Bookshelf review: Derek Jeter: From the Pages of The New York Times

April 28, 2011

Before this season began, there was speculation about Derek Jeter, the fixture at shortstop for the Yankees since the mid 1990s. With his contract complete and at the advanced age of 37, fans and sports pundits opined about his future with the team specifically and the game in general. Perhaps that’s why Derek Jeter: From the pages of The New York Times(Abrams) came out this spring.

This is the type of book — oversized, full of great photos, story reprints, statistics, and anecdotes — that’s usually reserved for the end of a long and productive career, or Hall of Fame induction, or, at times, even death. So, as much as it is appreciated, the timing has to make you wonder.

Abrams publishes some truly well-done books on baseball, including The Baseball Anthology: 125 Years of Stories, Poems, Articles, Photographs, Drawings, Interviews, Cartoons, and Other Memorabilia World Series: An Opinionated Chronicle, and The Autobiography of Baseball: The Inside Story from the Stars Who Played the Game, all by Joseph Wallace. Jeter follows in that tradition.

While the coffee table volume is certainly a worthy tribute, the composition is a bit disjunctive. It does not follow a standard chronological or even thematic formula; it almost seems slapdash in its editorial construct, although this will probably not lessen the enjoyment for any of Jeter’s legion of fans.

I used to think these compilations of previously published stories and photos were just a money grab. I’ve mellowed; I know see that having all of this information at your fingertips can be quite rewading for the reader as well as the publisher.

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Tagged as: Derek Jeter, New York Yankee

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