Product Description
Some say he was the greatest ever—a rare combination of power and speed who made acrobatic catches and never failed to get a hit when his team needed it most. The son of an Oklahoma miner, he was the anchor in center field for a Yankees team that won seven world championships. He was three times the league MVP, he won the Triple Crown in 1956, and in 1961 he dueled teammate Roger Maris in a thrilling race for the single-season home run record. He was so famous that to identify him people didn’t even bother to say his last name or even all of his first. He was known, simply, as The Mick.

Mickey Mantle is the first-ever illustrated biography published with the support of the Mantle family. Covering his entire life from his impoverished youth to his glorious career to his poignant sunset years, it features rare photos and never-before-seen memorabilia, with 10 pull-out, removable facsimiles. It also includes intimate stories collected over the years by his sons and his friend, writer Mickey Herskowitz— stories that will be new even to the most avid Mantle enthusiasts. This book is an absolute must for Mantle fans of every stripe, Yankees fans, and baseball fans in general. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Mickey Mantle
I bought this for my husband - he loves it and is an avid reader of sports books.

Best Mantle Book
This is the best Mickey Mantle book I've seen.A quality book with some great memorabilia included, inside sleeves, within the book.You won't be disappointed, this is truly a great book.

Mickey Mantle Book
Book was nicely put together and contains some great pictures as well asreproductions of his first contract, a letter from Richard Nixon, a love letter to his wife, etc. I'm sure there are better books out there in terms of the amount of information about Mantle. Buy the book only if you want to own reproductions of Mantle memorabilia but skip it otherwise.

A MUST HAVE FOR MANTLE FANS!
I got this wonderful book for my father for Christmas and he loves it! It's his favorite book on Mickey Mantle. As a Yankee fan myself I also love the book-it's very touching how Danny and David Mantle talk about their Father.The photos are beautiful and all the little extras are really neat to look at. I recommend this book to Mantle and Yankee fans everywhere.

Mickeys
My favorite player (my nickname is 'Mickey'). Well done different presentation. I really enjoyed ... Read more

Product Description
In Mickey Mantle we see America’s romance with boldness, its celebration of muscle, and its comfort in power during a time when might did make right. But if his life symbolized the great expectations of America in the 1950s, it also epitomized the dashed dreams of a troubled generation in the 1960s and its unrealistic hopes for achievement. Mickey Mantle: America’s Prodigal Son is both an explosive biography of a fascinating and enduring sports hero and a telling look at American society in his time. During six years of research, former Sports Illustrated writer Tony Castro interviewed more than 250 friends, teammates, lovers, acquaintances, and drinking buddies of one of America’s most famous sports stars. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Chopped and confused

Writer clearly struggled writing this book, and could not figure out what he was trying to say. Choppy inconsistent and generally boorish.

The man and the legend!

It results a common place to state the New York Yankees captured along the past Century (and still does) the absolute attention of the great audiences inside and overseas to become a true epic legend. Every five years new and emblematic names inscribed his names with golden letters to enhance still more this living legend.

But Mickey Mantle' s charisma literally surpassed all the possible epithets; his powerful wrists at the moment to make that magic swing so imitated for many sluggers, constituted by himself a justified motive to assist the Yankee Stadium.

That' s why the simple fact of spelling his name was immediately an attraction motive; because that generation of sluggers was compensated for an impressive generation of formidable pitchers; this admirable conjunction of fortunate events made even, much more emotive and mesmerizing the homerun considered as the maxim climax; the definitive feat. And this distinction was proportionally rated according the pitcher' s status.

The Big Mickey was a true mass media`s idol. Perhaps there has not been another baseball player (with the notable exceptions of Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig) with such astonishing ability to inflame multitudes with that emotion level. The admirable dimensions of his homeruns are part of the collective memory, but the most aspect worthy to remark was precisely mantle was not an ultra developed musculature, or a febrile consumer of supplementary hormones. You should to take into account in those times, the numbers of hours you spent in an airplane made still, more tiring the daily effort, the number of hours of rest was considerably minor respect those actual times.

This sensational biography contains abundant information, graphical and zealously descriptive around the greatest moments in the Big Show, his personal records in the Stars Game and World Series.

For those generations who had the chance to see him, for all those who knew about him in his historic moment, but specially for this newcomer generations, for whom his name is simply synonymous of a legend, it would be very advisable to acquire this invaluable testimony of one of the most emotive, passionate and committed Baseball players in any time.

Farewell Mickey, because your Promethean effort has been compensated for the myth force to become a everlasting legend and motive of continuous, renovated and future references about your tenacity and discipline in the infield.

SORRY
Well, sorry to be the only one in disagreement, but this is a trivial and sophomoric book with absolutely nothing original in it. First off, I did live during Mickey's time, and I knew him casually. There are a lot of books describing Mickey's faults, all of which he admitted to himself. The pop psychology, done from a distance, with just the right amount of politically correct sociology really gets old in sports books. The Author contradicts himself several times and does not understand at all the mentality of managers or players in the late 40's and 50's. Hegets off on the strangest tangents, and I can't for the life of me figure out what he was driving at. It's a pointless book that reminds me of an article in a checkout stand tabloid. Skip this, get Golenbock's "Dynasty" or "Wild, High and Tight".

meticulously researched
if this is your first interest in a book about "the mick", castro's work is a great place to start.i wish this one was available before i read the other three in my collection.what sets this book apart, is the journalistic integrity that is apparent with it, and the avoidance of sensationalism just for the sake of it.it is complete with dozens of anecdotes told by those that knew mantle - a feature that undoubtedly serves to make it more interesting than standard biographical non fiction.it is obvious that the author, seeking to be impartial, had a love for the player and the person.if you are looking for a mantle biography that is an honest portrayal of mantle as a ballplayer with the dynastic yankees, and as a man with weaknesses, look no further.if you are a american history buff, you will also enjoy how santos weaves events of the day and the flavor of the time into the flow of his book.all and all a great read.i highly recommend it, especially to those who, like myself, grew up "worshipping" the yankees of the 50's and 60's and, of course, their centerpiece center fielder from oklahoma.

Another HOMERUN for Mantle with one for Castro!!
I wanted to learn more about Mickey Mantle after seeing Billy Crystal's HBO movie 61*. Since Mantle's career had long ended before I was born, my only knowledge of Mantle was his name and that he was a famous baseball player. I didn't even know why he was a famous baseball player. If I ever thought about it, which I did not, I would've guessed he broke some kind of baseball record. Well, it's obvious to me now that before I read Tony Castro's book "Mickey Mantle:America's Prodigal Son," I had absolutely no idea of what I was missing. And, I wish I found out sooner, while Mantle was still alive!!!

This book opened my eyes to a lot about Mickey Mantle, the time in which he played ball, the legacy of the New York Yankees, and baseball, in general. In regards to Mantle, I never knew what a powerhouse he really was with the ability to hit a baseball over 500ft numerous times. Add to that the fact that he could hit from both sides of the plate and the kind of speed he had to get around the bases. His athletic ability alone was astonishing to me. I really wish I were born earlier so that I could have seen him play.

But, this book is not just a lengthy form of the back of a baseball card containing statistics about Mickey Mantle. It is much more. It allows you to live in the times that Mantle did by explaining the goings on in the country and baseball's role in the country at each stage of his life. I think it was great the way Castro did this because you could get a sense of the emotion surrounding Mantle and the incredible greatness of the Yankees at that time. Dare I say, I got caught up in the story almost as if I was watching it or living through it. (Although, I know I could never really know what it was like to live at that time and experience even seeing Mantle play ball on TV.) For example, while reading about Mantle, learning to play ball from his father and grandfather, as he was growing up, you get a real feel for how much Mickey and his father loved baseball. You also see how even at a very young age, Mantle gave his all for the game. You understand that for Mickey playing ball and playing hard was not only about living out a dream, but also about giving back to his father all he felt his father gave to him. It was a labor of love and you feel that reading this book, especially as Mickey begins to realize his potentials by breaking all kinds of records.

But despite all this glory, the story turns dark early with the death of Mickey's father very, very early in his major league career. It continues to stay dark as Mickey's drinking slowly destroys his body, even as he plays. Yet, even through the drinking and injuries, you are uplifted by knowing that Mickey gets out there everyday to play the game and play it better than great.

Finally, though, Mickey must retire and his life goes downward because his drinking gets so much worse. It is at this point that the clouds really darken for Mickey. It is sad, and lasts for the rest of his life. And yet, at the very end, Mickey steps up to the plate one last time to correct the mistakes he's made by drinking. He does this by sharing his darker story with the country as an example of how not to handle the difficult times and, in his mind, waste one's talents. He begins a "don't drink and don't do drugs" campaign to save others from his kind of problems.

"Mickey Mantle:America's Prodigal Son" is really a great book. There is so much more to this story that hasn't even been mentioned here. It is a small history lesson in the goings on in baseball and the country through the 1950s until the 1990s in addition to Mickey's story. It explains why the game is the way it is today with money at the center and no real grooming of players, for any team, as the Yankees did for so long, which led to their famously long winning streak. You don't have to be a baseball guru, or even a baseball lover to appreciate Mickey's heartwarming story with its greatness, disappointment, and true heroics. ... Read more

Product Description
Mickey Mantle's wife and sons chronicle the life and times of the great baseball hero, offering a personal and candid portrait of his career, the effects of fame on the family, his alcoholism and infidelities, and his final battle with cancer. 100,000 first printing. $85,000 ad/promo. Tour. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A Hero All His Life:A Memoir by the Mantle Family
Very disappointed in condition of book.It was not advertised as used; had folded corners on pages; had blue highlighting on half of one page.These "used" features were not at all indicated in the listing of this book for sale.I would not purchase ANY book again from this source.

