Tony Lazzeri: A Baseball Biography (review)

Only two men—Lou Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri—played for both the 1927 Yankees, regarded by many as the greatest team ever, and the 1937 Yankees, who would go on to win four consecutive World Series. Almost every baseball fan knows the story of Lou Gehrig, but Tony Lazzeri has been overshadowed by his more famous teammates of that era—Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Joe Di-Maggio, among others. Paul Votano's Tony Lazzeri: A Baseball Biography helps to rectify this situation.

This was not an easy task. As Votano points out in his preface, "Lazzeri lived in an era when information was not made available as abundantly as it is today," and Lazzeri himself was reticent when dealing with the media (p. xi). Nevertheless, through analysis of newspaper reports, books, and articles about the era, as well as interviews with a few people who knew Lazzeri or had seen him play, Votano has been able to piece together a comprehensive picture of Lazzeri's career, a career that lasted for most of fourteen Major League seasons and eventually earned him membership in the Hall of Fame.

Lazzeri was raised in San Francisco by his immigrant Italian parents. While he was not a great student, he established himself as an accomplished baseball player and was signed by Salt Lake City of the Pacific Coast League for the 1922 season. He played for Salt Lake City from 1922–25, although he spent portions of the 1923 and 1924 seasons with Peoria, Illinois (Three-I League) and Lincoln, Nebraska (Western League) respectively. In 1925, Lazzeri hit 60 home runs and had 222 rbi for Salt Lake in 197 games of the extended Pacific Coast League season.

Lazzeri was purchased from Salt Lake City by the Yankees during the 1925 season. A few teams had shied away from him due to his epilepsy, but the Yankees felt he could be a strong performer despite the disease and recognized that he would be an excellent draw for the large Italian-American population in New York. They were correct on both counts.

Votano follows Lazzeri's career chronologically through the pennant-winning seasons of 1926–28, the years as "also-rans" behind the Athletics (1929–31), the triumph of 1932, the runner-up years of 1933–35 and the first two years of the next Yankee dynasty (1936–37). The final chapters discuss Lazzeri's brief stints with the Cubs, Giants, and Dodgers (1938–39), his later years in the minors (1939–43) as a player and manager, and his untimely death in 1946 at the age of forty-two.

When he arrived for the 1926 season, Lazzeri became a leader in the Yankee infield that featured two other young stars, Mark Koenig at short and Lou Gehrig at first. In his rookie season Lazzeri played every game and hit .275 with 18 homers, 114 rbi, and 16 stolen bases, a fantasy team owner's dream for a rookie second baseman. Lazzeri was remarkably consistent over his twelve-year career with the Yankees. He hit over .300 five times (.354 in 1929), drove in 1001 runs seven times, and hit between 13 and 18 home runs for nine of those seasons. He finished his Major League career (1740 games) with a lifetime average of .292, 178 home runs and 1191 rbi, playing in seven World Series—six with the Yankees and one with the Cubs. Lazzeri's propensity to drive in runs justified his nickname of "Poosh-em-up," a nickname earned early in his Minor League career and one that is somewhat overused by the author throughout the book.

Lazzeri's early success helped establish him as a bona fide celebrity. Votano points out that after a day held in his honor at Yankee Stadium on September 8, 1927, followed by a testimonial dinner attended by over 1000 people, "There could be little doubt now that Lazzeri had become the idol of Italian fans everywhere and the first true Italian-American superstar in professional sports...