Bill Madden – författare

1954,A triumphant season for black ballplayers and the countryaward-winning New York Times bestselling author Bill Madden delivers the first major book to fully examine the 1954 baseball season, drawn largely from exclusive recent interviews with the major players themselves, including Willie Mays and Larry Doby as well as New York baseball legends from that era: Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford of the Yankees, Monte Irvin of the Giants, and Carl Erskine of the Dodgers. 1954 transports readers across the baseball landscape of the time as future superstars such as Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, and others entered the leagues and continued to integrate the sport. Weaving together the narrative of one of baseball's greatest seasons wit the racially charged events of that year,the same in which the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregation of the races be outlawed in America's public schools, 1954 demonstrates how our national pastime was actually ahead of the curve in terms of the acceptance of black Americans, while the nation at large continued to struggle with tolerance.

No other team has come close to dominating baseball like the New York Yankees, with 26 World Series wins and 38 American League championships. No wonder no other team has a frac­tion of baseball books published about them. Bill Madden adds another to the lengthy list with Pride of October: What it Was to Be Young and a Yankee. From Phil Rizzuto and Whitey Ford to Lou Piniella and Paul O'Neil, 17 former Yankees and one Yankee widow, reveal their memories about their careers. The wide range ofYankee seasons is reflected in all the players selected, so questions range from the reality of Babe Ruth's "called home run," to Pichardthe shocking final inning of the 2001 World Series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks with the "unbeatable" Yankee reliever Mario Rivera on the mound. In the pregame clubhouse meetings, the normally reserved Rivera surprised his team­mates by saying "We're going to win, but no matter what happens, it's in God's hands." Don Mattingly reflects on his 13 fine seasons with the Yanks without a single World Series ring to show for it. Yogi Berra, Madden claims, when asked directions to his home for the interview replies, "When you get to the house, you'll see it."