WONDERFUL !
This is a truly moving, inspirational and heartrendering book. It reads like a Greek Tragedy, but is so real because the Authors were there. Written by Mickey's wife Merlyn, and his 3 surviving sons, it is by far the most honest work regarding Mickey. This book is so much more important that that trashy, tabloid like "Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son" by Tony Castro, that I would suggest you never bother with that thing. Besides, Castro took most of his book directly from this one.

This story is also one of the finest studies of the dysfunction in an alcoholic family, with all the roles being lived out and understood by the participants. These are real, caring and heroic people, not because of baseball, but because they became winners in life by facing their problems together. A great, great book!

Mantle the Amazing
Mickey Mantle's wife, Merlyn, and their sons tell the unique and inspirational story of their very separate, often harrowing private lives with the husband and father that was there for them through their lives before cancer took him away. Merlyn and the boys discuss how the effects of alcohol and the spotlight of fame play a role on him and how they all came to be. Merlyn talks about Mickey Mantle the most because they were the closest, and she discusses what she went through as a wife and as a mother. The boys tell their vivid stories of what they can remember while the father was emotionally and physically absent. The dexterous Mickey, played ball everyday and is still a very well-known name in the histroy of baseball. This story explains his lief and career while alcohol impacted himself physically, hi gamily, and his life mentally. It also touches base on his career achievements and how he became the amazing Mickey Mantle.

His Most Heroic Role Ever
I have read several books on Mickey Mantle and this one is one of the best.Mickey's story is one of the best in baseball and he remains one of the most popular players in history.This book is an excellent look at theeffects of fame and alcohol on the family and how the family members cameto grips with things.The stories presented here are told by his wifeMerlyn and his sons.Through his family, Mickey's story lives on and hecontinues to inspire us.

MICKEY MANTLE WAS A GREAT
I'm only 13,and Mickey Mantle is my favorite baseball player to live. I have read about 6 books on the "Commerce Comet" and this book is exceptional. In the first chapter the Mick talks about his alchohol abuse.Then Marilyn talks about her highschool sweetheart. This is a great book. ... Read more

Product Description
"61 in '61." For years, the phrase held a special place in baseball lore. In three simple words, baseball fans could remember one of the most captivating summers in baseball history, a summer that the most celebrated record in baseball fell.

It was the summer in which two Yankees, everybody's hero, Mickey Mantle, and a farm kid from South Dakota, Roger Maris, staged a stunning assault on Ruth's record.

61* expresses how The Sporting News covered that exciting summer. From its spring training dispatches, through each and every home run, through the controversial so-called 'asterisk' ruling, to the final record-breaking home run, 61* chronicles in week-by-week format the home run race, up to and including the Yankees' World Series victory that year. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Top Notch in Every Category
The basic story of the 1961 Mantle and Maris home run race is pretty well known, but real fans like to know the details, the day-by-day occurrences:what it was like in the trenches for Roger and Mickey.

In "61*" The Sporting News editors give week-by week commentaries on the fortunes of these two Bronx Bombers with an eye-friendly layout.The glossy pages are loaded with large photographs, some in color and some taking up an entire page.Green box charts detail the homers by both sluggers during the week.Newspaper clippings are superimposed. There was so much going on: Japanese newspapers were asking Maris questions, Mantle and Maris were being cast in a movie with Doris Day, and computers were being asked whether one or both would break Babe Ruth's home run record.

The season started hot for Mantle and cold for Maris, and even after Roger had his share of home runs, his batting average was low until a midsummer surge. Shortly after midseason came Commissioner Ford Frick's controversial asterisk ruling (this book is titled "61*," not "61"), which hardly needs an introduction.It seems that today, everyone (I certainly do) thinks it was wrong.Yet photos/comments of 10 AL and NL stars pulled from TSN archives show that more than half agreed with Frick, Ruth's ghostwriter, that in this first 162-game season, 61 homers would have to be hit in the first 154 games for Ruth's record to be considered broken. Mantle agreed: "Mick 'Wouldn't Want Mark If It Was Set in 155 Games'" is the banner head of the double-page display featuring their comments. Hindsight tells us that a season is a season; people who want to count at-bats, plate appearances, and games can do so informally if they want.But Frick's ruling dominated the dialogue on the home run race that was dominating the season.An irony, as "61*" filmmaker Billy Crystal points out in his forward, was that on the day Frick's ruling was announced, both M&M boys lost a homer when a game was rained out.

Crystal wrote that "The summer of 1961 was the greatest of my life." Wasn't it for everyone?But a curious fact is that the Yankees drew only 1.7 million fans.As one writer later remarked, they should have drawn 3 million.There were many empty seats in the Yanks' final games.Nevertheless, the world listened breathlessly, and the tension surrounding Roger's final three homers is a great, detailed story here.Roger hit #59 in game 154 with the wind blowing heavily in, and then had a few near misses in a gallant effort at upsiding Frick.The final pages include commentary on post-1961 years for Mantle and Maris, an interview with Crystal about his film, and yes, a little on Mark McGwire (who had an advantage over Maris, as Barry Bonds had, that I will allow to remain implicit).

This book packs a lot of passion, in prose and photographs.Aside from the seasonal drama, readers will feel that they have learned the true story of Mantle and Maris as men.

A chronicle of that year in baseball and an honest description of the two major players in the drama
In 1998, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa both broke the major league record for home runs in a season, McGuire finishing with 70 and Sosa with 66. Their joint quest for the record is credited by some with saving baseball after years of labor difficulties, including a lengthy player's strike.
To the older fans, it brought back memories of the 1961 season, when the same thing was happening, only the names were the often revered Mickey Mantle and the man considered an upstart, Roger Maris. Maris ended the season with 61 home runs, one better than the previous record held by the incomparable Babe Ruth. Major controversy was introduced into the chase when baseball commissioner Ford Frick intervened. He decreed that since Ruth hit 60 in a season of 154 games and Maris hit his 61 in 162 games, the Maris record would appear in the record book with an asterisk beside it. Like Mantle, Maris was from a small town and he had a difficult time dealing with the pressures of pursuing a record while playing in New York.
This book is a week-by-week chronicle of that magical year for baseball, when two great players had a great season. It was also very gratifying to read that Maris and Mantle were actually close friends on and off the field. They even shared an apartment in New York City. Smith is also very clear about the difficulties that Maris had with the New York press and fans during his time as a Yankee. He points out that during the first years of his career as a Yankee; Mantle was often maligned, even though he played with constant pain.
1961 was a year when baseball was still the dominant national sport. I was young at the time and can still vividly remember my paternal grandmother giving me a baseball card of Roger Maris that was on the back of a box of Jello gelatin. I was awestruck because like so many boys, Mantle and Maris were my heroes in 1962. Reading this book will help you understand at least some of the excitement of that dynamic year in baseball.

loved the movie and the book
Like me Billy Crystal is a big Yankee fan.We are about the same age, so we were young boys in 1961 (I was 14).Mantle was my idol and in 1956 I was rooting for him to break Babe Ruth's record.Crystal took his own first hand experience and added extensive research to produce a very accurate account of the 1961 home run race.Like most Yankee fans who had grown up idolizing Mantle I too preferred to have Mantle break the record rather than the new and less popular Roger Maris.But I enjoyed the whole thing and every home run Maris hit was another run to add to the score and help the Yankees have one of their greatest season for a team with a history of great seasons.It was only comparable to the 1927 Yankees and perhaps now also the 1998 Yankees.Certainly the Maris and Mantle one-two punch resembled the Ruth and Gehrig punch of the 1927 Yanks.

Mantle was very relaxed during the race probably because he lived through it once in 1956 and also because Maris shared the press and took most of the media pressure away from him.Roger was not experienced at handling the media.This was only his second full season in New York.He previously played for Cleveland and Kansas City.Roger had not been a big home run hitter before coming to the Big Apple but he had a great swing and was a dead pull hitter,So the short low fence only 344 ft in right field and 299 ft at the right field foul poll really helped him as did the fact that the teams could not pitch around him since Mantle hit behind him in the clean-up spot.It was definitely true that Maris' hair started falling out due to the nervousness and pressure he experienced that September.Mantle's hip injury also made it harder in the end since the pitchers were no longer afraid of an occasion base on balls since Mantle was out of the line-up.

The Ford Frick controversy about the asterisk made game 1954 interesting especially since Maris hit his 59th in the game and came up a couple of times to try for sixty.Wilhelm was brought in for no other reason than to make sure that Maris didn't hit one out in his last at bat.It was exciting to see Maris hit number 60 off Jack Fisher even though it was after the 154th game.It also set-up the drama for the 61st in the final game of the season that fittingly occurred in Yankee Stadium with Maris hitting his patented shot into the lower right field stands.

It was real unscripted drama that was great for a movie and a book.Crystak made it seem very authentic.In the movie he even was able to find an actor that looked almost exactly like Roger.The characters that played Mantle, Berra, Cerv and Houk did not closely resemble their characters.

I loved the movie and the book and you will too especially if you are a Yankee fan and even more so if you are a Yankee fan and baby boomer like me!

