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Hideki Matsui must have wondered what he did to deserve such a cruel fate. He left the Japanese major leagues seven years ago to prove himself against the best in the world. In Japan, he had won three MVP awards and three championships. In 2003, he crossed the Pacific and joined the best team in MLB, coming off a stretch in which they'd won four titles and five pennants in seven years.

His first season saw the Yankees reach the World Series, with Matsui hitting a big three-run homer in Game 2. But as we all know, the Yanks lost the Series in six. The next five years went downhill from there, ending in an LCS loss, three straight LDS losses, and then failing to make the playoffs completely in 2008.

Matsui missed most of the 2006 season when he broke his wrist sliding to catch a pop-fly. He then missed about seven weeks in mid-2008 with knee problems. 2009 looked to be the 'swan song' for Matsui with the Yankees (and possibly in MLB).

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Thurman Munson

It may seem strange to write a book about a baseball player who has been dead for 30 years, especially one who did not even make the Hall of Fame.

That, however, is exactly what Marty Appel has done in the forthcoming book "MUNSON: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain."

The book, about legendary Yankee catcher Thurman Munson, of course, will be available for purchase in book stores July 7, but Random House was kind enough to send me an advance copy.

I am glad they did.

For Yankee fans old enough to remember watching Munson play, this book is sure to bring back a flood of old memories and emotions. And, teach you some things about Munson and the Yankees you never knew.

If you aren't old enough to remember Munson, read this book and learn. You will be glad you did.

Appel co-authored Munson's biography in the years before Thurman's tragic 1979 plane crash. But, early in the new book explains why he felt compelled to go back and write about him again.

"As I have reread that book over the years, I've always felt that Thurman held back too much, skirting over personal matters, as was his right. ... I was never really satisfied with it.

I was also perplexed. Why were his comments so unenlightening? ... Why did he have so little to say about his childhood?"

In his second try, Appel has done a fantastic job clearing up his questions and showing us the many faces of Munson.

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by the Times' Jack Curry -

In 12 years of managing Jeter, Torre said the only time he ever had to reprimand Jeter was for flipping balls behind his back during infield practice. Talk about a manager’s pet.

- Randy Johnson is a future Hall of Famer, but Torre was startled by how unnerved the pitcher sometimes was.

“The biggest surprise to me was how Randy Johnson could get rattled,” Torre said. “I wish we knew this about him in the 2001 World Series when we played against him. You could rattle him. Every start with Randy, it would be, ‘This guy has my pitches, that guy has my pitches …’”

There’s no question that New York is a different place to play. Everything you do is magnified and criticized. He was uncomfortable pitching in New York.”

- Torre recalled how he told Cashman to unload Jeff Weaver after he allowed a game-ending homer in Game 4 of the 2003 World Series “because emotionally he can’t handle it, trying to come back from that.”

- Because Carl Pavano was constantly injured and unreliable, his teammates disliked him. Torre asked Cashman to have Pavano, who was on the disabled list, join the Yankees on a road trip at the end of 2006 so his teammates could harass him. Instead, the players ignored Pavano.

Torre recalled an instance where Joe Kerrigan, the bullpen coach, told the manager that Pavano said, “I’m not blowing my arm out for this organization.” So Torre met with Pavano and asked him a pertinent question.

“Pav, this organization gave you $40 million and has been patient with you,” Torre said. “What I want to know is, for what organization would you be willing to risk blowing out your arm?”

- "Alex is all about the game,” Torre continued. “He needs the game. He needs all of those statistics. He needs every record imaginable. And he needs people to make a fuss over him. And he’s always going to put up numbers because he’s too good. It means a lot to him, and good for him.”

Lots of interesting stuff. Can't wait to read it.

(subtitled 'Remembering the Bambino in Stories, Photos & Memorabilia') - written by Julia Ruth Stevens and Bill Gilbert

This biography of Ruth's life was written primarily by his daughter, so I went in with high expectations and (for the most part) was not disappointed. Juila Ruth Stevens was born in 1917 to Ruth's future wife, Claire, who married Ruth in 1929. I had always assumed that Julia was Ruth's biological daughter until I read this and found out Ruth was her step-father. Regardless, she refers to him as 'Daddy' throughout the book, which was strange at first but came to be endearing as I grew accustomed to it.

Most of the book is a recap of Ruth's professional life, from his early days with the minor league Baltimore Orioles to his retired days when he tried in vain to get a managing job.

