Friday, April 24, 2020

A new book recalls the American tragedy of Mickey Mantle

"A Farewell to Arms, Legs and Jockstraps," former sportswriter Diane Shah's new memoir about life in testosterone-infested locker rooms, includes a tale about the cringe-worthy - (yet probably successful) - pickup moves employed by Mickey Charles Mantle. 

Considering all we know about The Mick's dark and drunken past, Shah's story isn't so horrifying: He crudely propositioned her in a greeting card. Not saying that's okay, only that I imagined worse... because, frankly, I've heard worse.

A friend once told me of the night long ago when he and his dad encountered several Yankees in a hotel corridor. His father politely asked for an autograph, but Mickey - drunk and out of control - became abusive. My friend - he must have been eight - braced himself to watch his dad get beaten up by his favorite Yankee. Somehow, Whitey Ford intervened - bless you, Whitey - and everyone cooled down. Of course, my friend never forgot that moment. For him, Mickey - and baseball - were never the same.

Another friend, a reporter, would tell of the time Mickey spoke at a youth banquet in Binghamton. The media asked for interviews, but one event official confided that Mickey might not be sober enough to make the dinner. He did, and at the end of his short speech, Mickey told all the kids wanting autographs to line up to his left, and all the women who wanted to see him later to go to his hotel room. Everyone in the crowd buried their heads. Ohh, Mickey...  

Still, I loved him as a kid, and I always will. Here's one of the best interviews ever done. It's 15 minutes, and it won't save you on car insurance. It's Bob Costas' finest hour (or quarter hour.) Have a Kleenex ready. I guarantee you will cry.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rest in peace

DickAllen said...



Sports lesson #1: Don't get too close to these assholes.

They are athletes, which means:

a) they haven't spent a great deal of time in the library and,

b) they've had people telling them all their lives how special they are until they actually believe it.

Not a recipe for the milk of human kindness. Give people like that a good deal of money, and free booze and...

...I'd be the same way under the circumstances.

Anonymous said...

I thought this book was funny. It's a semi fictionalized version of The Micks life.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1493013955?tag=duckduckgo-ffsb-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

7: The Mickey Mantle Novel Paperback – November 13, 2015
by Peter Golenbock

You could do worse.

Doug K.

Anonymous said...

A comic, wild, sad and salacious reimagining of the late Yankee’s life… (The New York Times)

Mickey Mantle was the most fascinating ball-player I ever covered. I thought I knew everything about him; but Peter Golenbock’s wildly funny, shrewd and eventually compassionate fictional take is as intellectually satisfying as it is risky. The pathetic journalists and fans who have objectified the Mick to make him an icon won’t like it, but I bet Mickey would laugh and cry his ass off. (Robert Lipsyte, American sports journalist, ESPN Ombudsman, and author of An Accidental Sportswriter)

Mickey was one of my best friends, and this book is the closest thing to the real Mickey Mantle that I have ever read. No one could make me laugh like Mickey could, until now. I experienced a real joy, feeling I was with him again. (Bill Reedy)

Mickey Mantle was a nice bunch of guys. We in the media were warned for years to get him early in the day or bad Mickey would pay a visit. Peter Golenbock’s 7 is alternately funny and touching, and captures both Mickey’s demons and his great sense of humor. It’s fascinating to read these stories in Mickey’s voice. His self-examination of what went wrong, driven by his insecurities instilled in childhood, is revealing. 7 distills the essence of this tortured soul, with all the heartaches and regrets. 7 is a grand slam. (Ed Randall, Ed Randall’s Talking Baseball, WFAN radio, New York)

This is a book solidly in the American grain. Mickey Mantle was talented, doomed, wry, outrageously lewd and tortured by poor-boy morality, and his comic soul comes busting straight through as he attempts to interview his guilt away in heaven. He was a sinner, absolutely, but he was one of us. Golenbock has made him inescapable as well as unputdownable. (Burton Hersh, author of "The Old Boys: The American Elite and the Origins

Doug K. (And no, I don't get a commission. I just liked the book and have a lot of time to kill.)

13bit said...

Oh my God, Duque, thank you. Weeping here. I needed that.

HoraceClarke66 said...

I think celebrity is a killer in this country. Even people who work very hard at staying on the straight and narrow, such as Jeter, end up rather chilly. They have to be.

For Mantle, yeah, it was a shame what happened to him. But the way Costas and all go on about his life...

The guy was born in a literal Superfund site. His mother was apparently emotionally unattached to him, and he was molested by another female relative at a young age. He grew up in a culture where he was taken to bars and encouraged to drink from about the time he hit puberty. His father died when he was still a teenager, and he was left adrift in the big city.

Badly injured from almost the beginning of his career, he played on through more devastating injuries and excruciating pain.

Yeah, he must've been a pain in the ass to be around. But considering all the strikes against him to start with, he didn't do so bad.


HoraceClarke66 said...

By the by, on the voting:

No-Mah and A-Rod were both juicers. End of story.

Dick Groat was a National Leaguer who hit .214 in his one World Series against us.

Luis Aparicio and Rick Burleson were great glovemen, but popgun hitters who were below their average against us (especially Burleson).

Ripken's stats against the Yanks were considerably below his normal.

That leaves Yount and Trammell, who were ALSO slight below normal against our guys. Young hit a little better, and for a little more power. He's my pick.

HoraceClarke66 said...

Oh, wait, sorry, correction:

Groat played in TWO World Series against the Yanks. In the other one, he hit .192.

Robin it is.

Anonymous said...

THE MICK WAS MY FATHERS HERO.

THEN HE BECAME MINE.

NO BOOK, MEMOIR, OR ARTICLE WILL EVER CHANGE THAT.

HOPE THE WOMAN THAT IS WRITING THIS NEW BOOK ISN'T TRYING TO SOIL MANTLE'S LEGACY.

WITHOUT PROOF, DON'T PUT ONE OUNCE OF STOCK INTO ANY OF WHAT IS WRITTEN.

WAS ANY OF IT TRUE?

MAYBE.

MAYBE NOT.

LET THE MICK REST IN PEACE.

Anonymous said...

MR. DUQUE.

I HAD NEVER SEEN THAT INTERVIEW, UNTIL NOW.

YOU WERE RIGHT.

NEEDED A KLEENEX.

I BELIEVE HE WAS CLINICALLY DEPRESSED AT THAT TIME.

HE DID SEEM HAUNTED.

HE IS STILL MY HERO.



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