While the ascent of the Yankees in the 1920s as a dynastic franchise was built on the slugging backs of such greats as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, two men whose contributions are often overshadowed are those of club owner Jacob Ruppert (who bought out partner Til Huston) and manager Miller Huggins. Their roles in institutionalizing winning for the Yankees comes in for a close examination by two authors who have previously teamed up to write 鈥�1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York.鈥� Their current exhaustively researched work includes more than 100 pages of back-of-the-book notes and a 21-page bibliography.
Here鈥檚 an excerpt from The Colonel and the Hug:
鈥淭he 1920 Yankees鈥� team was the best they had ever had, and the pressure was on Huggins to produce a pennant. 鈥業t is up to Huggins to drive his club home first or forever hold his peace鈥� was a sentiment representative of the New York press. 鈥楩ew managers have ever had such material as he. Colonels Ruppert and Huston have spent with lavish hand to produce a championship club. Now Huggins and his men must do their part.鈥�
鈥淵et one month into the season, Huggins acknowledged that the Yankees were not playing his style of baseball. 鈥業t鈥檚 not that the players don鈥檛 do what they are told,鈥� he said, but 鈥業 like a fast team, and one that can fly around the bases. They compose a team of the slugging type.鈥� Still, Huggins, more than most, had recognized that Ruth was changing the game from one of speed to one of power, and he was ready to adapt to the new style.鈥�
