The Yankee Years - Book Review

Doubleday couldn't have timed the release of The Yankee Years any better. With parts of the Verducci/Torre "collaboration" dedicated to baseball's PED issue, and, separately, A-Rod's foibles, it serves as a nice backdrop to one of the bigger off-season stories.

Make no mistake, this book is by Tom Verducci. Not in a ghost written sense, it is plainly his work. Joe Torre is front-and-center and provided a tremendous amount of candid insight. The narrative, however, is exclusively the domain of Verducci.

That is not a problem. It's a smooth and fun read, with David Cone sharing his time with the Yankees in a manner as candid as Torre's.

The declining health of The Boss, the strange and strained relationship between Torre and his GM, Brian Cashman, aren't breaking stories, but the inside look is fascinating. It covers Torre's time with the Yankees from being hired to the uncomfortable break-up, and it's quite an arc to follow. Win, or else.

My real interest, though, came from the timeliness of the A-Rod and steroid threads. They do not intersect, as this was written before Verducci's SI colleagues got the tip. Even if you've had enough of the PED story, reading about squashed efforts by players to address the problem is worthwhile. And if you've had enough A-Rod, well, skip those parts.