan hurling an insult — “the municipal bond rate for your stadium sucks! “
Written in ’99 it does remind you of the excitement of that year, however it also severely dates the events. Steroids shortly after cast a pall over McGuire and Sosa. Various predictions, or more like rants, as we now know, didn’t turn out; Chadwin figures Steinbrenner will sell the Yankees in a couple years, the new Yankee stadium at taxpayer expense will be built in Manhattan, Cleveland will be a major financial power house.
In the last half of the book he offers various cures for all of baseball. The major one is that city governments should own their sports teams, especially in that damned New York! He really loves this idea, well I’m not sure he loves the idea, he just wants to take the Yankees from Steinbrenner, who cares if it’s a disaster for everyone else?
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews