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Yankees, Typewriters, Scandals, and Cooperstown: A Baseball Memoir
A freewheeling memoir of baseball, journalism, and New York spanning over 50 years of America's pastime Before he'd covered dozens of World Series; before he'd written about countless hirings, firings, superstars, and scandals, Bill Madden was a cub reporter on one of his first assignments at Yankee Stadium— and manager Ralph Houk had just gone out of his way to spit tobacco juice all over Madden's shoes. "That's Ralph's way with rookie writers he doesn't recognize," came the explanation. "He doesn't mean anything by it." So began a Hall of Fame scribe's career, as detailed in this clear-eyed memoir. With verve and candor, Madden reflects on five decades of triumphs, misadventures, and unforgettable characters. From Jackie Robinson to Aaron Judge; from newsrooms filled with hundreds of teletype machines droning like an army of cicadas to the sleek yet ruthless digital age, keen baseball fans will devour these tales of America's pastime against the backdrop of a rapidly changing media and cultural landscape.
256 pages, Hardcover
Published April 1, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 29, 2025
The holidays are behind me, and baseball season is in full swing, lightening my mood. What I hope is that it means a return to normalcy and with it, reviewing on a consistent basis. Baseball is the soundtrack of my summer, both watching or listening to games on a daily basis and reading about the game’s history. There are times where I crave reading about baseball to the point where that is all that I will read for weeks at a time. When browsing this year’s list of upcoming baseball books, I noticed a new memoir by New York Daily News reporter Bill Madden. Last year I read Madden’s account of the 1954 season when Willie Mays lead the New York Giants to to the World Series. While not the most comprehensive of accounts, it brought me back to an era when baseball was America’s pastime and allowed me to bask in the glow of its history. A Baseball Memoir is not about any specific incident in the game’s history but about Madden’s life as a reporter covering the Yankees plus all of the characters that he met over the years. When I saw this description, I knew that A Baseball Memoir would be just the book to get me back to my baseball reading.
Bill Madden came of age in suburban New Jersey and became a baseball fan when his father took him to Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Besides baseball, his main interest was comics and by the time he entered his teen years, he began to envision a future in writing about baseball rather than playing it. During the 1950s, The Sporting News was considered the baseball bible. All players wanted to be featured in this weekly publication, and fans could not wait to get their hands on it. The year Madden turned thirteen, he wrote a preseason preview about each major baseball team. His father was his biggest fan and encouraged him to keep writing. Through a family, Madden and his father met Dick Young, the ornery reporter for the New York Daily News. You told Madden to keep up the good work, kid, and the reporter known to ruffle a lot of feathers became Madden’s childhood idol. Madden knew that he wanted to be a baseball reporter, and he took the academic steps needed to foster that dream. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1970, Madden went to work as a cub reporter for the United Press International (UPI). He was on his way to carving out a career as a baseball reporter centered in New York.
Along with a cast of characters encompassing a who’s who of Major League Baseball, Madden has enjoyed an illustrious career as a reporter as well as writing six books. As the lead reporter covering the Yankees for the New York Daily News, Madden had an entree into the most revered and hated franchise in sports. A mentor told him that the Yankees control the news, and he was most likely correct. Madden wrote at a time when George Steinbrenner was at the height of his powers and constantly feuded with manager Billy Martin, hiring and firing him four times. Regardless of which party was truthful, the two adversaries made for excellent copy. Many of Steinbrenner’s policies left sports writers scratching their heads, including the worst of them all, his ongoing venom toward all star Dave Winfield, which eventually lead to Steinbrenner’s year long suspension from baseball. Because of Steinbrenner’s questionable running of the Yankees, the team remained out of the post season for fifteen years, culminating in the Core Four Years, which are not detailed here, but in Madden’s full length book on Steinbrenner. Each chapter is more of a laundry list than a detailed exploration of Madden’s career, forcing me to think that perhaps this is a culmination of his career; however, the reading is still entertaining.
