Pride of October: As Good As It Gets

“I finished the first chapter and it is the best baseball book I ever read.” Quite a statement from a young man who read such a small sample of Pride of October by Bill Madden. It will be an experience he will delight in forever, because the young man, who never stops thinking about baseball or about the Yankees, is right. Pride of October is so good that after reading a chapter, the reader almost doesn’t want to start the next one because there will be one less left to savor.

The book was lying in my room when my son Scott saw it. Scott seeing a book about the Yankees is similar to Paul O’Neill seeing a hanging curve ball. He pounced on it. After finishing the first chapter, he couldn’t stop reading it. Neither could I.

Bill Madden is one of the great, underrated writers of our time. He does not showboat or speculate. He simply relates what has occurred in a straightforward manner. Madden’s writing style makes the reader feel that it is not only Madden and Phil Rizzuto or Don Mattingly or Reggie Jackson or Paul O’Neill or Marius Russo who are present. The reader is in the room with them.

Pride of October extends what the intense fan thinks he knows and provides insights into events that only those who lived them could supply. Charlie Silvera, a little known Yankee back up catcher, told Madden how veteran coach Frank Crosetti helped him and Jerry Coleman when they first came to the team. “Cro took me under his wing as soon as I joined the club in ’48….I learned right away the Yankee philosophy. We don’t believe in this ’get ’em tomorrow’ crap. We got ’em today.” They usually did.

Madden asked Tommy Byrne, a hard throwing, wild left hander, if it were true that he used to talk to himself on the mound in order to distract the batter. Byrne confirmed it and then told Madden that when facing Ted Williams, he would tell Williams that he had heard he wasn’t getting along with his wife. Williams turned to Yankees catcher Yogi Berra and told Yogi to make Byrne shut up. Of course, he did. Until next time.

When interviewing Marius Russo, certainly not a Yankee great but rather a Yankee who did some great things, Madden relates that he discovered Russo had written a feature article, “How to Pitch--by Marius Russo” for Look magazine, dated May 5, 1942. When Madden asked Russo about it, Russo commented that it was “pretty neat” and went on to say that he was proud and lucky to be a Yankee. “I’d have to say that Gehrig’s class rubbed off on all of us.” How right he was. Like Gehrig, fame wasn’t what Russo or most Yankees wanted. Winning was.

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