Rewriting History- Mantle was a Draft Dodger
Crystal's rewriting of history does no one any service. His historical rewriting about Mantle complaining that he "failed" his draft induction physical is laughable at best. Mantle was selected to the all star team that year! Mantle was known as the "fastest man to first base" at this time, and his complaint that he couldn't serve is a joke. Boston Red Sox's Ted Williams, while in Korea on his SECOND tour of military duty (WWII was his first), stated when he was crash landed his fighter jet, he ran away from it "FASTER THAN MICKEY MANTLE!"Crystal a draft dodger himslf (Vietnam), should be ashamed of this portrayal of Mantle and rewriting history! Disgusting.

61*
What a "maaaaahvelous" book put out by Ron Smith and Billy Crystal. A perfect companion to the movie. This book takes us baby boomer Yankee fans back to a magical time in our lives.
The photgraphy is phenomenal and the text --smooth,easy to read and very informative. I loved this book so much I ordered for my sister for Christmas. I have no doubt she will enjoy as much as I did. Everything in the 6l season for the Yankees was amazing, Mantle, Maris, Ford, the unbelievable infeild--this book covers it ALL to perfection. i must read for aging Yankee fans. ... Read more

Product Description


FRITZ PETERSON WAS A NEW YORK YANKEE WHO NEVER STOPPED SEARCHING FOR GOD.

In the 1960s in New York City, every young boy dreamed of playing for the Yankees. The difference was that Fritz Peterson was born with a pitcher's arm that would take him to "the Show." In his rookie year, in 1966, Peterson had the opportunity to play with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris. Then he made a name for himself-both on the field and off.

Like so many of his colleagues, Peterson was a prankster; and as his story unfolds, we are given a home plate look into the quirks and foibles of his time with such baseball greats as Whitey Ford, Thurman Munson, Jim Bouton, Bobby Murcer, Joe Pepitone, and Mel Stottlemyre. In 1973, Peterson was involved in what Sports Illustrated called the most highly publicized trade in all of sports history -when he and a teammate traded wives. The storm of negative publicity and disapproval damaged his career. But whether in his very public years as a baseball player or in his later, private struggle with prostate cancer, Fritz Peterson continued to seek "salvation" and ultimately came to understand the truth of God's Grace. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

God Bless Fritz Peterson
What a marvelous book!

Maybe specially pertinant for me, since I was a Yankee Stadium vendor in the Horace Clark / Dooley Womack down years.

Peterson tells a ton of great Yankee stories; any genuine fan would appreciate them.I also very much appreciated his rendition of his own Pilgrim's Progress.It meant a lot to me.We'll all, after all, in our individual ways, just trying to get through life in order to go on Home.

GROWING UP A YANKEE FAN IN THE EARLY 70s
This is the book for you if you grew up a Ynakee fan during the dry years of the late 60s and early 70s. Fritz Peterson captures the era that is often skipped or skimed over in Yankee history books. He got a raw deal with the press after he remarried and now you get his take on the unjust hardhsips he had to overcome for doing something that today anyone would hardly notice, It is a l on love story on 2 levels a personal one for Fritz and one for the rest of us who grew up routing for the Yankees in NYC at a time the Mets were the talk of the town; not anymore. A must buy for all true Yankee fans and an insprational gem.

An Interesting Perspective
For many, becoming a major league baseball player is the ultimate fantasy; of course, very few achieve such lofty status, and even fewer become famous in their professions.

Fritz Peterson played major league baseball for over a decade; toiling as a very talented pitcher for the once mighty New York Yankees, who just happened to be entering a period of poor performance like no other period of Yankee baseball, since the Bambino first cursed the Boston Red Sox (1920) by joining the Bronx Bombers in time for their remarkable ascent to baseball supremacy.Peterson's rookie season (1966) happened to coincide with a shocking last place finish for the Yankees, although he was certainly not to blame for their fall from the mountaintop.

He had a front row seat of the Yankee decline, as greats like Mantle and Maris were coming to the end of the line; it would not be until after Peterson made his exit from the Yankee organization that they'd have a return to glory; led by the controversial and outspoken slugger, Reggie Jackson, aka Mr October.Although New York was swept by the powerful Cincinnati Reds in the '76 World Series, the Yankees were back to full glory during the next couple of seasons; and the controversy that surrounded them was almost as compelling as their level of accomplishment.Love 'em or hate 'em, the Yankees were never dull, that's for sure.

Fritz Peterson's memoir makes for an interesting perspective, since it was his lifestyle that made headlines in the '70s; not his skill as a pitcher.For reasons that many of us will never comprehend, Peterson switched wives with a fellow teammate, and was very public about the trade; no players to be named later; no endorsements to be enhancing the scandal.In the end, an unforgiving American public scorned the affair, and the careers of the players involved quickly faded from the scene.

Peterson has penned an unusual memoir that shows the dark side of society's moral compass, where the players engaged in scandal will bear the brunt of disapproval, perhaps forever.

Baseball and Pranks
This was an outstanding book.I would highly recommend it to anyone who love baseball, pranks and God! Fritz did a great job of giving you a behind the scenes look at baseball.

What Is This Book About:Dying, Wife Swapping, Baseball Or Practical Jokes?
Fritz Peterson's newly penned "Mickey Mantle Is Going To Heaven" is a confusing mix of issues, opinions, resentments and explanations that is a heavy agenda that will leave the reader with retrospection's of the past, especially if you were born between 1950 and 1960 and paid attention to the sport of baseball. I know, I was one of them. I was a 13 year old baseball fan living in Forest Hills, a section of Queens, N.Y. in 1973, the year New York Yankee pitcher Fritz Peterson decided to "trade" his wife, Marilyn, his two children and dog to his best friend Mike Kekich, a fellow pitcher on the Yankees. In return, Peterson received Kekich's wife Susan, the two Kekich children, and Kekich's dog, a Bedlington terrier.

You might be wondering why I liked the Yankees in the first place, living a 30 minute ride on the "E" train to Roosevelt Avenue, then the "Flushing #7" train to "Shea Stadium and Willet's Point", as opposed to the hour and a half, scary ride into the Bronx war zone on the "D" train. Then Roy Said to Mickey...: The Best Yankees Stories Ever Told (Best Sports Stories Ever Told)I can't answer that question. Why do people in Missouri choose the Cubs verses the Cardinals? Or in Chicago, with the choice between the Cubs or White Sox? Or how about the poor California fan, faced with choosing the Dodgers, Angels, A's, Giants or Padres? Fritz Peterson tackles the question as to why one should be a Met's hater, as well as myriads more. Personally, my awareness of baseball and it's players commenced in 1969, the year the Mets beat the heavily favored Orioles in the World Series in 5 games to top off their miracle season. Pride and Pinstripes: The Yankees, Mets, and Surviving Life's ChallengesWatching WPIX Channel 11 in New York, I, as a 9 year old, fell in love with baseball and the Yankees as my favorite childhood pastime and diversion, especially when I wasn't in school or playing "stickball" (why do they only play that in N.Y.? Nobody even knows what that is here in Florida!) In Queens, the main newspaper at the time was the "Long Island Press". I religiously kept up with the Yankees and baseball, reading Jim Ogle's columns. I continued to watch baseball as I grew up and matured. I remember in '69 when Dave McNally of the O's won 15 straight games. I remember in 1971 when the Pittsburgh Pirates came back from the dead and defeated Baltimore to win the World Series, and Yankee center fielder Bobby Murcer socked 25 home runs, batting .331. In fact, I actually gage my past by what happened in Baseball that particular year.

However, 1973 took the cake. I supposedly became a man, observing the Jewish custom of being Bar Mitzvahed, Murcer signed for $100 K, the Designated Hitter and Ron Blomberg evolved, and Peterson and Kekich "did their thing". Designated Hebrew: The Ron Blomberg Story I actually still have the article announcing their "wife swap"! Why would they do such a thing? Weird! I pondered this, along with the how's and why's of the complete U.S. pull out in Vietnam, the "Yom Kippur War", and Salvadore Allende's execution in Chileas the big question marks of 1973. So, when I heard of this book, it was a foregone conclusion that I had to read it. In Peterson's chapter "Kekich, The Left Handed Bouton", he tries to remove the mystery around this strange event.

Prior to this chapter, in "Bouton Died", Peterson explained his weird friendship with fellow lefty and future author of "Ball Four", Jim Bouton. Ball Four Being labeled a "trouble maker", Jim Bouton and his burnt out arm was sold by the Yankees to the newly formed Seattle Pilots for the upcoming 1969 season. Now friendless, Peterson was teaching in the off season at Northern Illinois University when he read that the Yankees, on December 4th, 1968 had sent weak hitting Andy Kosco to the Los Angeles Dodgers for 23 year old lefty fastball pitcher Mike Kekich. When Bouton was with the Yankees, Peterson viewed him as the older brother he always wanted. Now, with Kekich, the reverse was true:he had the younger brother he always wanted.

Explaining that the Yankees in 1969 were "very clickish", and hesitant to accept anyone that didn't come from their minor league farm system (Bobby Murcer, Mel Stottlemyre, Thurman Munson and Roy White were examples), Peterson observed in Spring Training that most of Kekich's teammates were standoffish towards him. In addition, Kekich enjoyed arguing and doing things his own way. Like Bouton had done for Peterson when he broke into the major leagues, he took it upon himself to take Kekich under his wing, and since Peterson carried some weight with the Yankees (with records of 12 wins and 11 losses in 1968, 17 wins and 16 losses in 1969) he used this leverage and his friendships with his fellow Yankees to bring Mike into the fold.