I learned that Madden was instrumental in the exploding baseball card industry in the late 1980s. For decades Topps cards maintained a monopoly in the world of baseball cards. When judges ruled against Topps, other companies popped up including Fleer and Donruss, of which Madden was an early partner, getting the new company off the ground. Granted, none of these companies could compete with Topps, but in the materialism culture of the 1980s, there was space on the market for all of these new companies to make their mark. Another anecdote Madden related was his role as a reporter during the steroids era. I am a proponent of the “you use, you lose” school of thought in that steroid users should be kept out of the hall of fame. Madden accedes with this opinion and in all his years as a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), he has never voted for any of the most notorious of purported drug users. Madden noted that drugs had invaded baseball decades earlier but the commissioner’s office chose to turn a blind eye until the 1998 home run chase. This was supposed to be a memoir about Madden’s time in baseball, but he used the final chapter as a platform to cite his stance against drug users. Whether one agrees or not, this final chapter takes away from Madden’s humorous tone in relating his life as a baseball reporter.
In 2010, Madden received the J P Spink award from his peers at the BBWAA and got elected in baseball’s hall of fame as a writer. He is now part of an illustrious club and hobnobs with hall of famers each year on induction weekend. His favorite part of his time in Cooperstown is recreating the pine tar incident with George Brett, which generates many laughs. Madden’s account of his life has been light hearted and reminded me why I love the game as much as I do. Through his position as a reporter for a New York newspaper, he has been able to foster friendships with many of the characters from all facets of the game. He maintained a friendship with Tom Seaver and kicked back with Steinbrenner and his cronies at Elaine’s bar. One could say that Madden was in the right place at the right time, meeting larger than life personas like Dick Young and Frank McGuire to help jumpstart his fifty plus year career. Madden made the most of this career, and other on his chapter on steroid users, it has been fun to read about. With that first post holiday baseball book and review out of the way, I can go on to another summer reading and watching the game that I love.
3.75 stars
Bill Madden came of age in suburban New Jersey and became a baseball fan when his father took him to Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. Besides baseball, his main interest was comics and by the time he entered his teen years, he began to envision a future in writing about baseball rather than playing it. During the 1950s, The Sporting News was considered the baseball bible. All players wanted to be featured in this weekly publication, and fans could not wait to get their hands on it. The year Madden turned thirteen, he wrote a preseason preview about each major baseball team. His father was his biggest fan and encouraged him to keep writing. Through a family, Madden and his father met Dick Young, the ornery reporter for the New York Daily News. You told Madden to keep up the good work, kid, and the reporter known to ruffle a lot of feathers became Madden’s childhood idol. Madden knew that he wanted to be a baseball reporter, and he took the academic steps needed to foster that dream. After graduating with a degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina in 1970, Madden went to work as a cub reporter for the United Press International (UPI). He was on his way to carving out a career as a baseball reporter centered in New York.
Along with a cast of characters encompassing a who’s who of Major League Baseball, Madden has enjoyed an illustrious career as a reporter as well as writing six books. As the lead reporter covering the Yankees for the New York Daily News, Madden had an entree into the most revered and hated franchise in sports. A mentor told him that the Yankees control the news, and he was most likely correct. Madden wrote at a time when George Steinbrenner was at the height of his powers and constantly feuded with manager Billy Martin, hiring and firing him four times. Regardless of which party was truthful, the two adversaries made for excellent copy. Many of Steinbrenner’s policies left sports writers scratching their heads, including the worst of them all, his ongoing venom toward all star Dave Winfield, which eventually lead to Steinbrenner’s year long suspension from baseball. Because of Steinbrenner’s questionable running of the Yankees, the team remained out of the post season for fifteen years, culminating in the Core Four Years, which are not detailed here, but in Madden’s full length book on Steinbrenner. Each chapter is more of a laundry list than a detailed exploration of Madden’s career, forcing me to think that perhaps this is a culmination of his career; however, the reading is still entertaining.
