Ed Barrow

Before the feuding owners turned to Ed Barrow to be general manager in 1920, the Yankees had never won a pennant. They won their first in 1921 and during Barrow's tenure went on to win thirteen more as well as ten World Series. This biography of the incomparable Barrow is also the story of how he built the most successful sports franchise in American history. Barrow spent fifty years in baseball. He was in the middle of virtually every major conflict and held practically every job except player. Daniel R. Levitt describes Barrow's pre-Yankees years, when he managed Babe Ruth and the Boston Red Sox to their last World Series Championship before the "curse." He then details how Barrow assembled a winning Yankees team both by purchasing players outright and by developing talent through a farm system. The story of the making of the great Yankees dynasty reveals Barrow's genius for organizing, for recognizing baseball talent, and for exploiting the existing economic environment. Because Barrow was a player in so many of baseball's key events, his biography gives a clear and eye-opening picture of how America's sport was played in the twentieth century, on the field and off.A complex portrait of a larger-than-life character in the annals of baseball, this book is also an inside history of how the sport's competitive environment evolved and how the Yankees came to dominate it.

"A captivating overview of baseball from the '20s through the '40s."--Bill Madden, New York Daily News-- (5/24/2008 12:00:00 AM), "Substantive baseball history filtered through the career of one of the game's overlooked titans."--Wes Lukowsky, Booklist-- (4/1/2008 12:00:00 AM), "The author has an astounding facility with detail: The sheer number of names, dates and salaries he tosses around is mind-blowing, and the 18 informational tables in the appendix are worthy of inclusion in an economics textbook. . . . A labor of love of great value to Yankees fans and hard-core baseball junkies."--Kirkus Reviews-- (2/15/2008 12:00:00 AM), "The University of Nebraska Press, long respected for its scholarly works, has emerged as a valuable baseball resource as well. . . . Notable American players and teams, baseball history overseas (in Latin America, Japan and Australia), sportswriters and broadcasters, the African-American baseball experience, early traces of the game's essential elements in medieval Europe--all these and more are among the subjects examined in the NU Press's fascinating explorations of baseball in its many dimensions. . . . . The University of Nebraska Press deserves praise for drawing attention to this notable figure--and for publishing dozens of titles that help fans of our national pastime better understand this venerable sport."--Omaha World-Herald (NE)-- (6/20/2008 12:00:00 AM), [Ed Barrow] will undoubtedly go down as the definitive work on one of the most important baseball figures in the first half of the 20th century.--Rich Lederer, baseballanalytics.com

Daniel R. Levitt is the coauthor of Paths to Glory: How Great Baseball Teams Got That Way, winner of the Sporting News-SABR Baseball Research Award. He has also published numerous baseball articles and biographical essays.