Both enjoying to go to piano bars and sing, Peterson and Kekich became fast friends. They took trips together, going diving in the Florida Keys, sailing a catamaran off Fort Lauderdale, and finally, meeting each other's wife and children. Fritz wrote in this book about Kekich's wife: "The first time I met Mike's wife was after a game at Yankee Stadium in 1969. It was drizzling that night and Mike and I walked up together from the clubhouse and went out the stadium office door where his wife had been parked waiting for him. He introduced me to her. She was seated on the passenger side of the car. We said our "nice to meet you" stuff when his wife said, "It's raining, don't get wet and I said, for some reason, "don't worry, it's worth it". Little did I know at the time how much it would be worth!"

The reader notices throughout the book that Peterson refers to the former Susanne Kekich as "his new wife". Why? Subsequent to the publication of this book it has been brought out that aside from fighting prostate cancer for the second time, Peterson has revealed that Susanne, whom Fritz has been married to now for over 35 years, was vehemently against the writing of this book. The Trade Off: My Husband/Your Wife Peterson has later said "She's pretty sensitive about this stuff. She read the first three chapters, and then stopped". Following both their divorces, the liaison between Mike Kekich and Marilyn Peterson flamed out after a few months, and with their marriage Fritz and Susanne had 4 children together. Of his little affair with Marilyn Peterson, Kekich recalled: Marilyn and I thought we were perfectly suited, just like Fritz and Suzanne. Marilyn was all for the swap in the beginning, but then she backed off. All four of us agreed in the beginning that if anyone wasn't happy, the thing would be called off. But when Marilyn and I decided to call it off, the other couple had gone off with each other".

Professionally, Fritz Peterson was the better of the two pitchers. A twenty game winner in 1970, he went 133-131 over 11 seasons before blowing out his rotator cuff and retiring in 1976. As to the wife swapping and how it affected his baseball career, he was 17-13 in his last pre-swap season of 1972. The following year, as the "laughing stock" of the American League, he fell to a horrible record of 8-15. Fred Beene, a pitcher and teammate of Fritz's, said, "Fritz was never the same after the swap. He was practically destroyed by all the negative reaction". Kekich fared even worse. Aside from his break up with Marilyn Peterson, he was traded on June 12, 1973 to the Cleveland Indians for Lowell Palmer.Balls Before the swap, his claim to fame was as the pitcher that gave up Frank Howard's home run in the Washington Senator's last game ever before their move to Texas. He finished 1973 with a 2-5 record, only to be cut the next year by the Indians. Kekich commented, "My whole career went into a black hole after the swap. It was awful". He pitched 2 more years, finally retiring in 1977 with a career record of 39-51.

The book gives Peterson's blow by blow account of the swap, his feelings involved,his justification of it, and how Peterson felt the media unfairly blew it out of proportion. Although there is no mention of it in his 1987 memoir, the late Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn was "appalled" by the swap, and he went on record by saying he was powerless to interfere. Hardball: The Education of a Baseball CommissionerKuhn later said that received more fan mail about the swap than about the American League's introduction of the "Designated Hitter". Peterson makes light of the whole affair when he mentions in the book that the Yankees General Manager Lee MacPhail quipped, "We may have to call off Family Day".

The late Bobby Murcer, in his book, does mention this incident. His comment was: "You couldn't help but hear about "swingers" and wife-swapping" and "free love" any more than you could fail to recognize the smell of marijuana smoke if you went into the men's room at a nightclub. In Spring Training 1973, Ralph Houk called a clubhouse meeting before practice the day before my new ($100K) contract was going to be announced. None of us knew what was coming. "We've got a little family matter that everyone needs to know about," Ralph said, after everybody quieted down. You'll be reading about this in the paper sooner or later. And Ralph proceeded to break the news to us (about the wife-swap). We sat there dumbfounded, in a state of shock. Nobody knew what to say, so nobody said much of anything. I never understood it, what they were doing. I never forgot it. But I figured it was their business, and none of my business. Look, to their credit, this wasn't something they were selling as a model for other people. It was just something they wanted to do, and so they did it. Yankee for Life: My 40-Year Journey in Pinstripes

Peterson tried to get into baseball announcing after his career was over, but claimed he was semi black-balled from baseball because of this incident.One Man Out: Curt Flood Versus Baseball (Landmark Law Cases & American Society) Writing that Bill Clinton hadn't been elected into office yet to set the pace for the country's morals, he asserted in his defense: "Had the "slickster" been in office during my "hay day" I might of ended up as the Baseball Commissioner! Who knows? My guy, Nixon, had to resign because of Watergate so there was little hope for me to be employed over the airwaves in those days. The "slickster" would have helped to take some of the heat off of Mike and me as we waded through our public relations fiasco, alone in 1973! I wonder if Monica made any road trips?" This book was also rich in memories, with Peterson devoting entire chapters to Mickey Mantle, Bobby Murcer, the Yankees of the early 1970's(Thurmon Munson, Sparky Lyle, Roy White, etc.), Joe Pepitone, Roger Maris, Whitey Ford, Bobby Richardson and Graig Nettles. SLICK Peterson takes his stances on the steroid controversy, if baseball fights are real, and most interestingly, his hatred of the New York Mets and giving reasons why anyone in their right mind would not be a fan of that team. Hilarious and hysterical jokes are recounted, with Peterson being the king of pranks. Quaintly, throughout the book Peterson interjects his religious beliefs throughout the book, revealing who he thinks will go to heaven, and who will burn in the "Lake of Hell". You will have to read this book to find out his picks! He ends this fascinating book being a Yankee to the end. Peterson concludes: "It wouldhave been nice to have been in a World Series or even just a post season game in Yankee Stadium during mytime frame in baseball with the Yankees, 1966-1974. But it wasn't to be. However, I would rather have been a N.Y. Yankee on a losing team than a New York Met or an Oakland Athletic on a World Series winner! No kidding". A great read, a nice jogging of the memory of my youth, and a fascinating insight on Fritz Peterson's take on the "trade of the century".Get this book! ... Read more

Product Description
Mickey Mantle-arguably the greatest Yankee ever-tells all, from his childhood in Oklahoma to the bright lights of Yankee Stadium. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

If you want to be something never give up.
If you love the great sport of baseball you will be in love with this book.The greatest ball player of all time was always out partying and going crazy. He had a wife and children that he didn't spend that much time with. But boy could he hit the baseball. He was by far the most talented ball player of all time. There is parts of the book were he went up to bat completely drunk or in a hangover, and he would still crush the ball over the wall. But will Mickey get his head screwed back on straight, or will he get too caught up with drinking and partying with Whitey Ford and Billy Martin and waste his whole career?

great book by Mantle
Mickey Mantle was my childhood baseball idol.This book was first published in the early 1980s.I am fond of this book because even as a adult with a successful career I was still awestruck by Mantle.The book cover was different from the one shown here. I was working at the Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo California and went I heard that mantle was doing a book sign of this new book over in Westwood, I took a very long lunch break, went to Brentano's in Westwood bought the book and waited in a long linr to talk to Mickey and get his signature.

This is a well-written book about Mantle's life in baseball and includes a lot about his frienship and relationship with Billy Martin.All Mantle's books are well-written because he had the good esense to pick excellent sportswriters to ghost write for him.Mantle still appearedto be in good health at the time although the gray was showing in his hair.Liver cancer possibly a result of his heavy drinking and partying during his career took him out of this world too soon.The controversy over his liver transplant came much later as did his final book which was his best and had a heavy message.This book doesn't do that but it does give Mantle's side of the story on a lot of issues that were told much differently by the media.This included the famous brawl at the Copa Cabana bar that many think trigered the trade of Billy Martin to Kansas City.Casey Stengel loved Martin's heart and aggressiveness in the field, but he grew tired of Billy's antics that seemed to be corrupt his star player (Mickey Mantle).

A VERY GOOD READ
I REALLY ENJOYED THE MICK. MICKEY DOES A VERY GOOD JOB TEELING US ABOUT HIS HARD LIFE AS A CHILD IN OKLAHOMA TO HIS GLORY DAYS WITH THE YANKEES. I FOUND IT VERY INTERESTING TO READ IN THE MICKEY'S WORDS THAT HE HAD A DRINKING PROBLEM, BUT UNFORTUNATELY HE STOPPED TOO LATE AND IT COST HIM HIS LIFE. MICKEY WAS QUITE A LADIES MAN ALSO AND HAD MANY AFFAIRS. THE MICK IS VERY HUMAN AND HAS A VERY HIGH TOLERANCE TO PAIN. MICKEY WAS MY BOYHOOD HERO, I LOVED TO WATCH HIM. HIS COMBINATION OF POWER AND SPEED WAS AWESOME. HIS ABILITY TO PLAY WITH PAIN MADE HIM A HERO WITH MANY FANS. THIS IS SAD IN MANY PLACES BUT I RECOMMEND IT FOR ALL YANKEE AND BASEBALL FANS. THE MICK IS STILL THE MAN.

