Core Four: The Heart and Soul of the Yankees Dynasty

by Phil Pepe, David Cone (Foreword)

Tracing the careers of four instrumental players who turned around the Yankees ball club, this book shares behind-the-scenes stories from their early days together in the minors through the 2013 season, and follows them on their majestic ride to the top of the baseball world. At a time when the New York Yankees were in free fall, having failed to win a World Series in 17 years and had not played in one in 14 years--the Bronx Bombers' longest drought since before the days of Babe Ruth--along came four young players whose powerful impact returned the franchise to its former glory. They were a diverse group from different parts of the globe: Mariano Rivera, a right-handed pitcher from Panama, who was destined to become the all-time record holder in saves and baseball's greatest closer; Derek Jeter, a shortstop raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan, who would become the first Yankee to accumulate 3,000 hits; Jorge Posada, an infielder-turned-catcher from Puerto Rico, who would hit more home runs than any Yankees catcher except the legendary Hall of Famer Yogi Berra; and Andy Pettitte, a left-handed pitcher born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who would win more postseason games than any player in baseball history. Together they formed the "Core Four," and would go on to play as teammates for 13 seasons during which time they would help the Yankees advance to the postseason 12 times, win the American League pennant seven times, and take home five World Series trophies. This book follows these phenoms from the minor leagues to the present, detailing their significant contributions to a winning major league franchise. This 2014 edition updates readers on Jeter's struggles with injuries and recovery, Rivera's final season, and Pettitte's and Jeter's plans moving forward.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Will Latham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was an excellent summary of depicting one of the greatest baseball dynasty's in history. Each member of the core of the Yankees gets a couple of chapters to themselves and describing their journey from their humble beginnings to eventually winning multiple championships as teammates. The book also mentions how many times the dynasty was close to falling apart and how luck was involved in the grand scheme of there baseball operations. It also goes into depth about each season they were together and the highs and lows of there respective seasons. If you are a Yankees fan like I am then you will have a splendid time reading this book as you'll explore the heart of the New York Yankees dynasty from 1996-2012. Even casual baseball fans could enjoy this book on how a team was built together successfully and prospered through adversity. This is one of my favorite sports books I've ever read and I highly recommend it to all baseball fans.

[Colin Cerniglia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is well put together. I like how it connects each player to the other, and the entire organization for the larger picture of what was to come. A nice lookback to a group of terrific Yankee players!

[Hayden Holcomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

My character,Mariano Rivera, was victorious over his problem which was making it to the major league level. The person that solved the problem was him and the Yankees organization. Mariano was able to solve his problem by working hard and pitching well. The Yankees helped my by seeing how good of
a pitcher he was and calling him up to the major league. My favorite character was Mariano Rivera. He was my favorite because I have always watched the Yankees and have a little background on him, so learning more about him was very interesting. I rated this book the way I did because all though it had more then one character I like all of them and reading about the journey to the Major League level was very interesting and good.

[B · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is especially aggravating. Because I want to say that it's soulless.

But that's it. That's not exactly right. There is some personality here. It's like someone tried to . . . I don't know . . . adapt a Wikipedia article?

It's clear that the author is trying really hard to pad a couple of well-known facts.And his baseball knowledge is out of style . . . A lot of .300 averages! and 16 wins!

If you're interested in this read "Last Night of the Yankees Dynasty." Olney gets a lot of personal stories that allow you to sympathize with these super-successful athletes. I mean, "Shut up, Zero," right?

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Add an extra star if you are a big Yankee fan, of course. Interesting biography of each of the four players who were involved in five world championships between 1996 and 2009. The beginning story of each person is truly fascinating, each with a vastly different upbringing and little expectation of becoming a superstar athlete. When they came together as the leaders of a team, they brought excellence and professionalism to New York for many years. The end of the book is less effective, tying the story up was clearly more difficult.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did anyone proofread this? If not, that explains a lot. If so, they should be fired. Even apart from the typos, misspellings, and punctuation that was absent far too often, the basic subject material is old hat and nothing you couldn't have read by doing a basic internet search. Terrible book.

[Kathleen Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Purely a book of statistics. Took a while to read and not something I'd recommend.