The New York Yankees are considered the elite team in baseball. Every year the Steinbrenner family opens up their vault and grabs the top free agents. Of all the superstars that have entered their stadium, only 7 men have been named captain of the Bronx Bombers from 1935 until today. Unlike hockey, the captain is not a status given out every year. You had to prove you deserved it every game. Babe Ruth was only captain for five days in 1922. He lost the C when he attacked an umpire and a fan in the stands. That’s considered conduct unbecoming of the honor. After Lou Gehrig was forced to retire from ALS, the captaincy wasn’t awarded to a player until Thurman Munson in 1976. Oddly enough these prime players weren’t the high profile free agent signings. They earned their pinstripes and the C instead of having it written in their contracts. Yankeeography: The Captains Collection presents 45 minute biographies on the men that led their teammates onto the field. The documentaries play on the YES network so they are very Yankee friendly.
The first two players have very sad endings to their triumphant playing days. Lou Gehrig was the Iron Horse with his streak of 2,130 games. He also had 1,995 RBIs which is an amazing statistic since he batted after Babe Ruth for most of his career. Figure out how many times Lou walked up to the plate after the Babe had cleaned the bases with a homer. Normally when two great ballplayers are on the same team, there’s a tension as they fight over attention. But there was no real jealousy since Lou was a quiet man who didn’t mind the shade of Ruth’s shadow. The Hall of Famer’s story doesn’t end well since he developed ALS which has become known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Thurman Munson’s career was also cut short. The catcher with the bushy mustache was known for his gruff ways. His play behind the plate brought two World Series titles back to the Bronx after a decade plus dry spell. The biography doesn’t dip too far into his feud with the Boston Redsox’s Carlton Fisk. The main focus is how much he cared for his family back in Ohio. Thurman would fly home two or three times a week to tuck his kids into bed. His love of flying would be his demise when his private jet crashed during the 1979 season on a visit home. Players such as Ron Guidry still get emotional while talking about him on camera.
Graig Nettles is always hated in my house for the damage he did to Bill Lee’s arm in a bench clearing brawl. That’s all I’m going to say about Nettles. Ron Guidry was a longtime ace in the ‘70s and ‘80s. His finest season came in ’78 when the Louisiana Lightning went 25-3 with a 1.74 ERA. Even after all these years in cosmopolitan New York, he still has home cooking in his accent. Willie Randolph shared the captain title with Guidry. His leadership on the field eventually made him a top coach during the Yankee’s title run in the late ‘90s. Don Mattingly is the unfortunate captain. He’s the only one that never won a World Series ring or even won an AL pennant. The year after he retired, the team would win the title. The final subject and the current captain is Derek Jeter. It’s kind of a shock to see him as the plucky young kid who came up at exactly the right time to lead his time to their most recent dynasty. He exemplifies what it means to be a captain with his solid play in the field and his ability to shake off any injuries to stay in the game. Even as the leader of the Evil Empire, there’s respect for the guy (unlike that weasel A-Rod).
Yankeeography: The Captains Collection gives a good sense at the enormity of a player receiving this honor. There’s plenty of archival material so it’s not just the same few minutes of footage floating behind talking heads. This is a quality production that outdoes most of the A&E Biographies that it mimics. The stories of Gehrig and Munson overshadow the other five captains because of the tragic endings. Often you hear people criticize new fans as having no sense of history. Here’s the perfect way to catch up on those who came before.
The video is 1.33 Full Frame. The quality is high. The archival footage looks great. The only bad part is the MLB logo watermark in the upper right corner. The audio is Dolby Digital Stereo although the old game footage is in mono.
Moments and Mystiques (42:42) is a greatest hits episode of Yankeeography with the best stories and events as the clips. It attempts to define the Yankee Mystique. What makes life in Pinstripes so enduring.
Yankeeography: The Captains Collection is the perfect gift for old and young fans of the Bronx Bombers. The seven players are legendary for their service to the team. Much as a Redsox fan despised Thurman Munson on the field, it’s nice to know that he was such a caring father. Even a card carrying Yankee hater can find these biographies compelling TV.
A&E Home Video and Major League Baseball present Yankeeography: The Captains Collection. Starring: Lou Gehrig, Thurman Munson, Derek Jeter and Willie Randolph. Boxset Content: 7 episodes on 2 DVDs. Released on DVD: August 25, 2009. Available at Amazon.com