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!
"The Mick" is about the legendary Mickey Mantle. The best part of this book is that it's told in the first person by Mickey himself. Mick was a great guy, and he doesn't edit himself in this book. My favorite part of this book was his upbringings. Any baseball fan knows the guy was a legend on the field, but his origins are less known. It tells of how his father and his grandfather would alternate pitching left and right handed to teach him to hit switch. Or the games he played while Dad was away at the mines. His siblings would box with him, or throw balls over their house and chase them down. If you like Mickey, or even just baseball, you'll love this book.

Humble, Plain, and Good Reading
Mickey Mantle (1931-1995) tells his story in this readable and interesting book. Mantle was neither intellectually gifted nor particularly insightful - in these pages he comes across as plain and somewhat humble.Imagine the American League's biggest star running a family bowling alley in Dallas during off seasons in those days of modest salaries.Mantle tells of his antics with his teammates, the thrill of key games, trips overseas, etc.The superstar from Commerce Oklahoma was more responsible for the loved and hated Yankee dynasty of the 1950's thru 1964 than anybody.Mantle said he couldn't remember a single parade after another Yankee title - they were expected to win.Compare that with the 86-year championship wait in Boston, or the long pennant droughts of the White Sox, Cubs, and other teams.

This book came out in the mid-1980's and steers clear of the drinking problems that would lead to Mantle's death in 1995. This is not a great autobiography, but it is an interesting look from a surprisingly humble man.
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Product Description
In Peter Golenbock’s shocking and revealing first novel, Mickey Mantle tells the hidden story of his life as a baseball hero, and asks for forgiveness from his friends and family. If the revelations in Jim Bouton’s Ball Four were the first crack in the Mantle legend, then 7 smashes the myth to reveal the human being within.

Bestselling sportswriter Peter Golenbock knew Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Jim Bouton, Joe Pepitone, and many of Mantle’s friends, family, and teammates. While Mickey was a good person at heart, he had a dark side that went far beyond his well-known alcoholism and infidelities. In this fictional portrait, Mickey--now in heaven--realizes that he’s carrying a huge weight on his shoulders, as he did throughout his life. He needs to unburden himself of all the horrible things he did and understand for himself why he did them. He wants to make amends to the people he hurt, especially those dear to him; the fans he ignored and alienated; and the public who made him into a hero. Mickey never felt he deserved the adulation, could never live up to it, and tried his damnedest to prove it to everyone. The fact that he was human made the public love him that much more.

This Mickey Mantle is revealed as a man who lived in fear--fear of failure, of success, of life beyond baseball, and of commitment. His was a life filled with sex, yet devoid of deeper satisfactions. From the alcohol-fueled good times and bad, to the emptiness when the party was finally over, 7 has it all.

Through the recounting of his exploits on and off the field, some of them side-splittingly hilarious, some disturbing, and others that will make your head shake in sympathy, Mickey comes clean in this novel in the way he never could in real life. 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel puts you inside the locker room and bedroom with an American Icon every bit as flawed and human as we are.Amazon.com Review
Book Description
In Peter Golenbock's shocking and revealing first novel, Mickey Mantle tells the hidden story of his life as a baseball hero, and asks for forgiveness from his friends and family. If the revelations in Jim Bouton's Ball Four were the first crack in the Mantle legend, then 7 smashes the myth to reveal the human being within.

Bestselling sportswriter Peter Golenbock knew Mickey Mantle, Billy Martin, Jim Bouton, Joe Pepitone, and many of Mantle's friends, family, and teammates. While Mickey was a good person at heart, he had a dark side that went far beyond his well-known alcoholism and infidelities. In this fictional portrait, Mickey--now in heaven--realizes that he's carrying a huge weight on his shoulders, as he did throughout his life. He needs to unburden himself of all the horrible things he did and understand for himself why he did them. He wants to make amends to the people he hurt, especially those dear to him; the fans he ignored and alienated; and the public who made him into a hero. Mickey never felt he deserved the adulation, could never live up to it, and tried his damnedest to prove it to everyone. The fact that he was human made the public love him that much more.

This Mickey Mantle is revealed as a man who lived in fear--fear of failure, of success, of life beyond baseball, and of commitment. His was a life filled with sex, yet devoid of deeper satisfactions. From the alcohol-fueled good times and bad, to the emptiness when the party was finally over, 7 has it all.

Through the recounting of his exploits on and off the field, some of them side-splittingly hilarious, some disturbing, and others that will make your head shake in sympathy, Mickey comes clean in this novel in the way he never could in real life. 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel puts you inside the locker room and bedroom with an American Icon every bit as flawed and human as we are.

How Mickey Mantle Wound Up in Heaven
An Exclusive Essay by Peter Golenbock
I met Mickey Mantle for the first time in 1974 when I was writing my first book, Dynasty. He had asked me to meet him at his home in Dallas, but when I arrived, I was informed he had flown to New York and I could meet him in the clubhouse of Yankee Stadium the next day. Back on the plane I went.

During an hour-long interview which I conducted in the Yankee clubhouse, Mickey talked about his career, his love of the game, and the nightmares that woke him up almost every night. During the middle of the interview New York Times reporter John Drebinger entered the clubhouse, and Mickey then told me that Drebby had a hearing aid and that Mickey would move his mouth, pretending to talk so Drebby would turn the hearing aid up, and when he got it up all the way, he'd scream at the top of his lungs. Mickey, myself, and everyone standing around listening roared with laughter.

That was Mickey, irreverent, complex, funny and sad.

Continue reading the essay

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7 Second Interview: At Bat with Peter Golenbock

Q: You've been writing bestsellers for years, you saw the response to your friend Jim Bouton's Ball Four, and you even wrote a book (with Graig Nettles) called Balls. And you've already been through this once, with a controversial book being dropped by a major publisher and picked up by a smaller press, with Personal Fouls, your book on Jim Valvano. Were you surprised at what's happened so far with 7?

A: When I saw the outrage over the O.J. Simpson book, my immediate reaction was, Uh oh.Judith Regan became the focal point of the controversy, and since she was also my publisher, I was fully aware of what seemed sure to follow.I was hoping against hope, but unfortunately my instincts were correct.

Q: Mickey Mantle was your childhood hero. In the opening to the book, you recount the last conversation you had with him, when you try to explain to him what he meant to you. Do you still think of him as a hero?

A: He is more of a hero to me that ever.What most people refuse to accept is that alcoholism is a disease, and too often a deadly one.Mickey suffered with all the ills--both physical and social--of alcoholism for most of his life.In the end, he faced up to his problem.For a macho guy like Mickey, that took a lot of guts.To us, he was a hero.To himself he was a failure.How he must have suffered.That's what this book is all about.

Q: You've written books with and about Billy Martin, and he's a big figure in this book too. What was Mantle's relationship with him like?

A: They were best friends, drinking buddies, soul mates.They loved each other like brothers.They were also enablers.Both were alcoholics, but neither would admit it.

Q: You've talked to hundreds of old ballplayers for your books over the years. Was Mantle typical in the way he handled the time after he was done as a player, or the exception?

A: Mantle was an extreme example of an athlete who died inside the day he retired.Some athletes can smoothly make the transformation into the real world, but not most.In the days before the mega-salaries (when the athlete had to find a job after baseball) plenty of the players I interviewed felt lost and abandoned.Selling insurance or cars just didn’t excite them.But they had to do if they wanted to feed their families.Mickey was one of the few athletes who could sell his autograph and make his living that way.And he felt bad about having to do that.

Q: Mickey has a line in the book: "I'm only sorry camcorders didn't exist way back then. We'd-a made a fortune." Do you think things were different "way back then," or was the difference just that everybody didn't have camcorders?

A: Things were different back then.There wasn't the constant scrutiny of the athletes' actions like there is now.There was no SportsCenter or talk radio, noInternet blogging or YouTube.The sportswriters rarely wrote about what happened off the field.The players had a lot more privacy.

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Customer Reviews (22)

About Mick's power stroke and suicide squeeze
I totally get this book and what it's trying to accomplish. Mickey was a storybook player, larger than life. This book takes that same legendary quality and transfers it to his private life, and in so doing creates a frightening portrait of hero worship and human frailty. Mickey's personal demons as exhibited in his sexual prowess are thus strong in inverse proportion to his prowess on the baseball field. And it's nota pretty picture.

Nothing in Mickey's upbringing prepared him for the expectations set for him by the public. A gullible but talented kid, he was easily led astray by his older buddies, by groupies, by big city lights. And then came to crave it himself, and finally to loathe himself. I don't think a writer could fairly present the trajectory of Mantle's life without wading into these darker waters, and necessarily it needs to be reimagined, but in a way that takes the reader along for the ride and in a sense makes the reader seek a kind of voyeuristic pleasure and share a visceral thrill with Mantle himself. It's a way of getting the reader to buy in to the intoxicating nature of sex and adoration and alcohol, and clearly it doesn't work for everyone.

Sure, some of the failure of this book commercially comes from the defiling of the Mantle persona. But I think a lot of it has to do with readers not getting the more subtle structure at work here. Another reviewer mentioned that the sex and craziness was in the first half, while the second part of the book is more about the spiral into hell. Despite the craven depictions of sex and women, this book in the end is highly moralistic and redemptive.

Mantle figures it out and brings the reader along with him. The redemption scene at the end is probably just as fictional in its staging as the tawdry sexual encounters earlier, but it carries the same weight of truth. Ultimately, our hero is redeemed and can safely be restored to the top of the mountain where he belongs.

