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Title: Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son by Tony Castro ISBN: 1-57488-384-4 Publisher: Brasseys, Inc. Pub. Date: July, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: meticulously researched
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Another HOMERUN for Mantle with one for Castro!!
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son
Comment: In Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son, former Sports Illustrated writer Tony Castro examines Mantle's great promise - Casey Stengel hailed him as the next Ruth and the successor to DiMaggio - and what went wrong for him in the big city. What unfolds is a story of fathers and sons, rebels and heroes, and a youth's rite of passage. At the heart of the book is Mantle's complex relationship with his father, who controlled his son's life both on the field and off, and whose early death plagued Mantle with guilt for the rest of his life." "Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son is based on six years of research during which the author interviewed over 250 of Mantle's friends, teammates, lovers, acquaintances, and drinking partners. It is both a biography of one of the world's most fascinating and enduring sports heroes and a look at the American society of his time.
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Title: The Mick by Mickey Mantle, Herb Gluck ISBN: 0515085995 Publisher: Jove Pubns Pub. Date: April, 1986 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: 61* : The Story of Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle and One Magical Summer by Ron Smith, Sporting News, Billy Crystal ISBN: 0892046627 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Distributed Products Pub. Date: 09 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Quality of Courage by Mickey Mantle, Robert W. Creamer ISBN: 0803282591 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: February, 1999 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Mickey Mantle: The Yankee Years: The Classic Photography of Ozzie Sweet by Ozzie Sweet, Larry Canale ISBN: 0930625218 Publisher: Antique Trader Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: The Last Hero: The Life of Mickey Mantle by David Falkner ISBN: 0684814242 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: December, 1995 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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