Michael Wagner

Michael Wagner has been a New York Yankees fan since he was a child growing up in West Hempstead, New York. For 21 years he was a U.S. Air Force historian, which has greatly helped prepare him in this exciting venture.

His love of the Yankees and old Yankee Stadium seemed to be a natural for the telling of this historical tome. Rather than letting his many personal photos gather dust in the closet, he wrote this book to share them with the world so they would not be lost forever. The historic 1970's renovation of Yankee Stadium has been largely glossed over and ignored until "Babe's Place: The Lives of Yankee Stadium," gave it the platform it deserved.

Many Yankees/baseball fans have given critical praise to Mr. Wagner for the thorough research and storytelling he has given to this story. He tells of how the team began to be called the "Yankees" on April 26, 1904. He also names contractors and costs of the builders of Yankee Stadium in the 1920's, as well as the renovators, costs, and problems in the 1970's modernization of the ballpark. Many other fascinating little known facts are to be found in this book. As Mr. Wagner has stated, "This book was a labor of love."