Pure Trash
If you like novels loaded with vulgarity, sexist remarks, overused rants of profanity, with a bent on revisionist baseball history, then you will like "7: The Mickey Mantle Novel".Be warned though that this book is not for the masses nor the fans of the legendary Yankee.It reads more like a comic book than a novel and is filled with section after section of gratuitous references to the above topics.For this baseball fan (and fan of Mickey), I'd prefer to stick my memories of a great teammate and all-around player without reading this made-up garbage.Knowing more, (or at least the "more" as Mr. Golenbeck sees it) is not always best for this reader.

An Inventive Memoir
Mickey Mantle was one of my childhood heroes.Because Major League baseball did not arrive in Texas until 1962, kids in my part of the world looked elsewhere for their baseball heroes and The Mick was exactly the made-to-order living legend we craved.It was a different world, a time when sportswriters largely ignored the private lives of professional athletes until their personal habits began to affect them on the field.It was only after Mantle retired, in fact, that most of us learned how addictions to alcohol and sex made a complete shambles of Mantle's personal life - the very things that Peter Golenbock emphasizes in his "Mickey Mantle novel."

Golenbock is a fine baseball writer and I have read many of his nonfiction accounts over the years, books about Davey Johnson, Graig Nettles, Ron Guidry and Billy Martin, among them.This time he tries to have it both ways, on the one hand emphasizing that the book is an "inventive memoir," while on the other claiming that Mantle's closest friends "swear that the incidents in this book are true."And I suppose that is not impossible if Golenbock means that he embellished a bunch of true stories with details know one could know but Mantle and, in some cases, Billy Martin.

I also agree with Golenbock that it would be difficult to write a novel about Mickey Mantle that did not include numerous segments on his boozing and womanizing since, along with baseball, those were probably the most important things in the world to Mantle.What surprised me, though, considering my familiarity with Golenbock's other baseball books is how boring he was able to make Mantle's sex life sound.Rather than simply hinting at the intimate details of Mantle's sex habits, Golenbock has imagined them in a way that fits every tenth-grade boy's dreams.I suppose that is the "inventive" part of his "inventive memoir."

My problem with that approach is that sex scenes (and almost nothing else) consume at least the first half of the book and had me wondering whether Golenbock really had anything to say about Mickey Mantle that mattered.It turns out that he did, and that the patient reader is rewarded for not having earlier abandoned the book out of boredom.Most Mantle fans know what Mantle and the Yankees accomplished in the fifties and sixties but not so much about Mantle's life after baseball.This is the real heart (and justification) for a book like "The Mickey Mantle Novel," an account of Mantle's last years, his fears, and his ultimate despair that will deeply touch all Mantle fans.

Keep in mind, too, that this book was part of publisher Judith Regan's undoing at Regan Books.It was thought to be so controversial, in fact, that HarperCollins, parent company of Regan Books, dropped the book and it was ultimately published by The Lyons Press, with a first printing of 250,000 copies - many of which are today on bookstore bargain tables all across the country.

Bargain Bin Bound
I bought my copy at a Barnes & Noble bargain bin for a buck-fifty, sold it on eBay for 99 cents, and consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

Entertaining
I had read some of Peter Golenbock's previous works and this title looked interesting. This book was "R" rated. That didn't bother me. I was only looking for an entertaining read and this book certainly was. I have read several other books on Mickey Mantle and this one gave me a different look.
Baseball players are real people, they just have jobs that thrust them into the spotlight, and while this novel may have been based on facts..it is still fiction. Mickey was a great player, and a regular guy off the field. ... Read more

Product Description
When 19 year-old Mickey Mantle came to New York City in 1951 to replace 'the Yankee Clipper', Joe DiMaggio, on baseball's most famous team, not only was he faced with the pressures of replacing a living legend, he also has o adapt to a dramatically different environment from his home in Commerce, Oklahoma. As history has shown, Mantle handled the pressures like a lazy fly ball and went on to become a full-scale legend in his own right. This book captures the essence of Mantle through his own humour and storytelling, providing an intimate and personal portrait. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Proud Keeper In My Collection
I saw Mickey Mantle hit three or four home runs at Yankee Stadium, but there was one I clearly recall - his 30th home run at the last regular season game of 1962. This is the only book I've found to bring me back to that day, that game, that pitcher, with just enough detail to enhance my memory. A big point brought out by the author is that in Mick's "Twilight Years" he was still more than capable of 460-foot home runs. They came at more distant intervals but the *power* was still there.

GOOD JOB OF DOCUMENTING MICK'S HOMERS
MR. NUTTALL DOES A FINE JOB OF DESCRIBING IN DETAIL MANY OF THE MICK'S HOMERS AMD OTHER BIG HITS IN HIS CAREER. THIS BOOK IS A MUST FOR ALL MICK AND FANS OF MONSTER HOMERUNS. MICKEY HIT MANY, MANY "TAPE MEASURE" SHOTS. THIS BOOK IS VERY INTERESTING AND ENTERTAINING. KUDOS FOR THE RESEARCH AND EFFORT IN THIS MUST READ. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. ... Read more

Product Description
The life of Mickey Mantle is the rags-to-riches story of the American dream. Born in the midst of the Great Depression, the eldest child in a mining family, Mantle rose to be one of America's ultimate baseball heroes.

In this portrait, veteran sportswriter Phil Berger recounts Mantle's stardom and the high price he paid to attain it. His father's sole passion was baseball, and he fervently dreamed that his first son would grow up to play in the majors. Under his father's relentless pressure, Mickey became a switch-hitter and refined his skills in all aspects of the game.

In 1949, Mantle signed with the Yankees' minor league team in Independence, Kansas. It was a difficult transition for the temperamental ball player. Despite his powerful hitting, Mantle's quick temper plagued him, making his performance erratic and his future uncertain.

However, in 1951, Mickey moved to the major leagues and with the Yankees soon came to epitomize the confidence and success of postwar America. He became the hero of his father's dreams.

The man with this brilliant career also had a dark side. Phil Berger shows us the glorious Mantle and the alcoholic one, the good teammate and the absent father and husband, and all the other contradictions and complexities of one of America's greatest celebrity athletes.

Mickey Mantle's baseball glory still shines through more than thirty years since his retirement, and it began on the dusty plains of Oklahoma, where Mantle's father drilled baseball into his son's bones, along with a drive to greatness. But greatness has its price--alcoholism, and the need to live up to his father's dreams shadowed Mantle throughout his life. Journalist Phil Berger goes beyond the legend to find the man beneath the Yankee pinstripes, the baseball player whose brilliance millions envied and whose flaws they felt themselves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good for getting an idea abot him.
I did a book report on this two years ago. I the whole book. But had Alot of bad language in it. It tells you alot about him but not great for young children to read for reports. I read that when I was 10. ... Read more

Product Description
Major League Baseball's Opening Day, 1951. Nineteen-year-old Mickey Mantle puts on the New York Yankees' famous white pinstriped uniform. His stomach roils. Sweat beads his brow. Today is his first major league game in front of a near-capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium, and there is one man Mickey doesn't want to disappoint above all others: his father.Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes is the uplifting true story of how a painfully shy teenager from rural Commerce, Oklahoma, became one of the biggest stars in Major League Baseball. While he looked to Joe DiMaggio for inspiration and dreamed of someday playing with that great New York Yankee, Mickey's true hero was his dad.Raised during the Depression, Mickey learned how to catch, hit, and field the ball from his father, Elvin. In high school, Mickey suffered a football injury that revealed a serious bone disorder. He wondered if he would ever play baseball again. But with the support and love of his father, he overcame his affliction and signed with the New York Yankees in 1949. A moving story of Mickey's early years in baseball, from his difficult rookie season to his triumphant return in 1951, Mickey Mantle portrays the everlasting bond between father and son and the making of one of baseball's greatest legends. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A highly recommended sports biography
He was a Yankee at the young age of nineteen. "Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes" is the story baseball legend Mickey Mantle's transformation from a teenager with a serious shyness issue and a bone disorder, through the help of his father. Covering Mantle's legendary career from 1951 onward, "Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes" tells how he became one of the most beloved players whose names are today synonymous with baseball. A highly recommended sports biography, sure to please Mickey Mantle fans and baseball enthusiasts everywhere.

Small Town Kid Achieves His Dream
Mickey Mantle is legendary in the world of sports and he holds many World Series records as well as records for hitting some of the longest home runs. But his initiation into the world of major League Baseball was not without its struggles and this book highlights the many highs and lows of Mantle's first season with the New York Yankees.

Mantle was very young when he began his Major League baseball career and his youth and inexperience led to some struggles at the plate. He was sent back to the minor leagues at one point, mainly due to his tendency to strike out. He had awesome power and was very speedy on the bases. But his tendency to swing the bat hard and fast at most pitches, with the goal of hitting another homer, led to his excessively large number of strikeouts. He was very disappointed in himself, but he worked hard in the minors and was given a second chance. Mantle gives his father part of the credit for convincing him to continue working hard and striving to reach his goal of playing in the major leagues.

Rookie in Pinstripes captures these and other important moments in Mantle's young career and the book helps illustrate how Mantle was feeling at different times throughout his rookie season; including his frustrations with his performance, his love interest with future wife Merlyn, his acclimation to the Yankees and life in a big city, etc. Mickey Mantle was a shy, somewhat backward kid from rural Oklahoma who had no previous exposure to big city culture. He was quite awkward when he arrived in New York City. Only through experience did the naïve Mantle eventually adapt to his new lifestyle and his newfound fame.

