Bill Madden Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Bill Madden
Bill Madden is an American sportswriter that was once with the New York Daily News. He has written about George Steinbrenner and Tom Seaver, and has written books in collaboration with Don Zimmer and Lou Piniella.

As a member of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, he’s served on the Historical Overview Committee of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2005, 2007, and 2008, helping to pick candidates for the final ballots that get presented to the Veterans Committee.

He was born in the year 1946 and grew up in Oradell, New Jersey. He graduated from Bergen Catholic High School.

He worked as a sportswriter for nine years with UPI before joining the Daily News in the year 1978, and covered the New York Yankees before he became a columnist in the year 1989.

In the year 1990, he crossed picket lines when the Daily News writers were on strike because of his objection to the Newspaper Guild turning down a three year contract that came with 20% raises from the parent Tribune Company.

In the year 2015, Bill got laid off from the Daily News by its publisher Mort Zuckerman. This was in a cost-cutting move which included other well-known and longtime columnists of the paper. But two years later, he was brought back in on a freelance basis and he writes several columns per week.

Bill was the recipient of the Baseball Hall of Fame’s J. G. Taylor Spink Award in 2010, which is the highest honor for a baseball scribe to receive, and is a member of the Writers Wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame in their “Scribes and Mikemen” display.

“Pride of October: What It Was to Be Young and a Yankee” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2008. No other team has come nearly as close to dominating the sport of baseball quite like the New York Yankees, with 38 American League championships and 26 World Series wins. No wonder no other team has got a fraction of baseball books being published about them. Bill Madden adds yet another to this lengthy list with this book.

From Whitey Ford and Phil Rizzuto to Paul O’Neil and Lou Piniella, seventeen ex-Yankees and a Yankee widow, reveal their memories from their respective careers. This wide range of Yankee seasons gets reflected in all of the players being chosen, so questions range from the reality of Babe Ruth’s “called home run”.

And the stunning final inning of the 2001 World Series loss to the Diamondbacks with the “unbeatable” Yankee closer Mariano Rivera pitching. During the clubhouse meetings, Rivera, who is normally a reserved guy, surprised his teammates by telling them they would win the game that night, but no matter what happened, it would all be in God’s hands.

Don Mattingly looks back on his thirteen mighty fine seasons with the Yanks without a single World Series ring to show for any of it. Madden also claims that Yogi Berra told him, when asking for directions to his home for the interview, that when you get to the house, you will see it.

“Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2010. If you love the Yankees, arguably the most storied franchise in all of sports, or even if you’re just a fan of baseball history, or even big business biographies, this biography of the larger-than-life team owner for the previous four decades is a must have for your bookshelf.

For over thirty years Bill Madden has covered Major League Baseball and the Yankees for the New York Daily News, and he brings all of these insights and inside connections to this book. This is the definitive bio about one of New York’s most intriguing and long standing sports figures, owner of the Yankees George Steinbrenner.

“Damned Yankees: Chaos, Confusion, and Craziness in the Steinbrenner Era” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2012. This is a firsthand, behind the scenes accounting of the turmoil which pervaded the Yankees franchise during the late seventies. This book discusses Steinbrenner’s buying the Yankees and continuous rebuilding of the team; along with a colorful cast of businessmen and players.

Not just a look at the time in Yankee Stadium, this chronicle also details the team’s public arguments, drunken excess, practical jokes, self-aggrandizing publicity efforts, and the downs and ups that accompanied the Yankees and Steinbrenner through the seventies and even beyond.

“Tom Seaver: A Terrific Life” is a non-fiction book that was released in the year 2020. He was called Tom Terrific for good reason. Tom Seaver is among the best pitchers of all time. He’s one of just two pitchers with 3,000 strikeouts, 300 wins, and an ERA under 3. He won the Cy Young three times, was a twelve time All Star, and was elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame with the highest percentage at the time. Popular among fans and players, he was fiercely competitive yet always put the team’s success ahead of his own personal glory.

Born in Fresno, he signed with the Mets in 1967, and lead them to their stunning World Series victory in 1969. After one legendarily lopsided trade, he became a member of the Cincinnati Reds, then played for the White Sox and Red Sox before he ended his career after the 1986 season.

Seaver, after his playing days ended, retired back to California to establish his successful vineyard. Then, in the year 2013, a recurrence of Lyme disease severely affected Tom’s memory, which Bill was the first to report on. In 2019, his family announced that he’d been diagnosed with dementia and was withdrawing from public life. He died on August 31, 2020.

Bill started following Seaver’s career during the eighties. Tom came to trust Bill so entirely that, eager to go back to New York from Chicago, he asked Bill to explore a potential trade to the Yankees that never ended up happening. Drawing partly on their long relationship, Bill’s created a bio just as terrific as its subject.