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The 1998 Yankees: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever by Jack Curry, Jack Curry
rpych2's review against another edition
5.0
In my completely biased opinion, the 1998 Yankees are the greatest baseball team of all time, with the 1927 Yankees a close second. But that 98 team has some nostalgia for me, despite being just 4 years old at the time of the World Series. One of my first memories is watching El Duque save the season in game 4 of the ALCS, which probably has some sort of impact on how much I love the Yankees to this day. Plus the fact that Derek Jeter was on that team and he’s my favorite athlete of all time.
But it was so much fun to read about everything that happened during that season, and Jack Curry is the best to write about it. He’s such a fantastic and professional reporter and it shows in his writing. The best story is obviously David Wells pitching a perfect game while still drunk from the night before, but others like Orlando Hernandez’s defection from Cuba and Scott Brosius’ career year were others that were fantastic as well.
I loved the discourse around which team is the greatest in history at the end of the book as well, and I think Curry rightfully crowns the 98 Yankees because of how truly deep this team was. Bench players, spot starters, and middle relievers alike were making impacts across the year, and there aren’t many teams that go 25 deep for an entire year. Sure, the 27 Murderer’s Row Yanks, 1976 Big Red Machine, and 1929 A’s all deserve love, but I think the stories in this book show that the 1998 New York Yankees are the top of the heap.
But it was so much fun to read about everything that happened during that season, and Jack Curry is the best to write about it. He’s such a fantastic and professional reporter and it shows in his writing. The best story is obviously David Wells pitching a perfect game while still drunk from the night before, but others like Orlando Hernandez’s defection from Cuba and Scott Brosius’ career year were others that were fantastic as well.
I loved the discourse around which team is the greatest in history at the end of the book as well, and I think Curry rightfully crowns the 98 Yankees because of how truly deep this team was. Bench players, spot starters, and middle relievers alike were making impacts across the year, and there aren’t many teams that go 25 deep for an entire year. Sure, the 27 Murderer’s Row Yanks, 1976 Big Red Machine, and 1929 A’s all deserve love, but I think the stories in this book show that the 1998 New York Yankees are the top of the heap.
nicki_theoverflowingbookcase's review
5.0
Anyone who loves baseball will not argue to anyone saying the 1998 Yankees were the best team in baseball. Between their talented roster and their unwillingness to give up, this team actually played like a TEAM. No one show boated, no one had their own agenda - they just played ball. Filled with greats like Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, David Wells, Andy Petite, Paul O'Neill, Shane Spencer, Ricky Ledee, Chuck Knoblauch, Scott Brosius, Tino Martinez, and David Cone this team seemed to be unbeatable. While Jack Curry takes the reader on an inside view directly from the players mouths, they are also taken backstage and shown how the team rallied against sick players, players in a slump, bad plays, bad calls and out of this world personalities. Anyone who loves baseball needs to read this book.
tanner_reads_books's review
adventurous
informative
inspiring
relaxing
medium-paced
4.25
Jack Curry did an awesome job with this book! He revisits one of the greatest baseball teams of all time, the 98 Yankees, 25 years later, as told by player and coach interviews. Derek Jeter, David Cone, Brian Cashman, and Joe Torre are just a few of the many storytellers you will find in the book.
This book used a perfect combination of player and coach stories, along with Jack’s first hand account as a reporter who followed the team that year. I really enjoyed the perspective of so many of the players, that often gets lost in a book like this. He did a nice job of giving a small background introduction of each of the players, while sticking to the important parts of why we’re here, baseball.
This book was fast paced, well written read, that transitioned throughout the season well. This book was provided to me by Twelve Books and NetGalley in exchange for my honest and fair option. I would definitely recommend this book, if you even have the slightest interest in baseball, especially if you were around to witness the greatness that was the late 90’s New York Yankees.
bclark8781's review
3.0
Pretty standard. Seems like it was written in kind of a hurry, in order to take advantage of the 25th anniversary of this team. The last section is pretty interesting, with a bunch of looks at how the '98 Yankees compare to other heralded teams of the past (like the '27 Yankees, '75-'76 Reds, etc).
marissax22's review against another edition
5.0
This book is completely out of my wheelhouse. But I saw it come through on a book list and it made me pause. My father in law was a Yankees fan and he passed about in December. I knew this book definitely would make it into his massive collection of baseball books in his personal library. Since he couldn’t read it, I thought I would in his memory. However, I got a lot more out of it than I expected to. I truly enjoyed the book and learned a lot! This coming from someone who doesn’t know much about baseball at all. I enjoyed the stories about the players and I started pulling up the plays the author wrote about to watch them on YouTube while I read which really made everything clearer in my head. I found the book to be well written and an enjoyable read. Clearly my father in law knew what an amazing team he was supporting with his love of the Yankees.