I learned that Madden was instrumental in the exploding baseball card industry in the late 1980s. For decades Topps cards maintained a monopoly in the world of baseball cards. When judges ruled against Topps, other companies popped up including Fleer and Donruss, of which Madden was an early partner, getting the new company off the ground. Granted, none of these companies could compete with Topps, but in the materialism culture of the 1980s, there was space on the market for all of these new companies to make their mark. Another anecdote Madden related was his role as a reporter during the steroids era. I am a proponent of the “you use, you lose” school of thought in that steroid users should be kept out of the hall of fame. Madden accedes with this opinion and in all his years as a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA), he has never voted for any of the most notorious of purported drug users. Madden noted that drugs had invaded baseball decades earlier but the commissioner’s office chose to turn a blind eye until the 1998 home run chase. This was supposed to be a memoir about Madden’s time in baseball, but he used the final chapter as a platform to cite his stance against drug users. Whether one agrees or not, this final chapter takes away from Madden’s humorous tone in relating his life as a baseball reporter.
In 2010, Madden received the J P Spink award from his peers at the BBWAA and got elected in baseball’s hall of fame as a writer. He is now part of an illustrious club and hobnobs with hall of famers each year on induction weekend. His favorite part of his time in Cooperstown is recreating the pine tar incident with George Brett, which generates many laughs. Madden’s account of his life has been light hearted and reminded me why I love the game as much as I do. Through his position as a reporter for a New York newspaper, he has been able to foster friendships with many of the characters from all facets of the game. He maintained a friendship with Tom Seaver and kicked back with Steinbrenner and his cronies at Elaine’s bar. One could say that Madden was in the right place at the right time, meeting larger than life personas like Dick Young and Frank McGuire to help jumpstart his fifty plus year career. Madden made the most of this career, and other on his chapter on steroid users, it has been fun to read about. With that first post holiday baseball book and review out of the way, I can go on to another summer reading and watching the game that I love.
3.75 stars
April 6, 2025
Great read!
A smooth, easy, pleasurable read from a deservingly-HOF writer. Bill's stories flow with a blend of insightfulness without any sense of the 4th Estate's self-righteousness! Another great effort by Mr. Madden!
A smooth, easy, pleasurable read from a deservingly-HOF writer. Bill's stories flow with a blend of insightfulness without any sense of the 4th Estate's self-righteousness! Another great effort by Mr. Madden!
May 4, 2025
On the one hand, I’m one of those book nerds who loves seeing how the sausage is made when it comes to writers’ memoirs: when they first became interested in pursuing their career, how they got their start, etc. On the other, I can be a bit leery when it comes to too much name dropping and self-aggrandizement.
Bill Madden, a veteran sportswriter for the New York Daily News, allayed those latter concerns as he reflects on several marvelous and eventful decades reporting on the Yankees, as well as other major occurrences in baseball, such as the steroid era and changes in commissioners.
Following the team under the stewardship of George Steinbrenner could be a book in itself. In fact, it was: Madden wrote STEINBRENNER: The Last Lion of Baseball, among several other entertaining and enlightening volumes about the national pastime, such as TOM SEAVER: A Terrific Life; ZIM: A Baseball Life (with Don Zimmer); and 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever.
The Bronx Bombers was a dream and a curse for writers. There was always something going on, whether it be their ups and downs or Steinbrenner’s battles with his managers and players. And what a cast of characters. Alex Rodriguez, Dave Winfield, Billy Martin, Lou Piniella and company all made for intriguing stories and many of the scandals mentioned in the title, which included two sets of drug problems: cocaine usage in the 1980s and steroids in the 1990s.
But there were other issues that might be considered a matter of opinion. As a fellow old-timer, I could relate to Madden’s rant against the obsession with the new statistics, such as “exit velocity” and, especially, WAR (Wins Above Replacement), to determine the value of a player. We have been following the game since we were kids and have become accustomed to certain expectations and traditions. Pitchers like Seaver who routinely tossed more than 250 innings a year have gone the way of the dinosaur, as modern-day hurlers go as hard as they can for as long as they can (even if that means going just five innings), knowing that the relievers who follow will do the same.
