Chumps to Champs

Author Bill Pennington
Narrator Christian Baskous
Publisher Blackstone Publishing
Run Time 13 hours and 34 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Baseball, History of sport.

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What to expect

The untold story of the time when the New York Yankees were a laughingstock—and how out of that abyss emerged the modern Yankees dynasty, one of the greatest in all of sports

The New York Yankees have won twenty-seven world championships and forty American League pennants, both world records. They have twenty-six members in the Hall of Fame. Their pinstripe swag is a symbol of “making it” worn across the globe. Yet some twenty-five years ago, from 1989 to 1992, the Yankees were a pitiful team at the bottom of the standings, sitting on a fourteen-year World Series drought and a 35 percent drop in attendance. To make the statistics worse, their mercurial, bombastic owner was banned from baseball.

But out of these ashes emerged the modern Yankees dynasty, a juggernaut built on the sly, a brilliant mix of personalities, talent, and ambition. In Chumps to Champs, Pennington reveals a grand tale of revival. Listeners encounter larger-than-life characters like George Steinbrenner and unexplored figures like award-winning manager Buck Showalter, Don Mattingly, and the crafty architect of it all—general manager Gene Michael, who assembled the team’s future stars—Rivera, Jeter, Williams, O’Neill, and Pettitte.

Drawing on unique access, Pennington tells a wild and raucous tale.

Critics Review

“A book that—much like those Yankees—will be talked about for decades.”
Ian O'Connor, New York Times bestselling author
“Bill Pennington spins a richly detailed narrative of the fall and rise of the Yankees…The pages sparkle with forgotten and previously untold nuggets.”
Tom Verducci, New York Times bestselling author
“[Pennington’s] attention to the critical details of the lives of both the players and the front-office personnel is unusually penetrating. The title is snarky, but the book is intelligent and memorable.”
Booklist (starred review)
“A fast-paced, insider history…a must for Yankees fans but also an exciting history for any baseball aficionados.”
Publishers Weekly
“This well-written account of the building of a new Yankee dynasty in the 1990s is deeply informed by the author’s extensive interviews and will be enjoyed by all baseball fans.”
Library Journal
“Pennington writes a mixture of interviews, biographies, on-the-field action, and fierce front-office politics.”
Kirkus Reviews
“Christian Baskous narrates this compelling slice of recent baseball history…Though this account is a potentially unwieldy combination of interviews, history, and play-by-play action, it sounds entirely seamless as read by Baskous. He turns the work into a well-articulated, easy-to-follow story. Baskous also skillfully captures the personalities of the players, coaches, and front-office executives listeners meet along the way.”
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