Former New York Yankees outfielder Dave Winfield poses for a photo in the dugout prior to the game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City on Sept. 8, 2013. Andy Marlin/Getty Images
Prior to signing then baseball’s richest contract—10 years, $23 million—in the game’s history with New York in December 1980, Winfield was already a four-time National League All-Star selection. His rattling off eight consecutive (1981–1988) All-Star berths in the American League was the expectation from both player and management. What wasn’t on the checklist of the 6-foot-6 outfielder from St. Paul, Minnesota, in coming to New York was his tumultuous relationship with the club’s principal owner George M. Steinbrenner. The collision between the superstar player and owner went to lengths few had ever experienced in sport. So much high drama bounced back and forth in the Bronx it could have filled up a book. Now, decades after surviving his time in Yankeeland, Winfield indeed has set his record straight in 274 pages.
Winfield was so gifted as an athlete that never once during his 22 seasons in the MLB did he play a single game in the minor leagues. Going from the University of Minnesota straight to the San Diego Padres in 1973, the hard-throwing pitcher turned home run-hitting outfielder made his mark immediately as a professional. Collecting 3,000 hits, 400-plus home runs, 1,800-plus RBIs, you’d think could fill chapters with many memorable on-field happenings. For Winfield, one of only three collegiate athletes to be drafted by four professional leagues (NFL, NBA, ABA, and MLB), what was taking place on his peripheral, to this day, required closure.
Getting together with the right storyteller for ”Touching All the Bases: A Story of Power, Purpose and Surviving the Bronx,” was a must, and Winfield’s choice was veteran scribe Alan Maimon. Joining the Hall of Famer for this book, for Maimon, was too good to pass up.
“Dave’s agent approached me about working on the project,” Maimon said in an email to The Epoch Times. “I had previously collaborated with another of his clients, Tim Raines. I was impressed with the draft Dave had written and with his overall vision of the book. This clearly wasn’t going to be just another book. From there, it was a matter of working with Dave to tell his incredible story the way he wanted it told.”
The meat of 17 chapters in “Touching All the Bases” has all the traits of an addictive spy novel; a whodunit, back room collision of egos, right-versus-wrong—all of it played out in full view for all to keep score. Chapter 14—Spies, Lies, and RIBs offers covertness worthy of applause from thriller author John Grisham. There’s Winfield and Steinbrenner with dueling lawsuits. A low-level gambler, desperately in search of a job with Winfield’s philanthropic foundation (and denied repeatedly), on page 172 tells the All-Star’s lawyer Jeff Klein, “Well, tell [Winfield] I’ll put a bullet in him for what he’s done to me.”
Aside from dodging wild pitches, Winfield is also looking out for unsavory characters trying to take advantage of his wealth and good nature. Then, with bouts of back spasms, an ulcer, and ultimately a herniated disc that caused Winfield to miss the entire 1989 season, the drama seemingly has no end.
A woman described as a stalker claiming to be Winfield’s wife, someone who he didn’t know personally, went so far as having checks printed with “Mrs. Winfield” on them. In New York, the culprit attempted to pass a bad check in a high-end department store and in Georgia when trying to purchase a car. Aside from battling Steinbrenner for monies contractually promised for his Foundation and cost of living raises also promised, Winfield found himself in a Houston courtroom challenging a former girlfriend and the mother of his out-of-wedlock daughter who he fully supported. The woman claimed they had a common-law marriage, saying they were “as good as married.” There was no rest for what was obviously becoming a weary Winfield.
But, the true “undercover hero” in the battle with the gambler and Steinbrenner’s efforts to hurt Winfield in the court of public opinion was Mario Casciano. A former assistant to the late music icon John Lennon and a fiercely loyal confidant to the Yankee superstar, his clandestine relationship with the gambler gets more thrilling by the page.
Capturing all the details of the many directions in which Winfield’s life was being pulled keeps the suspense flowing.
For Maimon, it was also more time-consuming.
For both Winfield and Maimon, it’s mission accomplished.
Never has filling in the blanks in one’s life in sports been as riveting as offered in “Touching All the Bases.”