But the best parts concern his personal life, which only his daughter knew. For example, he was a fine hunter and fisherman, and would drive to the country on occasion to hunt and kill game. Before leaving at about 5 a.m. to beat rush hour traffic (which existed even back in the 20's), he would wake up Julia to cook her breakfast. There's a great photo of Ruth in full hunting gear holding a shotgun with dead birds draped around him like a necklace.

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You can finish this in a couple hours. It will entertain die hard fans but aims more toward casual fans.

I'm not sure how the fact that the Yankees were initially the Highlanders is a 'reason to love' them, or that they once played in the Polo Grounds, but alas, the vast majority are legitimate reasons. Each 'reason' gets a few sentences (and often a photo). Most focus on a particular player (e.g. Lou Gehrig, Paul O'Neill), a particular play (The Called Shot, Bucky Dent's HR), or something unique to the Yankees (the logo, the expectations, the pennants and titles).

There are even a few factoids that I never knew before: Howard 'Hopalong' Cassady was a scout and first base coach for the Columbus Clippers, and two Yankee pitchers swapped wives in the '70s (if there was any reason to love the Yankees, that would be it!).

The author even touched on several mostly forgotten Yankees, including Jack Chesbro, Frank Crosetti, Lefty Gomez and Bobby Veach (the only pinch-hitter Babe Ruth ever had).

The book even included a few off-kilter 'reasons', such as George Costanza, the Derek Jeter/George Bush/Mickey Mantle baseball card, and the infamous pine tar incident.

One 'reason' that particularly stuck out was the 'YMCA', which is anything but a reason to love the Yankees. I hate the YMCA.

101 Reasons includes some of the best quotes in Yankee lore.

- Catfish Hunter, on why he only pitched one perfect game: "The sun don't shine on the same dog's ass all the time."

- Billy Martin: "What does George know about Yankee pride? When did he ever play for the Yankees?"

- And Graig Nettles: "I wanted to be a baseball player and join the circus. With the Yankees, I have accomplished both."

The book concludes with '10 Reasons to Hate the Red Sox', but #6 (Ben Affleck) should really be the top reason.

Short, inexpensive and fun, it would serve as a good holiday gift for a Yankee fan in your family.

This is a visual book. What will jump out to you is the photos, which are truly remarkable. The quality and uniqueness of each one is something special.

They helped me understand that the post-1975 Stadium is really a different building than the 'original', and that I never got to see a game at the stadium that housed Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle. The 'newer' Stadium was not 'The House That Ruth Built'.

Unfortunately, the text between the photos leaves something to be desired. I ran into many a typo or straight up error (the '98 LDS did not go five games; Game 7 of the '04 LCS was not on October 30th; and the Yankees did not beat the Twins in the '04 LDS to win the AL East title, to name a few).

There are some diamonds in the rough though, like interesting tidbits from Bob Sheppard:

If Nolan Ryan had done it, if Sandy Koufax had done it, if Don Drysdale had done it, I would have nodded and said, "Well, it could happen." But Don Larsen?

Jim Bouton:

It was heartbreaking to see them tear the ballpark apart [in 1973]... They made it ugly inside too. They painted all the lockers blue, making them look cheap and tacky. It was like a Disney-fied version of Yankee Stadium... The people in charge, the ones who were doing those terrible things, had no sense of class or style or history or reverence for the game.

Whitey Ford:

If a guy blew a game because he came to work late after a long night of drinking or bouncing around, that's when somebody like Hank Bauer settled it in a hurry. He'd grab you in the dugout and look you right in the eyes and growl, "Don't fuck with my money."

But they're interspersed with snippets from various fans (including Boston, LA and the Mets) that really don't add anything.

This book focused exclusively on the Yankees - I'd hoped for some passages regarding the historical boxing matches (Louis vs. Schmeling) and football games (1958 NFL Championship) that occurred there.

That's not too big a deal though. This isn't the kind of book that you learn Yankee history from - if you care about attendance figures, fan quotations, and short recaps of select games and seasons, then this is right up your alley.

This is meant as a coffee table book - to be skimmed through with a focus on the extraordinary photos. It will certainly make you excited for the new Yankee Stadium, and wonder what memories it will endow to the generations that follow.

Last night, I finished reading Living on the Black, John Feinstein's 500 page chronicle of the 2007 season focused on the performances of Mike Mussina and Tom Glavine. The title, of course, comes from way both cerebral pitchers have to pitch in order to get major league hitters out.

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Are we going to keep reading? When we started out the idea was to get us through the offseason. I've enjoyed reading the books, but I don't have a strong opinion either way, so it's really up to you guys.