“At the same time,” Madden writes, “I understand analytics is now the way of life in baseball, just like artificial intelligence is the way of life in the world, and there’s no turning back from it.” And as someone who has covered baseball for more than 50 years, “I remain confident it will…somehow manage to survive the invasion of statistics.”
I often ponder which generation of writers has witnessed the most changes in the game. For my money, it was the late 1940s to mid-1960s, which included Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier and western expansion. But Madden also lived the curse --- “May you live in interesting times” --- coming along in the early 1970s and witnessing the dawn of the free agency era and the labor strife that new business models entailed.
It would have been easy to produce a book full of dishing on players, executives and fellow journalists. Goodness knows there are plenty of those that seek to attract a readership based on shock value. For the most part, Madden opts for the high road. It is especially pleasing to see someone of his stature take time and space for those who helped him achieve his success. Among them is his mentor, Milt Richman, who guided him through his early years with United Press International, a rival of the Associated Press.
Madden received the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Award for Career Excellence (formerly known as the JG Spink Award) in 2010. But that barely gets a mention here, a further indication of what a mensch he is.
Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
Bill Madden, a veteran sportswriter for the New York Daily News, allayed those latter concerns as he reflects on several marvelous and eventful decades reporting on the Yankees, as well as other major occurrences in baseball, such as the steroid era and changes in commissioners.
Following the team under the stewardship of George Steinbrenner could be a book in itself. In fact, it was: Madden wrote STEINBRENNER: The Last Lion of Baseball, among several other entertaining and enlightening volumes about the national pastime, such as TOM SEAVER: A Terrific Life; ZIM: A Baseball Life (with Don Zimmer); and 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever.
The Bronx Bombers was a dream and a curse for writers. There was always something going on, whether it be their ups and downs or Steinbrenner’s battles with his managers and players. And what a cast of characters. Alex Rodriguez, Dave Winfield, Billy Martin, Lou Piniella and company all made for intriguing stories and many of the scandals mentioned in the title, which included two sets of drug problems: cocaine usage in the 1980s and steroids in the 1990s.
But there were other issues that might be considered a matter of opinion. As a fellow old-timer, I could relate to Madden’s rant against the obsession with the new statistics, such as “exit velocity” and, especially, WAR (Wins Above Replacement), to determine the value of a player. We have been following the game since we were kids and have become accustomed to certain expectations and traditions. Pitchers like Seaver who routinely tossed more than 250 innings a year have gone the way of the dinosaur, as modern-day hurlers go as hard as they can for as long as they can (even if that means going just five innings), knowing that the relievers who follow will do the same.
“At the same time,” Madden writes, “I understand analytics is now the way of life in baseball, just like artificial intelligence is the way of life in the world, and there’s no turning back from it.” And as someone who has covered baseball for more than 50 years, “I remain confident it will…somehow manage to survive the invasion of statistics.”
I often ponder which generation of writers has witnessed the most changes in the game. For my money, it was the late 1940s to mid-1960s, which included Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier and western expansion. But Madden also lived the curse --- “May you live in interesting times” --- coming along in the early 1970s and witnessing the dawn of the free agency era and the labor strife that new business models entailed.
It would have been easy to produce a book full of dishing on players, executives and fellow journalists. Goodness knows there are plenty of those that seek to attract a readership based on shock value. For the most part, Madden opts for the high road. It is especially pleasing to see someone of his stature take time and space for those who helped him achieve his success. Among them is his mentor, Milt Richman, who guided him through his early years with United Press International, a rival of the Associated Press.
Madden received the Baseball Writers’ Association of America Award for Career Excellence (formerly known as the JG Spink Award) in 2010. But that barely gets a mention here, a further indication of what a mensch he is.
Reviewed by Ron Kaplan
May 13, 2025
Madden's memoir is an excellent baseball read. He covers it all from Steinbrenner, to his early beginnings in the business and as a beat writing, and touches on the impact of analytics on the modern game. Expertly entertaining and enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews