Bill Madden: My 25 Years Covering Baseball's Heroes, Scoundrels, Triumphs and Tragedies

Bill Madden: My 25 Years Covering Baseball's Heroes, Scoundrels, Triumphs and Tragedies

The famed "New York Daily News baseball writer collects his most memorable stories about stunning upsets, miraculous victories, scandals, record-setters, Hall of Famers, and more. Bill Madden joined the Daily News in 1978 after nine years at United Press International where he covered baseball, track and field and Olympics. He was the Daily News' Yankee beat writer from 1980-88 before becoming the News' national baseball columnist. In his 25 years with the News, Madden has broken numerous major baseball stories. He has written a number of books on baseball, including Damned Yankees in collaboration with Moss Klein of the Newark Star-Ledger and Don Zimmer's best-selling autobiography, Zim: A Baseball Life. In his 25 years covering baseball for the Daily News, Bill Madden has seen it all from trades to tirades, heroes to hucksters, and champions to cellar dwellers. He broke the story when baseball said good-bye to commissioner Fay Vincent in 1992 and predicted in 2001 that A-Rod would only stay with Texas for three years before jumping ship for a contender and being scooped up by, of all teams, the Yankees. He followed Joe Torre's Yankees as they won an unprecedented four world champ-ionships and six pennants in eight years! Join Madden on his quest for doomed pitching legend Steve Dalkowski and celebrate its happy ending. Take a road trip to Cooperstown and relive the heartwarming and humorous Hall of Fame inductions of "Mr. October" Reggie Jackson, Tom Seaver, Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto, and other baseball legends. Go to Mickey Mantle s fantasy camp, where Madden interviewed The Mick just before his death. Get personal with His Bossness, George Steinbrenner, and celebrate Yogi Berra s 70th birthday with some Yogi-isms. Remember Dwight Gooden s no-hitter? David Wells s perfect game? Don Larsen s? Bill Madden was there for them all. He was also there when we said our sad good-byes to friends and legends such as Catfish Hunter, Steady Eddie Lopat, Bob Lemon, Mel Allen and Joe DiMaggio. His colorful interview with scout Uncle Hughie Alexander and his poignant column about the Braves players who pitched in to help the family of murdered replacement player David Shotkowski carried us through the dark days of the 1994 strike and helped remind us why we love baseball. Bill Madden s most intriguing, heartwarming, controversial and memorable Daily News columns a baseball road map for the last quarter-century come together in Bill Madden: My 25 Years Covering Baseball s Heroes, Scoundrels, Triumphs and Tragedies, proving that the truth, especially in the world of professional baseball, is often stranger than fiction and usually more entertaining. TOM-FOOLERY LETS CHISOX NAB SEAVER JANUARY 21, 1984 The incredible, unthin-kable, impossible notion that Tom Seaver would again have to leave New York became a shocking reality yesterday when the Chicago White Sox stunned the Mets by selecting their 1984 Opening Day pitcher and most popular player ever from the free agent compensation pool. And shocked was the only way to describe the reaction of both Seaver and the Mets braintrust at a hastily called news conference, which could have easily been mistaken for a wake. The 39-year-old Seaver, who was in Chicago Thursday night meeting with White Sox co-owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn, said he was still not certain he would report to his new team. At the same time, he expressed his hurt and anger at the Mets braintrust for subjecting him to this predicament. (The White Sox got to take a player from the compensation pool for having lost "Type A" free agent Dennis Lamp to the Toronto Blue Jays.) "It s an unfortunate situation that has sprung up," Seaver said. "I ve gotten a little more upset as things have gone along. I m not here to blast anybody, though. They [the Mets] had their meetings and they have to do what they think is best. I don t agree with what they did. They made a mistake, that s for sure. I just don t understand their thinking behind it." Seaver, whose reluctance to leave New York again is based on wanting to be near his wife and two young daughters, admitted his only alternative appears to be retirement. The White Sox owners spent an hour Thursday night selling him on the advantages of pitching for a pennant contender (he needs just 27 wins for 300). In addition, it has been learned they will show Seaver further good faith by re-negotiating his contract with a no-trade provision and a raise from his present $750,000 salary. Mets general manager Frank Cashen, on whom the burden of this worst blunder in the Amazins 23-year history must fall, could not disagree with Seaver that a terrible mistake had been made. Looking somber and stunned by the disastrous turn of events, Cashen admitted that "black ties and black armbands" should have been the proper attire on such a dark day. Cashen again took pains to explain that his prime reason for leaving Seaver unprotected to the White Sox was because of Chicago