Rookie in Pinstripes covers only Mickey Mantle's rookie season. It offers a little bit of biographical information about Mantle so that the reader will have a better understanding about his lifestyle and the many opportunities and challenges it presented. But the majority of the book is spent talking about the rookie season with the Yankees, Mantle's struggles at the plate, his interaction with other players, his relationship with Yankee's manager Casey Stengel, etc. There is also some play- by- play action when the book is talking about some of the more important Yankee games during the 1951 season, as well as the starting lineups for the teams and other important statistics. This play-by- play is brief, but it gets the reader in the right frame of mind. You will feel like you are right there, watching the game.

Rookie in Pinstripes is a pretty good book, but it does have a few faults. The most glaring of all is the book's short length. I realize this book is only intended to cover Mantle's rookie season, and thus it cannot be expected to be extremely lengthy. But some more research and additional chapters would have made this book much more memorable. I also didn't like the book's ending. Suddenly, Mantle learns about the death of his father. He is naturally heartbroken, but the book just ends right there. At the very least, a concluding chapter would have been nice to wrap things up in a proper way.

Overall, however, Rookie in Pinstripes is still a good book for baseball fans of all ages. Mickey Mantle is a giant in the world of Major League Baseball and he has set many World Series records that are not likely to be broken. His rookie season was marked by personal issues, professional problems and, ultimately, triumph in his chosen sport. Yankee fans will love this book most, but casual fans of Major League Baseball will also find some interesting moments in Rookie in Pinstripes. It is a good book about one of baseball's most successful big league players.

Growing determination
Reviewed by Osvaldo Peralta (age 13) for Reader Views (11/08)

Most people know Mickey Mantle as a good-hearted baseball player, but Mickey Mantle was more than that.Mickey Mantle loved to play baseball from a very young age, but he also played other sports like basketball and football.During his high school years, he played on the basketball team.He was an excellent player.He also played football.During one of his football games, he had an accident.When he was taken to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a bone disease called Osteomyelitis- an infection of the bone or bone marrow.This caused him many problems during his life, but it did not stop him from becoming a great baseball player.Mickey started playing baseball with the New York Yankees on April 17, 1951.He had a wonderful career.

I enjoyed "Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes" by Fred Glueckstein.It provides lots of interesting information and details about Mickey Mantle.







Reviewed by Dr. Michael Philliber for Reader Views (8/08)

Most people have heard of the great ball player Mickey Mantle, but few know the story of his rapid rise from obscurity to distinction, and the hurdles he had to overcome to get there and stay there. Fred Glueckstein has masterfully captured part of the famous baseball player's life in his short book "Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes." This book, written for young adults, will be enjoyed by anyone desiring to learn about Mantle's early years, and how he rose from out of the Depression and Dust Bowl to the 1951 World Series.

Though Glueckstein could have written a full biography of Mantle's life, he has intelligently limited his scope to the baseball star's rookie year with the New York Yankees, and all that led up to that formative time. By narrowing his range, Glueckstein has been able to both focus his attention to the important parts of Mantle's early years in Oklahoma, Kansas and his first year with the Yankees, and to provide young adults an easily readable book that will inspire their desire to succeed and never give up.

"Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes" is the story of a young Oklahoma boy whose father and grandfather worked hard in the zinc and lead mines by day, and then at night poured themselves into helping Mickey become a superb switch hitter, able to hit solid homeruns from either the left or right side of home plate. This is the story of a young man who learned that he had a serious bone disease while in high school, and yet never let it stop him. This is a story of a developing success that failed and then overcame his failure to soar high in baseball history. This is a story of a father's encouraging drive and a son's determined love.

In this nicely-bound, well-edited book, "Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes," Glueckstein has pulled together loads of batting averages and other important statistics for the baseball fanatic. And yet the author has also woven in the personal side which makes the story come alive before the reader's eyes. Everything from snippets of personal dialogues, to snatches from his personal letters to his future wife, Merlyn Johnson, the humanness of a Major League Baseball star comes out.

If the reader is looking for an easy, inspiring, well-written book that will encourage both younger and older, then I recommend "Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes," by Fred Glueckstein.

"When he showed up, everybody knew it. Mickey had it."

Though I'm a diehard Red Sox fan, I'm a baseball fan first. So when Mickey Mantle: Rookie In Pinstripes came my way it was a must-read, and what a fascinating book it is. Picture it -- a nineteen-year-old kid from Oklahoma signing a contract with the legendary New York Yankees, shaking the alkaline dust of the zinc mines off his cleats to live every boy's dream. What a uniquely American adventure!

Mickey's father, Elvin Mantle, worked tirelessly on his oldest son's baseball training, insisting that he bat from both sides of the plate. Everybody loves a switch-hitter, and if that boy runs like the wind, so much the better. Mickey's natural sports ability went beyond baseball: he was a talented football player in high school, though his career in that sport was marred by severe osteomyelitis after he was kicked in the shin. The osteomyelitis kept him out of the draft; his local draft board called him up three times for an exam, on each occasion finding him 4-F / physically unfit to serve.

The 1951 Yankees were a roster of baseball royalty, among them Joe DiMaggio in his last season; Yogi Berra; and Phil Rizzuto. They were managed by the incomparable Casey Stengel. Mickey was thrown into the deep end of this pool -- and into the outfield though he had always been an infielder. A batting slump earned him a mid-season stint in the minors but he was back with the Yankees to help clinch the American League pennant and score his first World Series hit against the National League's New York Giants -- yes, it was a "subway series" in 1951.

Besides the fascinating intimate details of the great Mickey Mantle, this little book simply crackles with ballpark atmosphere. Author Fred Glueckstein enlightens us on living and travel arrangements, the financial realities, and Mickey's letters to the girl back home. The play-by-plays bring the games to life. Perfectly pitched at its young adult audience, Mickey Mantle: Rookie In Pinstripes offers readers and fans of all ages the chance to spend an amazing summer with one of our greatest American sports legends. I recommend it highly.

Linda Bulger, 2008

Mickey Mantle
The book begins with the excitement following the
opening debut of Mickey Mantle. The team line-ups
are set forth, as well as the Yankee 5-0 victory.

The author has a memorable chapter on Mantle's
formative years which traversed the Great Depression.
His father, Mutt Mantle, knew that a return to heavy
labor in the mines was inevitable for supporting the
family.

The volume contains a series of memorable black/white
pictures.i.e.
o Mickey with twin brothers Ray, Roy and sister Barbara
o the ballplayer with his Uncle Luther Richardson
o Mickey #14 basketball player in high school
o the ballplayer with the Whiz Kids of Baxter Springs,KS
o Mickey with the Joplin Miners
o Mickey with his mother
o the ballplayer at spring training in Phoenix, AZ
o Spring training, Mickey and the coach, Mickey reading
o Mickey and the World Series

There is a very extensive bibliography,end note section
and index. The book would be a splendid acquisition for
the sports enthusiast in your house. ... Read more

Product Description
The friends and fans of baseball hero Mickey Mantle celebrate his career, his life, his battle with alcoholism, and his struggle with cancer, in a collection of letters contributed by people from around the world. 150,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dr. Joan Fallon's Letter To Mickey Mantle Is Heartwarming
Just a sample of one of the many endearing letters to Mickey Mantle.

Dear Mr. Mantle,

I send you my wishes for a speedy recovery, and a new life as you
begin to feel stronger and stronger.

I can't say enough about how you made my childhood something special.
As a young woman shut out by the little league world in the 1960's, my
only salvation, my only way to escape from a world and a home where
my father drank was to watch you and the Yankees on television, and
the occasional thrilling trip to the Stadium. I can not tell you how special
you are and always will be to me.

I admired you when you struggled with your legs, watching your transition
from the outfield to the infield during those years. I collected your trading
cards with the little boys in my class, always looking for a Mickey.

Today as a doctor, I have tremendous compassion and understanding
about what you are presently undergoing. I offer you my prayers and
my daily thoughts for your recovery.

Mr. Mantle, you are our treasure, and I wanted to write this letter for
30 years now and finally I am doing it. Thank you for hanging in there
for me to get this opportunity. Thank you for getting sober, thank you
for passing that sobriety to your boys, and thank you for helping me
dream through achildhood that at times was very hard.

With admiration, and love,

Dr. Joan Fallon ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great reading,Great at parties,Train or Plane rides.
I found many interesting facts about Micky I never knew before.
I hear he is writing books on Pete (Come on put me in the Hall of Fame already) Rose, Micheal Jorden,Mickey Mantle 2 and others are in the works.
Looking forward to reading them all.

I hear Tom Burkard is a member of the Knights of Columbus South Amboy Council #426 and at certain book signings he donates some money to the childrens Christmas party.

A FINE WRITER AND FINE PERSON.

An interesting work of the centuries greatest baseball playe
I received my copy of The Ultimate Mickey Mantle Trivia Book by Tom Burkard today and havent been able to put it down...this is an outstanding work, and is incredible in its in depth and detail.I look forward to seeing more books by this great author, and I hope considers writing another about "The Mick" ... Read more

Product Description
Showcasing 125 extraordinary photographs of "The Mick", this book brings the glory years of the Yankees back to life. 100 color photos. 25 b&w photos.Amazon.com Review
The image of Mickey Mantle--from young and full of possibilityto exhausted and courageous--helped define a generation ofballplayers, and no one captured the arc of Mantle's metamorphosisbetter than Ozzie Sweet. As a sports photographer, Sweet was moreinterested in focusing on faces than action; it was the humanness ofthe performer that fascinated him, not the performance itself. Amaster portraitist, Sweet shot just about everyone--Ted Williams,Sandy Koufax, Roberto Clemente, even Albert Einstein--all includedhere. But Mantle, through the course of a Hall of Fame career, was hisevolving masterpiece. Moment by moment, Sweet would appear, and thenmanage to freeze the Mantle legacy at every stage, from exuberant youthto heroic icon.

