Pinstripes By The Tale

Baseball fans in the Bronx and beyond will delight in this incomparable, far-reaching collection of insider tales When 19-year-old Marty Appel got a job as a mail clerk for the New York Yankees, assigned to spend the summer of '68 answering Mickey Mantle's fan letters, he couldn't have known it was just the start of over a half-century entwined with the Bronx Bombers. As a PR director, television producer, writer, and historian, Appel never missed an opportunity to get to know the main characters— and supporting cast— of Yankees lore. The result is an unparalleled trove of colorful stories featuring a seemingly unending parade of characters including Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson, Derek Jeter, George Steinbrenner, and everyone in between. By turns hilarious and heartrending, Pinstripes by the Tale is an intimate look at an iconic franchise through the lens of its foremost historical authority. Told as a series of captivating vignettes, it invites readers to consider the small moments that quietly shape the contours of baseball history.

The craft of pinstriping dates back centuries, when carriages of royalty were painted with fine lines of exquisite detail and design. Twelve-year-old Derek Moody lives at The Greasy Spoon, a struggling roadside mart and garage. Over three days he learns that the man he calls "Dad" is not his father, and he meets Kelly Williams, the cute niece of a big customer. When the two are later caught behaving as curious adolescents, the Moodys lose the Williams business and Derek loses his new best friend. Anxious to make amends, Derek begins pinstriping customers' cars with seasoned expertise, skill he attributes to Kelly and their last encounter. He leaves home at 18, well on his way to fortune and fame. At a hot rod show he meets Cecil Caldwell, a Matchbox car vendor, and his personal life appears equally successful. Until a freak injury threatens his career at age 26. For anyone who ever grinned at a nicely-painted car, and everybody who never completely forget their first love, and anyone who ever knew the joy of a dog or the bliss of a dysfunctional family, Pinstripes is about trust and duplicity, faith and despair, cherry Chapstick and cherry-flavored pancake syrup. And the fine lines that separate all of them. After writing copy for the San Francisco offices of three international advertising agencies, John Frazier began freelancing in 1987. He has written for clients from almost all industries, including high technology, financial, automotive, publishing, food and consumer goods, and for virtually every medium. Clients have included Apple, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Levi Strauss.After writing copy for the San Francisco offices of three international advertising agencies, John Frazier began freelancing in 1987. He has written for clients from almost all industries, including high technology, financial, automotive, publishing, food and consumer goods, and for virtually every medium. Clients have included Apple, IBM, AT&T, Hewlett-Packard, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, and Levi Strauss. For an even longer period of time, John has been fascinated by cars shiny and fast. He had his first Hot Wheels track as a young grade schooler, and attended the famed Oakland Roadster Show as a young teenager, providing his first serious look at mag wheels, chrome head covers and pinstriping, the fine lines of paint adorning the hottest of rods with flames and flourishes. Although his first car, a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner, did not sport pinstripes, it did go fast. Among his favorite movies of the era were Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry, two tributes to muscle cars and man's insatiable need for speed. In his spare time John listens to too much Sinatra.

“The definitive story” (Tyler Kepner, The New York Times baseball columnist) of Yankees slugger Aaron Judge’s incredible, unparalleled run to break Roger Maris’s home run record and the franchise both men called home. Aaron Judge, the hulking superman who carried an easy aw-shucks demeanor from small-town California to stardom in the Big Apple, had long established his place as one of baseball’s most intimidating power hitters. Baseballs frequently rocketed off his bat like cannon fire, dispatching heat-seeking missiles toward the “Judge’s Chambers” seating area in right field, sending delirious fans scattering for souvenirs. But even in a high-tech universe where computers measure each swing to the nth degree, Roger Maris’s American League mark of sixty-one home runs seemed largely out of reach. It had been more than a decade since baseball wiped clean the stains of its performance-enhanced era, in which cartoonish sluggers Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds made a mockery of the record book. Given a more level playing field against pitchers sporting hellacious arsenals unlike anything Babe Ruth or Maris could have imagined, only an exceptional talent could even consider making a run at sixty-one homers. Judge, who placed the bet of his life by turning down a $213.5 million extension on the eve of the regular season, promised to rise to the challenge. “In the most thorough telling yet of an all-time-great Yankees performance” (Jeff Passan, New York Times bestselling author), veteran Yankees beat reporter Bryan Hoch unravels the remarkable journey of Judge’s run to shatter Maris’s beloved sixty-one-year-old record. In-depth, inspiring, and with an expert’s insight, 62 also investigates the more significant questions raised in a season unlike any other, including how—and where—Judge will deliver his encore.

Rich Marazzi has experienced Yankee history and its culture first-hand as a fan, a writer for Yankees Magazine, a radio talk show host, umpire in the Old Timer's Day game for 16 years, a writer for Mel Allen, the long-time voice of the Yankees, and currently as a baseball rules consultant who was hired by general manager Brian Cashman in 2004. He was also trained by Bob Sheppard as a back-up to the legendary Yankee Stadium public address announcer. In this book Marazzi takes the reader inside Yankee baseball by covering life in the press box, the dugout, the clubhouse, the umpire's room and more. He compiles untold Yankee stories culled from interviews of many of the Yankee greats over the last seven decades including Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter and more.

More than a star pitcher and accomplished coach, Mel Stottlemyre has a history that serves as a behind-the-scenes tour of five decades of baseball. From Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford to Dwight Gooden and Darryl Strawberry to Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, Stottlemyre connected generations of stars during a remarkable career. In his long-awaited autobiography, Stottlemyre tells his story in colorful detail, from his days as a rookie sensation on the last of the great Mantle teams to those as trusted pitching coach during the Joe Torre administration. Along the way he takes readers inside the clubhouses of champions—describing the defiance of the '86 Mets, from manager Davey Johnson on down, and recalling the true grit and selflessness that helped make Torre's Yankees a dynasty from 1996 to 2000.

"Get the complete story of the Yankees, from Babe Ruth to Derek Jeter--with twenty-seven World Championships in between--in this middle grade adaptation of "Pinstripe Empire," a celebrated adult nonfiction tome from author and former Yankees PR director ..."--

The definitive history of the world's greatest baseball team—with an all new afterword by the author.

Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris are forever intertwined in baseball history thanks to the unforgettable 1961 season, when the two Yankee icons spurred each other to new heights in pursuit of Babe Ruth's home run record. History has largely overlooked the bond between the two men not as titans of their sport, but as people. Guided by Tony Castro, bestselling author and foremost chronicler of Mantle, readers will journey into history, from the Yankees' blockbuster trade for Maris, whose acquisition re-ignited Mantle's career after a horrendous 1959 season, to the heroics of 1961 and far beyond. This dual biography is a thoroughly researched, emotionally gripping portrait that brings Yankees lore alive.