THE YANKEE YEARS

Joe Torre's recollections of his 12 years managing the Yankees is definitely recommended for baseball fans. But the listener may find fault with the abridgment. Oddly, instead of the usual complaint about abridgments—too many gaps without explanations—this abridgment is guilty of too much repetition. How many times do we need to be told that no subsequent Yankee team could equal 1998's World Series-winning mix of players or that the Yankees won four World Series in five years or that George Steinbrenner could not tolerate losing? Tom Verducci's enthusiastic reading reflects his love of baseball, but his voice just doesn't resonate the way a narrator's should. He gives a pleasant enough reading, but he shouldn't quit his day job. N.G. © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: MARCH 2009]