George Weiss

The New York Yankees were the strongest team in the majors from 1948 through 1960, capturing the American League Pennant 10 times and winning seven World Championships. The average fan, when asked who made the team so dominant, will mention Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford or Mickey Mantle. Some will insist manager Casey Stengel was the key. But pundits at the time, and respected historians today, consider the shy, often taciturn George Martin Weiss the real genius behind the Yankees’ success.
Weiss loved baseball but lacked the ability to play. He made up for it with the savvy to run a team better than his competitors. He spent more than 50 years in the game, including nearly 30 with the Yankees. Before becoming their general manager, he created their superlative farm system that supplied the club with talented players. When the Yankees retired him at 67, the newly franchised New York Mets immediately hired him to build their team. This book is the first definitive biography of Weiss, a Hall of Famer hailed for contributing “as much to baseball as any man the game could ever know.”

A member of the Society for American Baseball Research, Burton A. Boxerman taught history for 30 years and contributes to numerous historical journals. A longtime baseball fan, he lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
Writer and researcher Benita W. Boxerman is retired from one of the largest public relations firms in the United States and is a member of SABR. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Burton A. Boxerman and Benita W. Boxerman
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 232
Bibliographic Info: 37 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2016
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7253-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2489-1
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Preface 1

 1—The Making of a Baseball Entrepreneur 3

 2—Welcome to Professional Baseball 11

 3—“Among the Happiest Times of My Life” 25

 4—The Yankee Farmer 33

 5—The Bears and the Blues 45

 6—The Interregnum 60

 7—The MacPhail Years 72

 8—The Weiss Era Begins 83

 9—The New Dynasty 95

10—Breaking the Yankees’ Color Line 120

11—The Dynasty Resumes 133

12—The End of an Era 148

13—Back in the Game 157

14—The Mets Years 169

15—Final Innings 181

Chapter Notes 189

Bibliography 211

Index 217

“This book offers a unique perspective on the Yankees…and should not be missed if you want to complete your education of the New York powerhouse.”—Gregg’s Baseball Bookcase.