More insight into The Yankee Years

Joe Torre appeared on "Live with Regis and Kelly" on Wednesday to promote the book. AP Tom Verducci's Mailbag Submit a comment or question for Tom. Name: Email: Hometown: Question: SEND

SI.com's Alex Belth spoke with Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci this week about his new book, The Yankee Years, co-authored with Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre. The book is published by Doubleday and was officially released on Tuesday. For the first Q&A about the book, click here.

SI.com: Have you been surprised and/or frustrated at all by the initial reaction to the book? Or, are you pleased that it is causing a buzz?

Verducci: I was somewhat surprised initially by the amount of attention, especially created by the early misrepresentations of the book. It was somewhat frustrating to hear people, especially in the media, react to a book they had not read. But when people read the book, and this was quickly evident from the major reviews, they understood the context, scope and tone of the book.

SI.com: Torre is taking some heat in New York for the timing of the book as if it is sour grapes on his part. What do you believe was his motivation for wanting to tell his story now?

Verducci: His motivation was clear from start to finish: to inform the reader with insight into an incredibly successful era of Yankees history. He wanted to share his view from a front row, center seat to history. There never were any sour grapes. He left the Yankees, as the book details, with a sense of relief.

SI.com: Do you think the negative reaction to Torre will tarnish his legacy?

Verducci: No. He is the winningest manager in postseason history while winning four world championships and six pennants in 12 years with the Yankees. That success is immutable, and the book shares his perspective on those historic years.

SI.com: How much did Torre impact the narrative? Was it something you conceived together?

Verducci: I really enjoyed 3 Nights in August, and brought that collaboration between Tony LaRussa and Buzz Bissinger to Joe's attention. He understood and respected I would go where my reporting took me and that I would write in the third-person narrative.

SI.com: The 2002-07 Yankee teams won a lot of regular season games but didn't win a title. Do you believe that is because of a lack of chemistry or just plain bad luck? And, how much of the 1996-01 success can be chalked up to character and how much was it good luck?

Verducci: I would be careful to assign too much importance to "chemistry," or a lack thereof, to a team's won-lost record, especially in the small sample of a postseason. I remember one of the San Diego Padres during one of their poor years saying, "We all got along great, and we still stunk." The Yankees teams that did not win were missing strikeout-capable starting pitching, in part because bets on guys like [Kevin] Brown, [Carl] Pavano, [Kei] Igawa, [Javier] Vazquez, [Randy] Johnson, [Jaret] Wright and [Jeff] Weaver just didn't pan out. And [Chien-Ming] Wang was simply awful in three postseason starts.

As far as intangibles, I do think the teams that won had a greater ferocity and fearlessness than the teams that did not. It doesn't by itself explain the difference between winning and losing, but it's an important ingredient to the recipe, especially in New York. The '96-01 Yankees had an extraordinary amount of fierce competitors who welcomed the challenges of pressure and expectations. The quantity of those types of athletes is what made them special, not so much with how they reacted to one another. Mussina at one point in the book compared it to getting the best possible poker hand straight from the dealer -- the longest of longshots -- and then just expecting it to happen all over again with a different cast of characters.

SI.com: Mussina told you, "It reached a point with us where it was six months of preparation for one month of important baseball. And that wasn't written on the chalkboard anywhere, but it had become that way. I mean, the machine that had been created, the monster that was being created, that's what it was all about. It wasn't about getting to the playoffs any more. It was about getting there and winning. It didn't matter how you got there, just get there and win." Can you describe how the pressure to win it all or else, established by George Steinbrenner and reinforced by the fans, has affected the team?

Verducci: I think the teams that won generated that same kind of pressure internally, what the book calls "a desperation to win." It was internal for most of the players, and even for Steinbrenner, who I regard in the book as one of the franchise's most dynamic assets. It's very different when that pressure comes externally, especially now when you're talking about so many current Yankees who have no experience at winning in New York. They're reading the road map for the first time, and it's hard to figure out -- unlike anywhere else -- especially when you hear the constant drumbeat of frustration coming from fans and even the media that cover the team. The Yankees are the only one of 30 teams that write down as a failure any season that ends without a world championship. Individual stats don't matter with the Yankees. Putting up a "good season" means less with the Yankees than any other franchise. There are only two seasons for the Yankees: world championship ones and everything else.