October 10, 2006

NY Yankees: Liars, cheats and gangsters: Interview with Bill Cleary discussing "Big Bill" Devery and how he started the Yankees

posted by SDM to baseball at 07:26 PM - 13 comments

I admit, this makes me like the Yankees a little bit more.

posted by Joey Michaels at 10:13 PM on October 10, 2006

I liked it. I finished reading it and couldn't believe I was done. I wish it had gone more in depth.

posted by apoch at 11:30 PM on October 10, 2006

I got the sense that Bill Cleary was interviewing himself. The questions seemed to anticipate the relevance of the answers a little too much. Also, I'm not sure what they were expecting the Yankees' web site to say about Devery's criminal background. There doesn't seem to be anything explicitly illegal in his acquisition or operation of the club -- just some implicit, seemingly unprovable assumptions that he got kickbacks from the construction of Hilltop. That he was involved in the Tammany Hall machine seems at best tangential to the ballclub, and not especially suitable for a timeline format that is pretty concise in its notes. The story is good, though.

posted by BullpenPro at 11:42 PM on October 10, 2006

Interesting read but i too wish it had been more in depth. But, any article about the Yankee's is worth a look as long as it's factual

posted by texasred at 05:43 AM on October 11, 2006

Ken Burns, where are you?

posted by jaygolf at 09:17 AM on October 11, 2006

What everybody else said. Nice little tidbit.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 10:55 AM on October 11, 2006

This just goes to show you that when the Yankees were called the Evil Empire, they weren't too far off. More like a Crime Empire or maybe Syndicate. I take it that's why they have (pin)stripes on their uniforms, to make it look like prison uniforms but with their numbers on the back instead of the front. Just a thought.

posted by BornIcon at 11:17 AM on October 11, 2006

GO TIGERS

posted by sirtt22 at 03:13 PM on October 11, 2006

Cut the shit.

posted by yerfatma at 03:19 PM on October 11, 2006

This is some of the obscure history that makes baseball so interesting. It only adds to the Yankee mystique. Great post!

posted by Termite at 04:09 PM on October 11, 2006

This is off topic but I just heard on the east coast feed of CBS that Yankee Pitcher Cory Lidle was in the plane that crashed in Manhatten this afternoon.

posted by Termite at 04:17 PM on October 11, 2006

They didn't say for sure it was him, pending notification of next of kin, but all things point to him being on the plane and killed in the crash along with an instructor. His passport was found on the street below the crash. Very sad, brings back memories of when Thurman Munson died in his plane.

posted by Mr Jaws at 05:14 PM on October 11, 2006

Discussion of the Lidle crash can be found here.

posted by DrJohnEvans at 05:31 PM on October 11, 2006

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