CONNECTICUT YANKEE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100018-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 2, 2011
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: November 18, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

?STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02 : CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100018-3
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGE ~_
. Little, Brown & Company.
Illustrated. 422 pp. Boston:
By Michael Burke.
spotlight early in life asa sti'
-?born.and raised in Connecticut,
he became accustomed to the
UST one of Michael "Burke's
many careers.. would - be.
NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
18 November 19814 -
N general', Mr. Burke was.,
good for baseball and the
New York Yankees. How-
ever, many fans will never
With this sort of material at. !' forgive him for ruthlessly firing
his fingertips, Mr. Burke could''... Red Barber, generally consid-,
hardly wri te a dull autobiogra-' ;, erect the best play-by-play an-
phy. In fact, he has turned out a' .nouncer of all time, after Mr. .
sparkling one, filled with behind-. Barber properly called attention"
enemy-lines derring-do, confron- to the sparse attendance (413 '
tations with Jimmy Hoffa and his- paying customers) in Yankee
Teamsters; skirmishes with Stadium one' dreary September
George Steinbrenner 'and 'his afternoon in 1966. We never learn
minions, encounters with . Elea- ; { whether Mr. Burke has ever had !
nor Roosevelt and her children second thoughts about the firing,-
and nights on. the. town with the. since he never mentions Mr. Bar- I
likes of Ernest Hemingway, Kiln -, ber. It would have been nice if he
Philbyand. Reggie Jackson. This ;had admitted his- misjudgment-1
more than .enough'for any,
owns the Rangers hockey' teams
Garden Corporation.'.which also
Burke .decided leaving was .bet-
j George Steinbrenner, but the two
Yankees himself, along _witli
A decade later he bou t the
the baseball team..-
in 1964, he became president `of4
quisitions,.. and ' after`- acquiring
the New York-Yankees for';CBS
as vice president in charge of ac-.'
Columbia' Broadcasting System:.
Ringling Brothers and Barnum
accepted the job of running the (r:
of the C.I:A.'
dercover operative in the employ..,:-:.
War II found him unhappily sell- , an effective administrator, . a nance at New York University
ing insurance, but before the war .. good friend who caii . be counted and is the author of "The Glory of
was over he was parachuting be. on when needed; a.genial drink- I Their Times" a nds' a children's.
hind German lines to work with ing buddy and a man with a so- book, "The story of Baseball."
cial conscience
the French underground. After and s well-honed
the war, he wound up in Holly- sense of equity and fair play - in?
wood working as a technical ad general, an all=around prince of a
wiser on cloak-and-dagger films, fellow.-It is clear,,however; that.
from which it was a natural se- ambition has played an ? impor-
quel to spend a number of years-!' tent role in his life, more'so,.per-
abroad as a real-life spy - an un-,: ?; Naps, than he, likes` to' acknowl-__
extraordinary . range of people.:.., and offered a belated apology to
and events msures something of Barber and New York's
o
Y
interest for just ab
utevery kind
;-' baseball fans. That's what. Mr:
.of-reader.
n _ ` $ { Burke's idealized alter ego would
Every autoiography.is more have done- anyway:' I . ^
Pennsylvania's top-ranked _f~;t__. 1'_', and Mr. Burke': is noexception. -- - - ..
ball team The start of World = By and large, he sees himself as ' ' Lawrence S. Ritter teaches fi- t
ball team..A couple of years"ago;.: I _ ment. We learn a 1ot about per
approaching the age of 65, he as-, sonal rewards; but-human costs
tonished everyone who knew him. 1 are barely mentioned.
by suddenly resigning from j.._,.
Madison Square Garden `'" and
retiring to. County Galway, Ire- .
land, where he still lives.
Mickey Mantle at ceremonies for
Mantle's retirement, Yankee
Stadium V1969.
edge Like `most compulsive :.
sacrificed family Considerations
on the altar of: career advance
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/03/02: CIA-RDP90-01208R000100100018-3