Sweet's achievement, finally collected in oneplace, is as stunning as it is memorable. His work is full of art,artifice, soft colors, and careful staging; it is both stylish andstylized. The results should captivate both baseball fans andphotography buffs. Canale's accompanying text chronicles Sweet'sachievements and brings context to the rich images of Mantle and hispinstriped compatriots--Casey Stengel, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, BillyMartin, and Roger Maris, among them. Like magical magnets, Sweet'sphotos take hold, then pull you back into what feels like a softer,more innocent, less complicated time. --Jeff Silverman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Like being there with Mick and cronies inside the ball park
This is a take-you-back-in-time mural of the great Mickey Mantle and the other legendary ball players that brought major league baseball to its pinnacle in the 60's. If you were school age or older in the 60's, thisbrings it all back--live and in living color. Great action shots of Mickand his pals where you can hear the crack of the bat! And Sweet grabs manycandid shots of Mickey that clearly bring back the glowing personality thathe shared with the world. When you finish looking through this book, you'llknow you own a chronicle of Baseball's greatest days and why the nameMickey Mantle has become a synonym for the word "Baseball"! Don'tmiss your chance to grab this book. It'll be a collectors item, just likeSweet's earlier book "Legends of the Field" published by SportsIllustrated. It's worth noting here that Ozzie Sweet is considered one ofthe ten best photographers that ever lived (and he's still click'n theshutter). In this collectors archive, you can see why! ... Read more

Product Description
More than two hundred black-and-white and full-color photographs, some never before published, chronicle the life and career of the baseball legend, from Mantle's youth learning the basics from his father, through his eventful professional career, to Baseball's Hall of Fame. Major ad/promo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Complete Disaster
The sports world needs a definitive photo book about Mantle.This isn't it.The photos are very poor reproductions of familiar images found clearly reproduced in other books.Here, they look like 50th generation copies.I returned the book without reading it but noticed that a sequence of Mantle's great catch in Larson's perfect game is described as a catch against Boston!Schoor, a quality writer, should be ashamed of allowing his name to put on this disaster.Charging $36 for this work is a crime. ... Read more

Product Description
"When you're playing, especially if you were alone or if you'd struck out a couple times, you'd say, `What the h--'s it all for, anyway?' But if you hit a home run and your teammates jumped all over you, you knew what it's all for." -- Mickey Mantle

No one knew the meaning of being a great teammate like Mickey Mantle. For a man who many still consider to be the greatest natural baseball player of his time--if not for all times--Mantle was remarkably humble, considerate, and team-oriented. Unlike many athletes today, who some believe are overpaid and egocentric, Mantle personified the meaning of teammate; and those who knew him and played beside him relate their stories in Randall Swearingen's A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle.

Swearingen sheds light on another side of Mantle's legend using fresh testimonials from several of the Mick's teammates, who all agree on No. 7's most amazing characteristic: He helped them win ballgames. Unheard stories interweave with compelling new interviews describing intriguing teammate angles on more than 20 of Mantle's greatest games, which he played despite nagging injuries and personal troubles that somehow never obstructed his ultimate goal--giving his teammates everything he had on the field. Also included in this book are appendices detailing every teammate who had the honor of playing alongside the Mick, from the beginning of his career with the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids to his retirement from the New York Yankees in 1968.

Colorfully illustrated with Swearingen's collection of oneof- a-kind photographs, A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle reminds us that Mickey Mantle was an immense talent who always put his team ahead of himself. Relive, through his teammates' eyes, how Mantle's heart was as big as the tapemeasure home runs that awed a generation.

Perfect for baseball fans of all ages! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

FOR ALL MICKEY FANS
I HAVE READ MANY BOOKS ABOUT MICKEY AND THIS IS ONE OF THE BETTER ONES. I WAS A KID WHEN I FIRST SAW MICKEY PLAY IN PERSON AT CLEVELAND STADIUM BACK IN THE EARLY 1960'S. I DID SEE THE GAME ON TV THAT THE MICK HIT A TITANIC 3 RUN BLAST AFTER BEING ON THE INJURED LIST FOR A MONTH WITH A BADLY PULLED LEG MUSCLE AND STRETCHED KNEE LIGAMENTS ON HIS OTHER LEG. HE LITERALLY LIMPED AOUND THE BASES. THAT MADE MICK MY FAVORITE PLAYER AND HE STILL IS. I WAS IN AWE ALSO OF HIS GREAT ABILITIES AND LEADERSHIP. HE PLAYED IN ALOT OF PAIN AND I THINK THE AUTHOR DID A GOOD JOB OF MAKING THE READER AWARE OF THIS. I AM GLAD HE DIDN'T DWELL ON MICKEY'S DRINKING AND WOMANIZING. MICKEY SHOWED THE BRAVERY HE HAD AT THE VERY END BY TELLING EVERYONE NOT TO DO WHAT HE HAD DONE TO HIMSELF THRU ALCOLHOLISM. A GREAT READ FOR ALL BASEBALL FANS.

A great book, but...
Swearington has written an excellent and inspiring book about Mickey Mantle.I especially appreciated the way the book is organized, which makes it easy and enjoyable to follow the development of Mickey's long and eventful career.

My only complaint is the title.The book is not about Mickey as a teammate.It is about Mickey.In the Preface the author tells us that Mickey "always wanted to be remembered as a great teammate" (pg. xi).I was dissappointed that Mickey's impact as a teammate is almost absent from this otherwise excellent book.

I highly recommend you buy and read this book.But if you are looking for insights into Mickey as a teammate, you may be dissappointed.I am still waiting for somebody to write that book.

A great book
This book was a birthday gift for my brother, a "rabid" Mickey Mantle fan!!!He's just about finished it and said it was jut "GREAT" - lots of "unknown facts" and wonderful insights by "The Mick's" team mates !

A Great Teammate: A Great Book!!!
I've got several Mickey Mantle books, but I really think this one is the best. Very detailed and accurate. Well done!

THE MICK
My kids grew up wanting to BE LIKE MIKE. Like many of my generation, I always wanted to be like Mick. THE MICK.

Mickey Mantle was, for us, the consummate baseball player. He hit the ball hard and ran the bases fast.His arm was strong and his glove golden.

But that's only part of why he was our hero. Randall Swearingen's book, A Great Teammate, covers the rest.Mickey was one of the greatest team players the game has ever known. He found a way to win. One day he'd hit a home run. The next he'd bunt and steal--or literally outrun a fly ball. It added up. Between 1951 and 1964, Mickey's Yankees made twelve trips to the World Series. Twelve!

When his teammates batted, Mickey cheered. When they slumped, he took them to dinner. When Roger wilted in the Babe's mighty shadow, Mickey took him under his wing and into his home--even as The Mick took his own shot at THE RECORD.

Mickey played hurt nearly every game of his major league career because, as a rookie, he deferred to a teammate named Joe DiMaggio. Mickey never complained or made excuses.He just came to the park early, took his treatments, hid the pain, and played hard. As good as he was, he could have been even better with two legs rather than one.

When asked why he didn't take himself out of the lineup to rest the legs, Mickey replied that some child might come to the ball park to watch him play, and he didn't want to let that child down. Mickey didn't know it, but I was that child. My family drove from North Carolina to New York City in 1961. It was the only chance I ever had, as a kid, to watch a major league game. Mickey didn't disappoint: he hit a line drive into the right field bleachers for a home run. From then on, Mickey was my hero. And, like so many southerners in those days, I became, of all things, a Yankee.

Then came the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Sportswriters forgot who Mickey Mantle was and why he had been our hero. They publicized his alcoholism. His business failures. His divorce.If only he had fallen in his prime, they implied, like Gehrig with ALS or Ruth with cancer. But somehow he dodged the Hodgkin's curse. And even though alcoholism is every bit as much a disease as ALS, or cancer, or Hodgkin's, America stopped loving Mickey the way he had loved us. We forgot. And, I must admit, as I almost forgot.

Then I read A Great Teammate, and the memories came pouring back. Mickey winning games for his team. Mickey bringing out the best in his teammates. Mickey loving and respecting the game. Playing hard. Playing hurt. Always humble. Ever helpful. Never making excuses. And, in bottom of the 9th, whipping his toughest foe, alcoholism, and helping others do the same.

No doubt, Old Timers told these stories time and again at ball games, fantasy camps, reunions, and funerals. But, no one ever bothered to write them down for us, the fans. Until now. Mickey, Randall: thank you. ... Read more

Product Description
If you thought you'd seen and heard it all about "The Mick," think again! This book tells the story of Mickey Mantle that very few have ever heard. Through the eyes of his very best friend, you'll learn about his private life away from baseball, from his childhood to his unfortunate death. Reviewed on Today, Good Morning, America and Day & Date. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A personal look at one of Americas True Super Stars
For the true Mickey fan a chance to hear about the person when out of the public spotlight. Great stories that will make it seem that you were Mickeys friend to. ... Read more