Pride of October

By Justin Mai

Of the Frontpage Milwaukee staff

July 20, 2009

Pride of October: What It Was To Be Young and a Yankee. Bill Madden. New York. Warner Books, Inc. 2003. 453 pages. $26.99.

In his 2003 book the longtime New York Daily News sports columnist, Bill Madden, describes the highs and lows of playing for arguably the most successful sports franchise in history, The New York Yankees. Madden goes into great detail through interviews with current and former players about the life of a Yankee in New York City. Everything from fights between famous teammates in the team hotel to the joys of winning so many World Championships, Madden seems to hit every point about what it was like to be Young and a Yankee.

Bill Madden, who covered the Yankees for nine years, sat down with 18 current or former Yankee greats in his book Pride of October: What It Was To Be Young and a Yankee. Madden molds this history of the Yankees in part story-telling and part drama. Madden knew went to great lengths to bring together the stories of so many Yankee greats.

Madden always just simply asked the question to each of his subjects on what it was like to be a Yankee. He portrayed each subject and that simply question with always a high level of grace and wit. Madden stated goal of the book was just to capture as much of the team’s past as possible.

It always seemed to be amazing how Madden seemed to make each story from all of his subjects flow together very smoothly and easily. No person seemed to be out of place in terms of placement in the book and no story from each person was out of order. The whole book, even though it was a combination of multiple interviews with his 18 subjects, seemed to be that of a major league’s team batting order: each story built off of each other and each new subject almost added to the previous subject’s story.

As mentioned before, Madden’s goal of the book was to provide a complete history of the Yankees from the view of the players. Madden, who has also written other books about the Yankees, interviewed players from the far past including Phil Rizzuto and Yogi Berra to players of the recent generation including Don Mattingly and Paul O’Neill. In all Madden chronicles the story of 18 Yankee greats and even interviewed the wife of the deceased great Yankee catcher, Elston Howard.

Madden masterfully wrote about each player with a sort of affection and class. He always knew each player’s place in Yankee history and always made sure to communicate that to the reader. Madden also skillfully characterized all of the emotions that went into to be a Major League Baseball player as well. He made sure to make the reader feel the highest of highs through the eyes of Yogi Berra when winning his ten world championships to the lowest of lows when Berra was fired years later by the unpredictable owner George Steinbrenner.

Madden, as I stated before, covered the Yankees for nine years for The New York Daily News in the 1980s. He also co-wrote the book Zim – A Baseball Life with the famous player and years later manager Don Zimmer. Madden also wrote about fiery and crazy New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in his 1991 book entitled Damned Yankees: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Life With "Boss" Steinbrenner. Madden is also a member the distinguished Baseball Writers Association of America which includes voting for players to be potentially admitted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

These credentials show that Madden is not a fluke when it comes to baseball writing. Madden knew how to portray the Yankees to outsiders of the New York area as he grew up in New Jersey and just a short car ride away from Yankee Stadium.

Madden used a style that was easy to understand of the storied history of the Yankees to even novice baseball fans. Madden  used a conservationist tone to his writing which worked well considering that most of the book was drawn up from interviews that he conducted with each of his subjects. Madden went even to describe most interview locations and all the issues that he had to deal with as he tried to set up these informal chats with all of his subjects.

It is easy to notice throughout the book that Madden is an avid Yankee fans. Although it seemed to add to the overall affection of each player and prestige of the book, at times I believed that it may have clouded the writing for Madden. He always portrayed each Yankees player with a high level of respect and admiration but when describing when certain players left the Yankees to go play for another team. It never seemed to matter what they did in other uniforms, as if their importance in the overall Yankee history diminished because they left New York. 

None the less, the goal of the book was to provide a history of some current and former Yankees. Madden showed his excellence and expertise of covering the Yankees for so many years and showed the reader the importance of the New York Yankees to the baseball world. Madden knows that the Yankees are the most widely known team in baseball history and this book shows us why they are that way.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. As a huge Yankees fan and an even bigger fan of the game of baseball, I caught myself throughout the book feeling as if I were right alongside of these players during the stories of the great run of World Championships in the 1950s or when the team lost the World Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2001. I felt as if I were actually right there watching inside the team clubhouse and feeling the way they felt.

Madden elegantly displayed the emotion of each player in every story throughout this book and always knew the importance of each player to the Yankee History. This book would be recommended to all baseball fans across the country and across the globe. Even the biggest Yankee hater would enjoy the thoughtful and emotional appeal to the book. These people may even admit to feeling the joys of the successes of the Yankees throughout even though they may be the most serious of Yankee haters. 

Pride of October: What It Was To Be Young and a Yankee shows us all what it is indeed to that of the title: Young and a Yankee. Bill Madden interviewed 18 current and former Yankee players to bring a story of high emotion and prestige. Madden knew what he wanted to do throughout the book and never failed once to bring out the great history of the Yankees.