Doc, Donnie, the Kid, and Billy Brawl

A really fun look back at the summer of 1985 when the Mets and the Yankees flirted for the very first time with giving us a Subway Series. Fine work by Chris Donnelly. – Mike Vaccaro, New York Post

Although many readers already know the outcome of the 1985 season, Donnelly does a good job of building suspense. A solid choice for both Mets and Yankees fans. – Kirkus

The author has done a thorough job exploring the intense rivalry between the talent-rich ’85 Mets and the equally loaded Yankees for supremacy in the city during what were the generally bleak days of the mid-80s…[An] entertaining trip down memory lane.” – Mark Levine, Booklist

“…Chris Donnelly captures the essence of how entranced both fan bases were, as their respective teams battled at the top of their divisions, as they played meaningful baseball in both Yankee and Shea Stadium through September. – Jerry Milani, Sports Media Report

A rollicking look back at the pre–Wild Card era. – Patrick J. Sauer, New York Intelligencer

Fun. Nostalgic, Contagious. Doc, Donnie, The Kid, And Billy Brawl is a a manual for Yankees and Mets fans to read cover to cover, and use as ammunition for just who was a better team in 1985, and why. – Utica Observer-Dispatch

Donnelly’s latest is a must-read for sports fans everywhere. His attention to detail along with the firsthand accounts of so many players and personalities involved brought me back to the summer of ’85 and that unforgettable baseball season. – David A. Paterson, former governor of New York

Blurb:

Never before had both the Yankees and the Mets been in contention for the playoffs so late in the same season. For months New York fans dreamed of the first Subway Series in nearly 30 years, and the Mets and the Yankees vied for their hearts.

Despite their nearly identical records, the two teams were drastically different in performance and clubhouse atmosphere. The Mets were a team filled with hard-nosed players who won over New York with their dirty uniforms, curtain calls, after-hours activities, and because, well, they weren’t the Yankees.

Meanwhile the Yankees featured some of the game’s greatest talent. But the Yankees’ abundance of talent was easily overshadowed by their dominating owner, George Steinbrenner, whose daily intrusiveness made the 1985 Yankees appear more like a soap opera than a baseball team.

While the drama inside the Mets’ clubhouse only made the team more endearing to fans, the drama inside the Yankees’ clubhouse had the opposite effect. The result was the most attention-grabbing and exciting season New York would see in generations.