Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

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Dimaggio was there for the first three and Mantle for the last three, the only overlap in 1951.

This book is titled “Damn Yankees” as opposed to “Stengel’s Yankees,” “Berra’s Yankees,” or any other of many possible “Fill-in-the-blank Yankees” titles. This is a reference to 1955’s hit musical “Damn Yankees.” This show captured the anguish and desperation which enveloped fans of other teams participating in what was the truly American pastime of baseball. This is significant, as in virtually every year and every World Series, the experts, the pundits, foolishly gave false hope to

the Yankee haters, saying that the other teams were better. They were quite persistent in this, all the way through four consecutive Yankee championships.

Why the writers and producers of “Damn Yankees” chose a fan of the perennial second division, hapless Washington Senators as opposed to a fan of the competitive Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, Brooklyn Dodgers, or New York Giants is a mystery to me. The Senators finished between fifth and eighth in an eight team league for the entirety of the decade. But, at any rate a synopsis follows as the phenomenon transcends the particular.

Joe Boyd is a middle aged fan of the unsuccessful Washington Senators baseball team. His obsession with baseball is driving a