The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty: The Game, the Team, and the Cost of Greatness

From Publishers Weekly
Nothing succeeds like success. But human nature being what it is, some people get a thrill when the successful fail. Is it a matter of rooting for the underdog or bringing the haughty and powerful down a peg? Olney, who covers the Yankees for the New York Times, addresses the question in this sympathetic assessment as he selects their seventh-game loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series as the turning point in the team's decline. Recounting the details of the contest, he flashes back to reveal how individuals contributed to the Yankees' accomplishments in recent years. Of course, the one person who demands success, and for whom even victory doesn't seem to be enough, is owner George Steinbrenner. Much of the ill will generated by the legions of Yankee-haters can be traced to Steinbrenner, with his bullying and deep pockets. Olney's work puts the team under a microscope, as if the daily exasperations, disappointments and even boredom suffice to explain why their fortunes reversed. Olney gives a good account: success is hard work that, like prayers, sometimes does not yield the hoped-for result. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Many readers of this book, starting with fans of the other American League teams, might find laughable the notion that the "Yankee Dynasty" has ended, the team having played in two of the last three World Series, after winning four of the previous five. Still, Olney makes a good case that the championship-winning Yankees were a divinely built team whose talents fit perfectly together: "[Derek] Jeter's confidence, [Paul] O'Neill's intensity, [Tim] Raines' humor, [Joe] Girardi's professionalism." Add manager Joe Torre's calming intelligence, closer Mariano Rivera's unhittable fastballs, owner George Steinbrenner's maniacal competitiveness, and a series of tragedies that bonded the team--and the Yanks were unstoppable. Until Game 7 of the 2001 World Series, which Olney details here inning by inning, interspersing his account with profiles of the Yankee principals involved. Olney, now a writer for ESPN, delivers a winning valedictory to the five years he covered the team for the New York Times. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Kirkus Reviews
Well-mulled, highly atmospheric, and richly versed …both subtle and opinionated...


Mike Lupica, New York Daily News
A wonderful story about money, power, and baseball that will keep you reading until the bottom of the 9th.


Kirkus Reviews
A well-mulled, highly atmospheric, and richly versed story of the Bronx Bombers' great 1996-2001 ride.


Peter Gammons, ESPN
The definitive treatise on the great Yankee teams of the last seven years.


Peter Gammons, ESPN
The definitive treatise on the great Yankee teams of the last seven years.


New York Sun
"The best contemporary book about baseball in several years. Yankee fans and haters alike will find it riveting."


David Halberstam
Vivid, informed, and gracefully written, THE LAST NIGHT OF THE YANKEE DYNASTY is sports writing at its very best.


New York Post
"Buster Olney... has chronicled the definitive story of the Bronx Bombers at the end of the 20th century."


Boston Globe
"…An astonishing richness of detail here that you simply won’t find anywhere else."


Wall Street Journal
A remarkably prescient work … Olney’s observations are eerily germane to … [2004’s] postseason meltdown.


Book Description

For an extraordinary handful of years around the turn of the millennium, the Yankees were baseball's unstoppable force. With four World Series championships in five seasons and a deep bench of legends and comers -- Clemens, Rivera, Williams, Soriano, Jeter, O'Neill -- they dominated the major leagues, earning the love of their hometown fans and the grudging admiration of players and spectators everywhere.

For the members of the team, though, baseball Yankees-style was an almost unbearable pressure cooker of anxiety, expectation, and infighting. With owner George Steinbrenner at the wheel, the Yankees money machine spun out of control, and as the team's revenues skyrocketed, salaries were inflated unimaginably -- and smaller teams found themselves priced out of competition. True devotees of the game suffered, and so did Steinbrenner's employees. Emboldened by New York's unforgiving fans, Steinbrenner let the Yankees know loud and clear that their fat paychecks carried an equally exaggerated mandate: win now, and win all the time -- any season that doesn't end in a World Series victory is an unforgivable failure. As the spending and emotion spiraled, careers were made and broken, friendships began and ended, and a sports dynasty rose and fell.

In The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, Buster Olney tracks the Yankees through these exciting and tumultuous seasons, providing insightful portraits of the stars, the foot soldiers, the coaches, the manager, and the Boss himself. With profound knowledge of the game and an insider's familiarity with the team, Olney also advances a compelling argument that the philosophy that made the Yankees great was inherently unsustainable, ultimately harmful to the sport, and led inevitably to that warm autumn night in Arizona -- the last night of the Yankee dynasty.


Download Description
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For an extraordinary handful of years around the turn of the millennium, the Yankees were baseball's unstoppable force. With four World Series championships in five seasons and a deep bench of legends and comers -- Clemens, Rivera, Williams, Soriano, Jeter, O'Neill -- they dominated the major leagues, earning the love of their hometown fans and the grudging admiration of players and spectators everywhere.

