Chasing the Dream: My Lifelong Journey to the World Series
by By Torre, Joe and Verducci, Tom
Category: Biography & Autobiography , Sports

Tough, gritty, but always fair and honest, Torre vividly reveals how he turned a potentially volatile mix of talented youngsters such as Andy Pettitte and Derek Jeter, seasoned veterans like Wade Boggs and Paul O'Neill, and so-called "problem" players like Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden into a cohesive unit that cared more about winning than personal egos. He explains how he played his hunches and earned his team's confidence and respect as he focused his players from spring training on toward one goal: the World Series. And he did it all in a pressure-filled sports city that expects nothing less than a champion.But how he did it is only part of this remarkable story. For at the same time that Torre was overcoming the odds on the field, his family was facing much greater hardships off the field. He speaks candidly and emotionally of the tragedy of his oldest brother Rocco's sudden death, and the agonizing ordeal of his other older brother, Frank, who waited for the heart transplant that could save his life. It was his wife, Ali, who gave him the faith to believe anything was possible. Together with his sisters Rae and Sister Marguerite, a nun from Queens, they dared to dream the impossible. In a fairy-tale ending not even the best Hollywood scriptwriter could imagine, Frank Torre got his new heart the day before the Yankees won their first World Series championship since 1978 - and Joe Torre won his first ever.