Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball
For longtime baseball fans, this biography of the mercurial owner of the New York Yankees is as painful to read as it is informative. It's hard to relive the contentious and unending hirings and firings of countless players and managers since 1972, when Steinbrenner bought the team from CBS; the owner's run-ins with authorities, from his troubles over contributions to President Richard Nixon's reelection to his efforts to find dirt on the foundation of his star player Dave Winfield; and the impulsiveness, bullying, anger, and underhandedness that have marked Steinbrenner's ownership style. Madden gives less attention than expected to Steinbrenner's career as ship owner and, more surprisingly, to the championship seasons of the last 13 years, though the owner has been less visible in recent years. But he offers an insider's look at how Steinbrenner has run his team, even finding unexpected—certainly underpublicized—humanity in his subject. --Alan Moores