****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I'm a NY Yankees fan. Mickey Mantle was one of my boyhood heroes. I read Jane Leavy's book of Sandy Koufax and liked it so I bought her The Last Boy Mickey Mantle book to lean more about my hero Mickey Mantle.Jane Leavy wrote a superb book on Mickey Mantle, his friends, family, NY Yankees and other team members he played against. A good comparison of the great HOF Willie Mays vs HOF Mickey Mantel and much much more. There are superb B/W pictures as well as color shots of Mickey on some of the sports magazines. The 456 page book reads great, fast with no boring parts. I read it in 3 days and could not put it down. Jane Leavy uses her great reporting style to get hundreds of exciting tidbits of information. Lots of new information for me.We see his upbringing by his mining father and mother in rural Oklahoma. We see the large family and not much money. The Mantle men always died young and some with diseases related to mining. Mick always though he would die young. We see Mick's Dad molding him to be a ball player as soon as possible. He used to roll a ball to Mick when he was a baby and played ball with him everyday after work. His mining father also played semi pro ball but wanted Mike to be a champion in the Major Leagues and get married. His father did heavy drinking too and died in his 40s.Mickey tells that as a young kid he was sexually abused by some other young boys and had sex with some of his high school teachers. We learn that this may have contributed to his unfaithfulness to his wife Merlyn and his many female sexual partners while he was married. We learn about Mickey's drinking binges, being hung over, and his exploits with his Yankee ballplayer friends and other friends. Mickey had a lot of friends and the doors opened up for him. Unfortunately outside of the ball park his life many times was an uncontrollable mess. We see him going to the Betty Ford Institute to get better, dry out and confront his alcoholism about 18 months before his death.We see his many business adventures and the millions he received in lending his name and face to products. The fans loved him and cheered for him. We see manager Casey Stengel so mad as Mantle had the most athletic ability for baseball he ever saw but Mantle refused to listen to him and conducted his life out of the ballpark haphazard and with wild abandon. Mickey never grew up until about 18 months before his death.We see the family neglect. Mantle was infrequently around his kids and almost never told them he loved them. He had 4 children and some of them also became alcoholic, used cocaine and had severe life problems. His son Billy died very young with the disease Mickey though he would die of. Many times Mickey was not around to guide them through life.We see Mickeys MVP awards, one golden glove,world series rings, a record World Series homers, his many other trophies and awards and his incredible speed. He "blew out a knee", completely tore it up in the outfield of Yankee stadium catching his cleats in a drain , trying to catch a ball hit by Willie Mays and to avoid plowing into Joe DiMaggio.We see Mickey developing into the greatest switch hitter of all time. Also considered to be one of the most powerful hitters of all time with 500 foot plus smashes and just missing hitting one out of Yankee stadium( no one has ever hit one out).Also for a while the fastest man in baseball home to first.We see his race in 1961 with Roger Maris to try to better Ruth's single season home run record ( Roger and Mickey become great friends, Roger hits 61 and had the record while Mickey hit 54). We see Maris dieing of cancer and Mantle devastated and openly weeping as one of the honor pall bearers at Maris' funeral. We see him at the funeral of his crazy drinking buddy Billy Martin and the exploits with the "chairman of the board HOF Whitey Ford and his friends HOF Yogi Berra, Elston Howard, Tom Tresh ,Clete Boyer , Bobby Richardson, Tony Kubek and more. We see the self proclaimed king of center field HOF Joe DiMaggio most of the time had no use for Mantle as younger Mantle started stealing his thunder. Joe D had a huge ego while Mantle had none and just wanted to play baseball and have fun.We see the many times Mantle did charitable work( many times anonymous), the many charities and fun raising events for the disadvantaged and sick and many times gave money to total strangers.In the book there are many more great baseball stories. The reader develops a deep sad empathy with the tragic off field life and his tragic painful death. Mantel even says to youths as a roll model "Don't be like me". He was referring to his drinking, running around, unfaithfulness to his wife and missing his children grow up and not mentally supporting them.INM0 in the "top ten" MLB players, the greatest switch hitter of all time and the one with the most gifted natural athletic ability. The reader is left to wonder how much greater HOF Mickey Mantle's stats would of been if he took care of his magnificent body and not have blown out his knee? 650...700 Home Runs vs his 536 home runs , more than his 2415 hits and a much greater average than his lifetime 298 average? Here is a man blessed with INMO the greatest baseball playing athletic ability of all time but was not able to utilize it fully due to off field stupidness (Yes I said it), destroying his body and super major playing injuries.A great book any baseball fan will love or a reader wanting to read a tragic lifestyle. 5 stars
