Dan Levitt’s biography of New York Yankee general manager Ed Barrow was originally released by the University of Nebraska Press in the spring of 2008. The paperback edition was released this spring
Before the feuding owners turned to Ed Barrow as general manager in 1920, the Yankees had never won a pennant. They won their first in 1921 and during Barrow’s tenure went on to win thirteen more as well as ten World Series. This biography of the incomparable Barrow is also the story of building the most successful sports franchise in American history.
The story of the making of the great Yankees dynasty reveals Barrow’s genius for organizing, for recognizing baseball talent, and for exploiting the existing economic environment. Because Barrow was a player in so many of baseball’s key events, his biography gives a clear and eye-opening picture of how America’s sport was played in the twentieth century, on the field and off. A complex portrait of a larger-than-life character in the annals of baseball, this book is also an inside history of how the sport’s competitive environment evolved and how the Yankees came to dominate it.
Barrow spent fifty years in baseball. He was in the middle of virtually every major conflict and held practically every job other than player. Levitt describes Barrow’s pre-Yankees years, when he managed Babe Ruth and the Boston Red Sox to their last World Series Championship before the “curse.” He then details how Barrow assembled a winning Yankees team both by purchasing players outright and developing talent through a farm system.
“Baseball scholars will delight in Dan Levitt ’s Ed Barrow, a meticulously detailed biography of one of the most important figures in baseball history.”—Robert Creamer, author of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life and Stengel: His Life and Times
“Dan Levitt’s biography of Hall of Famer Ed Barrow will wind up being one of the most important baseball books of this year.”—Rob Neyer, ESPN.com
Reviews and Recommendations
The Hardball Times–April 1, 2008
Shysterball calls it “a wonderful book”
Brief Commentary at The Sommer Frieze–April 6, 2008
Rob Neyer writes the book “will wind up being one of the most important baseball books of this year”
ForeWord Magazine May/June 2008
New York Daily News–May 24, 2008–Recommended by Bill Madden
Finalist for the Casey Award, honoring the best baseball book of the year
Ranked as the 7th best baseball book of 2008 by Sports Collectors Digest (1/09/2009 p.28)
Finalist for the Seymour Medal, honoring the best book of baseball biography or history
April 19, 2010–Frommer calls it a page turner
Interviews
With Mark Healey at Reel Sports Fan
Q&A
With David Laurila at Baseball Prospectus Unfiltered
With Rich Lederer at Baseball Analysts
Book Excerpts
An excerpt from chapter 16, “Rebuilding a Dynasty”
This excerpt relates the story of how Barrow returned the Yankees to pre-eminence after a couple of down years in 1924 and 1925.
Table of Contents, Preface, and Chapter 1 (“The Best Deal the Yankees Ever Made”)
This link goes to the book’s University of Nebraska web page, which has a link to a PDF of this excerpt.