IN THE BEGINNING

WHEN MY HUSBAND AND I do speaking engagements together, we like to do this little routine:

Vicki: I like to get up early, around 5:30 or 6:00.1 love the morning.

Billy: I hate early.

Vicki: I like ballet, and I love the theater.

Billy: I could watch ESPN all day and be perfectly happy.

Vicki: I like the house quiet. If it were up to me, we would not have a TV.

Billy: With nine TVs in our new apartment, a pitch, a pass, a putt, or a punt is not missed.

Vicki: I know that traffic lights are given by God to bring order to my life.

Billy: In New York City, traffic lights are a suggestion only, and I believe they're a tool of Satan to disrupt my whole day's plans.

Vicki: I love to plan in advance.

Billy: I don't understand that. Why would you want to plan in advance when you know the best offer is going to come along at the last minute ?

Vicki: At the end of the day I really like to talk about everything we've gone through, every situation we've faced.

Billy: Why do women find it necessary to talk about the stuff that you just lived through all day? It makes absolutely no sense at all.

Billy and I are opposites in so many ways that you might wonder how we ever ended up together and are still married nearly forty years after taking our vows. Throughout this book you'll get to read a lot about how we've managed to stay married. But in order to fully understand our story, it's important that you know where we came from and how we ended up together.

YOUNG BILLY ROSE

William Stuart Rose was born on July 2, 1952, and grew up in a Jewish family in Manhattan. However, Judaism was never a big factor in Billy's childhood. In fact, he went to Trinity School—a private school in New York City—where he attended Christian chapel every day. Billy remembers going to temple as a child only on some of the High Holy Days. The problem was, the High Holy Days occurred during the World Series (which took place in September back then). His mom wouldn't let him miss school to watch his beloved Yankees play in the World Series unless he went to temple first. So to temple he went and then headed off to baseball's temple: Yankee Stadium. Billy remembers watching Mickey Mantle hit a home run to win that game, though the Yankees ended up losing the series.

Billy had a terrific childhood. His parents were his two closest friends and were very dear to his heart. His dad was fifty-six when Billy was born, and he was twenty-five years older than Billy's mom. Nevertheless, Billy and his dad would play ball together all the time—Wiffle ball, that is. They would play in the hallway of their New York City apartment, with Billy's mom yelling at them as antiques crashed to the floor.

Billy dreamed of playing professional baseball, so he worked hard at his game. He taught himself to bat left-handed, and he consistently hit over .400 after he became a switch-hitter. After his sophomore year of high school, he transferred to a prep school in Connecticut, where he was captain of the baseball team. During his junior year he had verbal offers from two major league teams—the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox. He was disappointed that the Yankees weren't showing interest, but any interest was good. Both teams told him if he played as well during his senior year as he had during his junior year, they would come back and sign him. Billy was also offered a full scholarship to play baseball at Arizona State University. Unfortunately, during his senior year of high school, Billy had a career-ending knee injury and was never able to play either college or professional baseball.

Since collegiate baseball was no longer an option, Billy headed off to Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Never one to do much in the way of academics, Billy likes to joke, "College would have been perfect if it weren't for the classes." He changed majors three times before he found one he liked that didn't include any math. He finally settled on political science. Billy and two friends pledged a fraternity, but after their rush experience, they decided to depledge. They convinced their parents to rent them an apartment, which is common now but wasn't in the early seventies. Their apartment became party central, and they practically put the fraternities out of business. Billy graduated in 1974, but he didn't even stick around for the commencement ceremony. His parents weren't thrilled, but he didn't want to go back just for graduation.

Not too long after college, Billy was introduced to George Steinbrenner—then the principal owner and managing partner of the Yankees—through a mutual friend. George presented Billy with two job offers. He could manage the Yankees Class-A minor league baseball team in Fort Lauderdale or take the position of general manager of the Yankees AAA minor league team in Syracuse. He turned them both down, because although he loved baseball and the Yankees, he wasn't sure he could work for George. He was much happier being his friend.

Part of the reason Billy was easily able to turn down Mr. Steinbrenner's offers was that he had a job in the family business, Fabrics by William Rose, a premiere textile company that supplied fabric to Seventh Avenue's top dress and sportswear designers. They imported fabric from Europe and sold it to higher-priced dress designers such as Anne Klein, Calvin Klein, and Oscar de la Renta. However, Billy did become involved in the baseball business in 1976 when he and his dad purchased a minority stake in the Yankees, which we still hold today.

MY TURBULENT CHILDHOOD

I, Victoria Ellen Gage, was born on January 3,1953, also to Jewish parents in Manhattan. My father was a hardworking stockbroker with little patience for those who didn't work hard. My mother was a fulltime, stay-at-home mom as well as a perfectionist with an unpredictable temper. Both of my parents were highly critical.

My older sister, Heidi, and I are four years apart, and though we are the best of friends now and extremely close, we fought bitterly when we were growing up. I was jealous of her beauty, her boyfriends, and her abilities, and I spent a good part of my childhood and early adulthood trying to outdo her in any way I could. We both attended the Spence School, a private school for girls in New York...