For the members of the team, though, baseball Yankees-style was an almost unbearable pressure cooker of anxiety, expectation, and infighting. With owner George Steinbrenner at the wheel, the Yankees money machine spun out of control, and as the team's revenues skyrocketed, salaries were inflated unimaginably -- and smaller teams found themselves priced out of competition. True devotees of the game suffered, and so did Steinbrenner's employees. Emboldened by New York's unforgiving fans, Steinbrenner let the Yankees know loud and clear that their fat paychecks carried an equally exaggerated mandate: win now, and win all the time -- any season that doesn't end in a World Series victory is an unforgivable failure. As the spending and emotion spiraled, careers were made and broken, friendships began and ended, and a sports dynasty rose and fell.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For six extraordinary years around the turn of the millennium, the Yankees were baseball's unstoppable force. With four World Series championships in five seasons and a deep bench of legends and comers, they dominated the major leagues, earning the love of their hometown fans and the grudging admiration of players and spectators elsewhere.

For the players and coaches, baseball Yankees-style was also an almost unbearable pressure cooker of anxiety, expectation, and infighting. With owner George Steinbrenner at the controls, the Yankees money machine spun out of control, and as the team's revenues skyrocketed, salaries were inflated beyond belief and smaller teams were priced out of competition. With New York's unforgiving fans behind him, Steinbrenner let the Yankees know loud and clear that their big paychecks carried a clear obligation: win now, and win all the time. As the spending and emotion spiraled, careers were made and broken, friendships began and ended, and a dynasty rose and fell.

In The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty, Buster Olney tracks the Yankees through these exciting and tumultuous seasons, giving intimate insights into the stars, the foot soldiers, and the coaches and managers. With unparalleled knowledge of the game, he also advances a compelling argument that the philosophy that made the Yankees great was inherently unsustainable and ultimately harmful to the sport.

About the Author:Buster Olney, who covered the Yankees for the New York Times for five years, is among the best-respected sportswriters working today. He is currently a senior writer at ESPN and lives in New York.

FROM THE CRITICS

Kevin Baker - The New York Times

Olney is a skilled and lucid writer. He is adept at revealing all the minute elements of chance and strategy that constitute any single baseball game and that make the game such a constantly surprising, frustrating, even excruciating obsession. We learn why so few batters can hit Rivera's cut fastball even when they know it is coming and how it was that a throwback strip of dirt between the pitcher's mound and the plate in the Diamondbacks' home park, and a freak, passing thunderstorm rolling in over the mesas, played critical roles in deciding the outcome of the seventh game. Olney keeps the tension of the game crackling, and his descriptions are often wonderfully vivid: the Yankees manager, Joe Torre, inserting Darryl Strawberry as a pinch-hitter, ''used him like a dagger''; ''a halogen thought'' fills a pitcher's head; another pitcher, after a fielding drill, picks up balls ''like a child gathering Easter eggs.''

Publishers Weekly

Nothing succeeds like success. But human nature being what it is, some people get a thrill when the successful fail. Is it a matter of rooting for the underdog or bringing the haughty and powerful down a peg? Olney, who covers the Yankees for the New York Times, addresses the question in this sympathetic assessment as he selects their seventh-game loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the 2001 World Series as the turning point in the team's decline. Recounting the details of the contest, he flashes back to reveal how individuals contributed to the Yankees' accomplishments in recent years. Of course, the one person who demands success, and for whom even victory doesn't seem to be enough, is owner George Steinbrenner. Much of the ill will generated by the legions of Yankee-haters can be traced to Steinbrenner, with his bullying and deep pockets. Olney's work puts the team under a microscope, as if the daily exasperations, disappointments and even boredom suffice to explain why their fortunes reversed. Olney gives a good account: success is hard work that, like prayers, sometimes does not yield the hoped-for result. Agent, Chris Calhoun. (Sept.) Forecast: Both Yankees fans and Yankee haters will find this one interesting. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Love them or hate them, you have to agree that for the last 80-odd years, the New York Yankees have been major league baseball's signature team. And while names such as Jeter and Pettite might not resonate quite as loudly as DiMaggio and Dickey, few can debate that, with four world championships, the 1996-2001 version of the team ranks as one of the finest. Olney, who covered the Yankees for the New York Times for much of that period, offers an inning-by-inning account of the game that he contends marked the end of their dynasty Game 7 of the 2001 World Series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. As Yankee players, coaches, and executives all make their appearances, we learn of their contributions to the team and who they are as people; ultimately, we begin to care about them far beyond their performance in this one crucial game. An excellent work of sports writing, this is recommended for all public library baseball collections. Jim Burns, Jacksonville P.L., FL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews