A Legend in the Making: The New York Yankees in 1939

The story of perhaps the greatest team in baseball history, narrated against a background of one of the game's most remarkable seasons-an original work of history based on considerable research. Mr. Tofel presents a good many usually overlooked findings and sets the sport in its social and historical context. The best book about a single baseball team in a single year I have ever read. -Donald Honig

Tofel explains his decision to write about the 1939 Yankees by noting that in that year the team "was not yet the franchise we think of. But they were beginning to get there." It was in 1939 that the Yankees won their fourth straight World Series and eighth overall, firmly cementing their position as the winningest team in baseball history. But 1939 brought more than another championship to the Bronx. It was also the year that Lou Gehrig's consecutive game-playing streak came to an end; by mid-season the star first baseman would be diagnosed with ALS now known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Tofel, assistant to the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, follows the '39 season month by month, charting the hot streaks and slumps of individual players and the team as a whole, while also interweaving new developments regarding Gehrig. Tofel does a splendid job of capturing the different personalities of the '39 Yankees, a team that included such legendary players as a young Joe DiMaggio and catcher Bill Dickey and was coached by Joe McCarthy; all three would be elected to the Hall of Fame. And while Tofel is only partially successful in putting the team in the context of the developments of that eventful year, Yankee fans and baseball historians will undoubtedly enjoy this tale of one year in the building of the Yankee dynasty.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The Yankees will always remain one of the most popular teams. But the author makes the controversial argument that during the 1930s the Yankees were not thought of as the indisputable dynasty that they ultimately became. They had been repeat winners of World Series titles, but so had other great teams. In 1939, the Yankees, led by the young Joe DiMaggio, really etched a place in the history of baseball. This sweet, heavily anecdotal account will circulate well in library communities populated by Yankee fans. On Deck
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This story of the Yankees' 1939 winning season will grab those who are reveling in the team's more recent triumphs. Tofel is an attorney who works for the Wall Street Journal, and although his prose is rarely incandescent, it has the lawyer's eye for the telling point and the fan's joy in every mosaic of detail. In 1939 Ted Williams played his rookie year, and the young DiMaggio made one of the most splendid catches in sports; the first Yankee night game and Yankee baseball on the radio had their beginnings; Lou Gehrig took his gallant dying fall. Tofel chooses to let the season unfold month by month as if we didn't know the outcome, with lovely asides into baseball history (the game's origins, Gehrig's heartrending letter to his wife). The casual racism against Italians and the utter dismissal of black baseball are not ignored, and Tofel grounds the year in events outside of baseball: the Wizard of Oz opens, Freud dies, Germany invades Poland. A fine gift for fans. GraceAnne DeCandido
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