The Men of Autumn; An Oral History of the 1949-53 World Champion New York Yankees

Dallas, TX: Taylor Publishing Company, 1989. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xvii, [1], 228 pages. Foreword by Mel Allen. Illustrations. Appendix. Index. DJ has slight wear and soiling. Dom Forker was a noted baseball author of more than two dozen books. Recalls the record-breaking New York Yankees, the only team in baseball history to win five consecutive World Series, offering the remembrances of the greatest Bronx Bombers. Includes commentary on Allie Reynolds, Vic Raschi, Eddie Lopat, Bobby Brown, Phil Rizzuto, Frank Shea, Hank Bauer, Billy Johnson, Johnny Sain, Joe Ostrowski, Bob Kuzava, Yogi Berra, Cliff Mapes, Johnny Mize, Irv Noren, Billy Martin, Charlie Silvera, Gil McDougald, Joe Collins, Gene Woodling, Tommy Byrne, Tom Ferrick and Gerry Coleman. In the tradition of Roger Kahn, who waxed eloquent about the loveable "Bums" of Ebbets Field, baseball writers (like all baseball fans) maintain an endless, unshakeable love affair with their teams. Veteran sports historian Dom Forker sets himself a difficult task of arresting our attention with accounts of baseball's most victorious (and consequently its least-loved) teams. Forker's book chronicles the events surrounding the 19491953 New York Yankees. The format is interviews with twenty-three alumni of that Yankee juggernaut which remains the only team in the century-long history of the sport to capture five consecutive World Series. These Yankees were, after all, supreme winners who always emerged victorious in the money-seasons of late September and early October. For these Yankees, it was always this year's celebrations and never next year's vain hopes. Forker's lively interview transcriptions do much to capture the winning attitude and supreme confidence of players like Rizzuto, Bauer, Woodling, Mize, Irv Noren, Joe Collins, and Billy Martin who formed the heart of Casey Stengel's unstoppable teams of the Mantle-Berra-Ford era. Attention here is focused narrowly on the baseball events of the 1950s rather than on lifelong struggles. Forker's personal involvement with the Yankees is appropriately muted and skillfully concealed. Baseball is the sole focus here, and memories of those marvelous Yankee teams during baseball's greatest decade come to life in the reminiscences of some of the least remembered Yankees of the era: Ed Lopat, Charlie Silvera, Tommy Byrne, Gil McDougald. For those who grew up with baseball in the 1950s-hating the Yankees with vitriol or loving them with boundless passion-Forker's work is a baseball fantasy matched by few other baseball books. The two greatest players on this team - DiMaggio and Mantle-fail to appear and were apparently unwilling to participate. Forker and his collaborators do transport us once again back to the diamond-summer afternoons in the Yankee Stadium of our childhood--and what more could we ask of this or any baseball book? -- From Independent Publisher.