New book documents rich history of NY Yankees

NEW YORK - Love 'em or hate 'em, the New York Yankees have held an iconic place in baseball history for more than a century.

A new photo book by the Associated Press (AP) on the legacy of the New York Yankees is now on bookshelves. It will have a hallowed place in your personal library or be used as a doorstop, depending on your point of view.

Jim Litke, a national sports columnist for the AP spoke about 'The New York Yankees 365' on the 9NEWS Morning Show.

"The nice thing about this book is you really get the iconic photos," Litke said. "Lou Gehrig, his 'luckiest man on the face of the earth' speech. Babe Ruth, shot from the back on his retirement game. Don Larson, the perfect game."

Litke also says the book has lots of off the field photos.

"There's a really fun little photograph of Artie [McGovern] who was one of the early Yankee trainers boxing with Babe Ruth's wife, it's just off-the-charts funny," he said.

"You know you get to see a lot of the behind-the-scenes; the guys clowning in the locker room, and what I'm calling the most prophetic photo so far in the book, which is very near the end, they acquire Mark Teixeira and he was obviously doing some publicity photos, and so there's a bunch of screens set up behind him, they're getting the lighting set, and our photographer stepped over to the side and shot this. And you know right away what it means to be a Yankee. As soon as you arrive in town, they basically get you ready for the big stage," he explained.

Litke says the AP's participation in the book makes perfect sense.

"Basically, The Associated Press and baseball started at the same time. We started, I believe, covering every Major League game as early as 1884," Litke exlained. "We've gotten congratulations from Thomas Edison on the World Series coverage, and yet, the flip side is an editor at the Washington Post when they [saw] 15,000 words on baseball crowding the wire, [he] said, 'What are you guys doing?'

The hard-cover book has been out since the beginning of September, has 744 pages and is forwarded by former Yankee great Don Mattingly. It retails for about $30.