All Roads Lead to October
Boss Steinbrenner's 25-Year Reign over the New York Yankees
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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Publisher Description
All Roads Lead to October presents an up close and personal look at the New York Yankees under legendary owner George Steinbrenner.
George Herman Ruth was the Babe.
Lou Gehrig was the Iron Horse.
Joe DiMaggio was the Yankee Clipper.
George Steinbrenner is the Boss.
On a rainy January morning, 1973, a press conference is called that will change the face of the Yankees forever. A young Cleveland Industrialist by the name of Steinbrenner stands at New York's famed 21 Club and announces his new ownership of the Yankees. And so begins the Steinbrenner era, the era of the Boss.
Now with five World Championships to his name, Steinbrenner is not only the owner of one of the past century's winningest baseball teams, but a legendary figure in his own right. Both eccentric and egocentric, Steinbrenner's unique approach to the game turned a not-so-good 1973 Yankees squad into World Champions just five years later.
As integral to the history of the Yankees as DiMaggio or Ruth, All Road Lead to October examines the team under Steinbrenner's reign. Having covered the Yankees since Steinbrenner came aboard, acclaimed sports journalist and noted author Maury Allen examines the complex and often fiery relationships the owner had with the likes of Billy Martin, Reggie Jackson, Yogi Berra, Joe Torre, Darryl Strawberry and many others.
Here are the first hand, insider's accounts of the pivotal events in the Yankees rise to power. Covering both off the field and on the field controversies like Yankees pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich's wife swapping, the angry tirades, fights and often brilliant coaching moves of the misunderstood Billy Martin, the inside story of the signing of Reggie Jackson whose ego was as big as his bat, and the Yankees rise to baseball dominance with the likes of Jeter, Williams, El Duque, Clemens, Rivera and Torre, Maury Allen give an exclusive look at all the action. Allen was there through it all, from Steinbrenner's first press conference, through the death of Catfish Hunter, the World Series wins, the controversial trades and firings, and even when a drunk Billy Martin banged on his hotel room door one night madder than hell.
This is the definitive look at not only the Boss, the but the New York Yankees, the most celebrated team of the twentieth century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Allen's uneven account of the fortunes of the Yankees since George Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973 can be divided into two parts--the early years when Allen covered the team on a daily basis for the New York Post, and the later years after he had left the beat. During his days as a beat reporter, Allen had an insider's view of how the team rose from also-rans to world champions, and he provides a detailed, anecdote-filled look at those teams featuring such colorful characters as Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Lou Piniella and Billy Martin. Despite winning back-to-back World Series in 1977 and '78, the Yankees were a dysfunctional group: Allen vividly captures the battles between Jackson and Munson, Martin and Jackson, and Steinbrenner and most of the team. Allen is particularly sharp in tracing the complex relationship between Steinbrenner and Martin, the Yankee manager who Steinbrenner hired and fired five times. He's much less successful in recounting the Yankees' return to glory in the second half of the 1990s. The World Series the team won in 1996, 1998 and 1999 are covered in a perfunctory fashion, as Allen no longer had the access to the team he had 20 years earlier. Also disappointing is Allen's decision to take some cheap shots at several players, including the late Munson, whom Allen describes as a sour man; he even brags that he will never vote for Munson to enter the Hall of Fame. Allen does say, however, that Steinbrenner, having overseen five World Series teams, does warrant consideration in Cooperstown, a position that will have Yankee fans arguing for years.
