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Steinbrenner - a must read!(Rating: 5) I recommend this book to all Yankee fans, but especially to the older readers who remember when "George" originally purchased the Yankees from CBS in 1973. This book will give you the behind the scenes view of what was going on that didn't make it into the newspapers.
There were two great things about this book, first was the story itself, all 400+ pages of it; and second was the way Bill Madden (author) came across - I could not put the book down!
The Boss(Rating: 5) Another great read from Madden. Love him or hate him, George Steinbrenner changed baseball. Took a 8.5 million investment and turned it into 1.5 billion.
The players in all of baseball owe THE BOSS their gratitude.
Great way to remember an icon(Rating: 5) I only knew George Steinbrenner as the press wrote about him. As a Yankee fan, I read about his temper and his firings. When he died, after hearing about what a giving man he was, I decided that I wanted to know more. This book does not disappoint. It is written by a New York sports writer who was there from the beginning. Madden doesn't sugarcoat Steinbrenner's short fuse and his, sometimes, uncalled for firings. I recommend this to anyone who is curious as to what made Steinbrenner the way he was. I also think that all Yankee fans who were too young to really know how he was should read this book.
Steinbrenner was nuts(Rating: 4) I rarely read books, normally getting bored pretty quickly. But this book kept my attention the entire time, full of stories on how nuts Steinbrenner really was. If you like baseball, you'll enjoy hearing some of the inside stories from historical moments in the game.
Laugh out loud funny(Rating: 4) Many times during reading this book I found myself laughing out loud at the outrageous child-like behavior of Steinbrenner and the people and players who worked for him. Like the time when Steinbrenner cursed out his manager for losing a coin flip, stating that the side of the coin he didn't pick always wins 70% of the time!? In particular the coverage of the Billy Martin era is fantastic and really gives you a feel for how different the Yankees were back then from today's winners. Bill Madden brings out the conflicting nature of Steinbrenner, who was frequently cruel and heartless, but often exceptionally kind in secret. From a business and financial standpoint, however, the empire Steinbrenner built is Buffett-like impressive. He used $164,000 of his own funds to secure the $8.5 million purchase price in the 1970s and now the team and its various media properties are worth over $1 billion. For that reason alone, students of business and leadership should enjoy reading this book.
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