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Get Your Tokens Ready

The Late 1990s Road to the Subway Series

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Pub Date May 01 2025 | Archive Date Apr 30 2025

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Description

Starting with the first ever regular season matchup between the Mets and Yankees and ending with the last out of the 2000 Subway Series, Get Your Tokens Ready provides the most in-depth look ever published at both teams during the late 1990s and the 2000 season.

The 1996 season ended with the Yankees winning their first World Series championship in eighteen years and receiving a grand parade through the streets of the city. The Mets exited the season still struggling to maintain managers and quality players and battling controversy in the clubhouse and off-field.

By 2000, the Yankees, amid baseball’s first dynasty in a generation, appeared the undisputed kings of New York with three World Series titles in four seasons. The Mets, however, after years of irrelevance, had rebuilt their team not only to be competitive but to create one dramatic moment after another. Adding to the story were several people who had played or managed for both teams during their careers, most notably Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, David Cone, and Joe Torre. The result was a golden age of baseball for the city, culminating at long last in the two teams finally battling for New York’s baseball soul in the new millennium during the 2000 World Series.

Detailing the moments you remember and some you may have forgotten—from fake mustaches to all-out melees, from wild pitch endings to thrown bat insanity, from heartache to celebration—Get Your Tokens Ready covers it all.

Starting with the first ever regular season matchup between the Mets and Yankees and ending with the last out of the 2000 Subway Series, Get Your Tokens Ready provides the most in-depth look ever...


Advance Praise

“Many of us of a certain age believed we’d never see a Subway Series as our fathers and grandfathers had, and then, amazingly, we did. In the final piece of Chris Donnelly’s lyrical trilogy detailing New York’s late-century baseball renaissance, he brings us back to those wonderful years when the dream became, first, possible and, ultimately, real. In his hands Get Your Tokens Ready is a masterful story told by a master storyteller.”—Mike Vaccaro, sports columnist for the New York Post and author of 1941—The Greatest Year in Sports

“When George Steinbrenner, sports talk radio, and the back pages were king, baseball was at its best. Chris Donnelly masterfully transports us back to one of the wildest rides in the sport’s history, when the Mets and Yankees shaped a generation of fans at the center of the baseball universe.”—Evan Drellich, senior writer for The Athletic and author of Winning Fixes Everything: How Baseball’s Brightest Minds Created Sports’ Biggest Mess

“Many of us of a certain age believed we’d never see a Subway Series as our fathers and grandfathers had, and then, amazingly, we did. In the final piece of Chris Donnelly’s lyrical trilogy detailing...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781496230805
PRICE $34.95 (USD)
PAGES 344

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Featured Reviews

The late 90s are my earliest memories of watching Major League Baseball. As a native New Yorker and life long Yankees fan, The subway series was a huge part of my formative years. “Get Your Tokens Ready” does a fantastic job of transporting you right back to the time period. The descriptions of the games and players are so detailed and informative that it brought me right back to those moments leading up to the infamous subway series. I thoroughly enjoyed this retrospective and I’d recommend to long time fans who want to relive history and new fans who are in for a treat. This book a must for lovers of history and baseball.

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A nostalgic look back at a brief, highly entertaining slice of new york baseball. The book was laid out and told in a fascinating way that kept the material fresh - snippets of the first ever interleague matchup between the Mets and Yankees interspersed between the larger narrative of the 1997-2000 seasons covering each team culminating in the world series. I was only a youngster during the time period of this book but vividly remember much of the more media covered things - bobby valentine emerging in the dugout under disguise after an ejection, the yips of chuck knoblauch, rise of Piazza, tense battles between the Mets and my Atlanta Braves and of course the world series meeting of new york squads. I enjoyed having the author take a deeper dive into this brief but memorable era in baseball history. Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for the advance copy.

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Get Your Tokens Ready is a richly detailed and engaging chronicle of New York City baseball at the turn of the millennium, culminating in the unforgettable 2000 Subway Series. Chris Donnelly masterfully explores the contrasting paths of the Mets and Yankees, weaving together pivotal games, player profiles, and cultural commentary to illuminate one of baseball’s most storied rivalries. With sharp insight and thorough research, Donnelly captures the emotion, history, and high stakes of a defining era in New York sports. A must-read for baseball fans and sports historians alike.

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If you are an avid baseball fan, this is a MUST-READ!

Chris Donnelly's "Get Your Tokens Ready" covers the New York Mets and the New York Yankees separately from 1997 up until their Subway Series clash in 2000 with such insane detail that I felt like I was actually there instead of watching everything unfold from my couch. While I remember the big picture, delving into the nitty gritty of each team's moves, streaks, and more was great.

This is so well-executed, it's difficult to describe specific moments that spoke to me the most. The biggest thing is the details show that the right research was thoroughly done. Not only that, the combination of details and real feel brought this book to life and made me feel like I was right back in this late-90s time frame all over again.

A HUGE thank you to NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review!

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A highly entertaining look at New York baseball, both the Yankees and the Mets, in the late 1990s (1997 to 2000). Well-written with plenty of detail and insider stories about the players and the management of both teams.

Highly recommended for baseball fans. This is a must-read.

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