A Franchise on the Rise: The First Twenty Years of the New York Yankees

by Dom Amore, John Sterling (Foreword by)

Overview

2018 marks 115 years since the inception of the New York Yankees—and what a 115-year period it's been! But how did the team that has since won a league-leading 27 world championships get started? In A Franchise on the Rise, veteran sportswriter Dom Amore takes readers back in time to the first twenty years of the team's existence, from 1903 to 1923, focusing on all the major players and events, including their first ten years as the Highlanders, their move to Yankee Stadium, and their subsequent first World Series in 1923. In doing so, Amore successfully finds the characters' own voices and thereby vividly reconstructs events of more than a century ago. He recounts the snowy night Honus Wagner was offered twenty crisp $1,000 bills to join the new franchise in New York; the story behind the holes punched in the outfield fence that facilitated the stealing of signs in 1909; and why the team thought it may have had the next big superstar in a college football end named George Halas. This is a tale about the business of baseball as it was done at the time and, in many ways, as it still must be done. There was no secret to building a winning organization. It took money and luck, but it also took a group of people working as a team, each allowed to do his job and each doing it superbly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781613219478
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	07/03/2018
Pages:	328
Sales rank:	649,198
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Dom Amore, a twenty-year member of the Baseball Writers Association of America, has been writing about sports for Connecticut newspapers since 1982, for the Hartford Courant since 1988, covering the Yankees, MLB, and baseball at all levels for much of that time. He has been named the state’s Sportswriter of the Year four times by the National Sports Media Association and has won more than thirty state, local, and national journalism awards. Dom is single, and lives in Branford, Connecticut.

John Sterling has been the radio voice of the New York Yankees since 1989.

Table of Contents

Foreword John Sterling vii

Introduction: The Joy Club xi

1 The Tenderloin: Uneasy Birth of a Franchise 1

2 Year One: Born to Organize 14

3 Willie Keeler: Catalyst and Capitalist 27

4 The Title That Slipped Away 39

5 The Prince's Last Stand 57

6 Fighting Mad 73

7 Spygate, 1909 87

8 For the Heart of New York 102

9 Strange Days, Indeed 117

10 The Last Chance 136

11 Colonel Ruppert In Command 154

12 Wild Bill and Home Run Baker 169

13 The Midget Manager 186

14 Characters 203

15 And Along Came … 223

16 The Missing Piece 238

17 The First Flags: Winning the Hard Way 251

18 The House That Was Built in a Hurry 269

19 Top of the World 283

Epilogue: The Enduring Brand 299

Bibliography 303

Editorial Reviews

In A Franchise on the Rise, baseball historian Dom Amore has proven equal to the challenge of turning the least known, least successful era of the New York Yankees into a compelling and fascinating read. Painstakingly researched, Yankee fans and baseball historians alike will applaud Amore's detailed, well-crafted treatment of the long-ignored pre-Babe Ruth Yankees.” - Bill Madden, 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner

“Few people know and appreciate the complete history of the Yankees like Dom Amore. That’s what makes him the perfect person to bring to life what is essentially the superhero origin story of baseball’s most celebrated franchise. This is like learning about Krypton rather than Superman. We all know about Ruth & Gehrig, Mantle & Maris, Billy & George, Jeter & Mariano. Now we get the stories we don’t know by heart. You can’t call yourself a true Yankees fan until you know the whole story, the one Dom Amore tells in vivid detail.” - Sweeny Murti, WFAN

“For those who believe Yankees history began the day Babe Ruth reported for work in the spring of 1920, Dom Amore has written an essential primer on their long, occasionally difficult, and always colorful journey from the dregs of the American League to the throne of American sports. No other writer could have told this story as it needed to be told, and whether you are a fan of the Yankees or just of splendid storytelling this is a welcome addition to your bookshelf.” -Mike Vaccaro, Sports columnist, New York Post; Author, 1941: The Greatest Year in Sports

"What the early Yankees lacked in pennants they made up for with great turn-of-the-century characters. What a rogues gallery were they. Dom Amore mines this era beautifully." - Marty Appel, author of Pinstripe Empire, Casey Stengel, and Munson

"The Yankees are the most successful organization in baseball history. Dom Amore does a wonderful job of taking us back to the beginning of that journey. A thorough and entertaining read for fans of baseball history." - Jack Curry, YES Network analyst

“In A Franchise on the Rise, baseball historian Dom Amore has proven equal to the challenge of turning the least known, least successful era of the New York Yankees into a compelling and fascinating read. Painstakingly researched, Yankee fans and baseball historians alike will applaud Amore's detailed, well-crafted treatment of the long-ignored pre-Babe Ruth Yankees.” - Bill Madden, 2010 Baseball Hall of Fame J.G. Taylor Spink Award winner

“Few people know and appreciate the complete history of the Yankees like Dom Amore. That’s what makes him the perfect person to bring to life what is essentially the superhero origin story of baseball’s most celebrated franchise. This is like learning about Krypton rather than Superman. We all know about Ruth & Gehrig, Mantle & Maris, Billy & George, Jeter & Mariano. Now we get the stories we don’t know by heart. You can’t call yourself a true Yankees fan until you know the whole story, the one Dom Amore tells in vivid detail.” - Sweeny Murti, WFAN

“For those who believe Yankees history began the day Babe Ruth reported for work in the spring of 1920, Dom Amore has written an essential primer on their long, occasionally difficult, and always colorful journey from the dregs of the American League to the throne of American sports. No other writer could have told this story as it needed to be told, and whether you are a fan of the Yankees or just of splendid storytelling this is a welcome addition to your bookshelf.” -Mike Vaccaro, Sports columnist, New York Post; Author, 1941: The Greatest Year in Sports

"What the early Yankees lacked in pennants they made up for with great turn-of-the-century characters. What a rogues gallery were they. Dom Amore mines this era beautifully." - Marty Appel, author of Pinstripe Empire, Casey Stengel, and Munson

"The Yankees are the most successful organization in baseball history. Dom Amore does a wonderful job of taking us back to the beginning of that journey. A thorough and entertaining read for fans of baseball history." - Jack Curry, YES Network analyst

From the Publisher