Baseball’s ultimate gift is its mythology. Ask any baseball fan to define this mythology and you hear the names roll off their tongues without hesitation and without haste…Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle. Each name is uttered with an unmatched reverence, recalling indelible memories of greatness on the field. These men were New York Yankees, and these are the memories and chronicles of Joseph Kimmerle, a man who has spent a lifetime with the most storied team in the history of sport-as a fan, batboy, scribe, and confidante.
Fortunately for the game and those who follow it, when his extraordinary career in sports journalism came to an end, he found that he couldn’t walk away without giving something back. His contribution is a tangible gift that exists in the stories contained within A Lifetime of Yankee Octobers. He is one of the few who could have illustrated this mythology. In October of 1923, a seven-year-old Kimmerle watched with his father as the Babe brought the first championship to the Bronx. In October of 2000, an 84-year-old Kimmerle witnessed the capturing of the 26th with the ghosts of those legendary men…Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle…prominently in his mind.
A Lifetime of Yankee Octobers is a comprehensive work that details the Yankees’ dominance during their World Series championship years, while it shines the spotlight on the players, the managers, the big games, and the events that shaped those years. From the construction of Yankee Stadium to the heartbreaking outcome of the 2001 World Series, Joseph Kimmerle is the eyes, ears, and collective memory of baseball’s greatest fans.
A Lifetime of Yankee Octobers documents the Yankee mythology and, as a result, has become the latest addition to it.
