THE COLONEL AND HUG: The Partnership that Transformed the New York Yankees

THE COLONEL AND HUG                          STEVE STEINBERG & LYLE SPATZ

From the team’s inception in 1903, the New York Yankees were a floundering group that played as second-class citizens to the New York Giants. With four winning seasons to date, the team was purchased in 1915 by Jacob Ruppert and his partner, Cap “Til” Huston. Three years later, when Ruppert hired Miller Huggins as manager, the unlikely partnership of the two figures began, one that set into motion the Yankees’ run as the dominant baseball franchise of the 1920s and the rest of the twentieth century, capturing six American League pennants with Huggins at the helm and four more during Ruppert’s lifetime. 

 The Yankees’ success was driven by Ruppert’s executive style and enduring financial commitment, combined with Huggins’s philosophy of continual improvement and personnel development. While Ruppert and Huggins had more than a little help from one of baseball’s greats, Babe Ruth, their close relationship has been overlooked in the Yankees’ rise to dominance. Though both were small of stature, the two men nonetheless became giants of the game with unassailable mutual trust and loyalty. The Colonel and Hug tells the story of how these two men transformed the Yankees. It also tells the larger story about baseball primarily in the tumultuous period from 1918 to 1929—with the end of the Deadball Era and the rise of the Lively Ball Era, a gambling scandal, and the collapse of baseball’s governing structure—and the significant role the Yankees played in it all. While the hitting of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig won many games for New York, Ruppert and Huggins institutionalized winning for the Yankees.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

This is an excellent book about the true beginnings of the Yankee Dynasty. Beginning at a time when the New York Giants where the toast of the town. In 1915 Jacob Ruppert and Cap “Til” Huston bought the team wanting to put a competitive team out there. Then in 1918 when Huston was in Europe for WWI, Ruppert hired Miller Huggins who was a scrappy player but as a manager new how to put a team together. With the two of them they were able to win 6 American League Pennants. Of course it helped getting Babe Ruth from the Red Sox, but Ruppert also got Ed Barrow who left the Red Sox for the Yankees and it was really his leadership in contracts, starting a scouting team that helped as well. Together the forged ahead and when forced they purchase land in the Bronx which was just starting to grow and by the time it opened that year they made it to their third World Series and finally won. The author describes how the relationship broke down between the owners because of the hiring of Huggins, and Ruppert bought out Huston. The author gives you an inside look into the workings of the beginning of the winningest team. The good along with the not so good. For me being a Yankee fan this was a great book and my family being from the Bronx that was just the way it was and who you routed for. A lot of history about the team, players, manager and from an era gone for good. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com 

LOCKED AND LOADED (U.S. Marshals #5)

LOCKED AND LOADED                             MANDY BAXTER

With a rock-hard body and steel blue eyes, Mason Decker is about to become the U.S. Marshals’ newest recruit. But one last undercover job with a straitlaced attorney will test him to his limits . . . 
 
Charlotte Cahill intends to take down an infamous diamond smuggler on the FBI’s Most Wanted list—and she intends to do it by the book.  That won’t be easy with the cocky new temporary deputy on her task force. Mason Decker feels like trouble, especially when his cool gaze wanders across her hot body . . .
 
After his time as a Customs officer, Decker has enough experience hanging out with criminals to know that working undercover means following your instincts, not the rules. It doesn’t take long for him to lock horns with Cahill. But when the sexy assistant U.S. attorney is accidentally dragged out of her orderly world and into the turn-on-a-dime tension of Decker’s deceptive games, she’ll find that nothing is as seductive as playing a new role . . . 

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

A fast paced story of thieves and criminals who you don’t know which side even the good guys are on until the end. Charlotte Cahill is a U. S. Attorney heading up a task force to take down a group of people that they don’t know who all of the players are. Enter Mason Decker a former customs, border agent who has been trying to enter the U. S. Marshall's for years and always being denied because of who his father is. Now trying to get in any way possible they come to him with a deal help them and they will fast track his application. He agrees only because he wants to take down the people, but first he must meet his father who has been locked up for ten years and somehow get with the guy he always thought of as a brother and who learned from his father as well. Coming up with a plan and not telling anyone pisses off Cahill who barges in on his first met and now she has put herself in their cross hairs. Not knowing what she did she can’t get out of it and has to go along with Mason. The story picks up from their and is a wild ride to a surprise finish. Overall a very good book with good characters and storyline. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 4 stars. Follow us atwww.1rad-readerreviews.com

THE YELLOW ROSE BEAUTY SHOP (Cadillac, Texas #3)

THE YELLOW ROSE BEAUTY SHOP              CAROLYN BROWN

Stella’s mama never should’ve put Stella on the church prayer list. With Stella’s twenty-seventh birthday coming up fast, Nancy desperately wants to see her daughter married and giving her grandbabies. Petitioning heaven seems like a surefire way to get it done. But in Cadillac, Texas, where the gossip’s hotter than the city’s famous jalapeƱo peppers, it isn’t long before all hell breaks loose.

Heather, the bossy leader of the church’s Prayer Angels, thinks a summer ball will get Stella and the town’s other single gals paired off. But nobody can tell redheaded spitfire Stella what to do—not her mama, not Heather, and not even the sexy beau Stella’s been seeing in secret. Together, Stella, her best friends Charlotte and Piper, and the loyal customers of the Yellow Rose Beauty Shop hatch a good old-fashioned scheme to sabotage the ball. But will it wreck Stella’s relationship with her mama forever? And what will the church folk think when Stella reveals the identity of her mystery man?

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

Stella’s mom has put her name in the pray group because she wants her married and wants grand babies. The problem was after the prayer meeting Heater puts a sign up in the store saying that Stella is looking to get married. Not liking having her business out on Main Street the red head sets off fireworks and Heater wishes she did not put that sign up. Her mother is sorry, but she can deal with her mother. What she has in store for Heather and anyone else is a whole different matter. A good story of strong women, that being Stella and her friends deal with this and other daily crisis like Piper raising twin boys because her ex did not want to be a father or husband. Stella does have a boyfriend buts she is keeping the whole relationship secret because of the small town and all of the talk. Overall a good story about friends, relationships and the struggles to keep others out of your life. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 5 stars.
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