Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Yankee fans, and truthfully, any baseball fan will know the book titles that author Peter Golenbock has penned over the course of his career. To name just a few, you have The Bronx Zoo: The Astonishing Inside Story of the 1978 World Champion New York Yankees
On this episode of Cover the Bases, we are here to talk with Peter about George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire
This book is a comprehensive and complete account of George’s life story as Peter describes it, because he began to collect his information and interview individuals who were central figures way back in 1980. This has allowed Peter to include elements from those who are no longer with us.
Peter states that he was “born with the baseball gene”, which has compelled him to return again and again to writing about baseball. He was fortunate enough to have met Jackie Robinson through his Uncle. Peter has had a rare opportunity, all the way back to 1972, when he received his first contract to write a book about baseball, right at the time of George’s takeover of the Yankees.
George’s story is intriguing because it is just as much about style as it is results. No one can complain about the fact that he took over a team that was not winning at all, and has now delivered seven championships. Meanwhile, he was such a meddlesome micro-manager he famously had issues with every employee on and off the field. He hated to have rookies play on his team, and made trades that were detrimental in the long run. Finally, he was involved in situations that resulted in getting suspensions from baseball for his actions. It was during theses suspensions when George could not interfere that the Yankees, that they would build the foundations to achieve their most success!
From a very early age, George learned that money and power could take care of things, and he spent his entire life striving to have that power. His father would drive into the military academy when George was in trouble and just smooth things over. It did not go unnoticed.
During his days in Cleveland, George came close to owning an NBA franchise until it was discovered that some of the documents portraying investors and cash liquidity were forged. One of his best friends who’s signature he had forged was Jim Stouffer. Jim’s dad Vernon Stouffer was the owner of the Cleveland Indians and when he put the team up for sale, he remembered this episode with George and refused to sell him the team!
Although George will forever be linked to one of the greatest baseball franchises in history, his first love was really football. Peter tells a great tale about George giving some career lessons to Len Dawson.
We wrap the episode with Peter telling the tale of how he was banned from Yankee Stadium by team PR Director Rick Cerrone. We got a great tip from our friend Jane Heller to ask Peter about this particular Old Timers Game. “You have defied me, You have defied me!” … too funny.
We express our gratitude to Peter Golenbock for taking the time to appear on Cover the Bases with us, and look forward to keeping up with more of his works. You can visit his Tampa Bay Rays blog at The Players Point and find out more about the books he has published at Golenbockbooks.com.
Follow this link to pick up a copy of George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire
If you the baseball books we profile on Cover the Bases, it might be time for you to pick up a Kindle from Amazon so that you can take all the best Baseball Books with you no matter which stadiums you visit.
Let us know in the comments what you think about the Cover the Bases podcast. We would love to hear from you. Send a Tweet to @baseballisms with a quick message, send us an email or visit our Upload page with a video message. We look forward to growing a community of fans interested in the poetry of the game of baseball!
Loading ...