Under the cover of Covid, and now in the shadow of the infamous Election Irregularities of that fated 2020 presidential election, with current emerging alleged election fraud in Nevada and Pennsylvania inconveniently slipping into the public discourse, there is proved a colluded ongoing Election Interference in the nomination of the Republican candidate, the likes of which has never occurred in our Constitutional Republic's history, albeit, the question remains: Do you support the plain-sight Election Interference of the Democratic Socialist party, employing its minions in their Propagandistic Media, and their Two Tiered Justice System?
98.13% No, I do not support Election Interference; I am a patriot unto our Constitution.
0.93% Yes, I do support Election Interference; the alternative, Donald Trump, to this mentally diminished president is far worse.
My reading preferences fall mainly into the biographical and factual historical genre. Early on, in life, I enjoyed the James Bond and Tom Clancy novels but as I have aged, I have gravitated toward trying to find out what motivated people. It makes no difference to me about the politics or belief system, I enjoy finding out what makes people strive to reach a goal, regardless of the goal. Like almost everything else I do, I go for a month or two without reading any books and then dive back in and consume books like a paper shredder.
The tag line of the book is "He was the Last Boy in the last decade ruled by boys."
This is the real story of perhaps the best major league baseball player who ever played the game. This book is not an autobiography, but it has the perspective of 15 years to look at life and times of The Mick.
June 2016
Jane Leavy is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Last Boy, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy and the comic novel Squeeze Play, which Entertainment Weekly called "the best novel ever written about baseball."
Do not look for a book about statistics and home run averages, though there are plenty of those here to put the narrative in perspective. This book follows a man from his childhood Oklahoma to his death in Dallas, Texas.
Along the way we find out that he was a product of his times and a constant need to live up to his father's expectations. There is much to be admired and condemned. He was a boorish drunk, a poor father and a lifetime philanderer. But WOW, what a baseball player he was. Like Pete Rose, he played at the 100% level on the field and off and it cost him dearly in health and relationships.
We hear all this from the perspective of a woman who was born the year that Mickey joined the Yankees grew up in New York. She was and is an unabashed baseball fan. She tells the story of as only a woman could tell. This is no shrinking violet, here. She has been around both high society and boorish locker rooms.
Often the sports writing profession are nothing more than sycophants who hang around the sports heroes waiting for a story. Like Max in the movie "The Natural," they are enablers of the game and the players. Also like Max they don't care if the player is 'a goat or a hero, its going to make a great story.' Back in the 1950-60's era, the off field antics of both sports heroes and politicians were ignored or glossed over by the media. They were participants as well as scribes. It made for a very incestuous relationship then and now.
Jane gives us a firsthand account of the both sides of Mickey, even including the obligatory drunken come on to her by The Mick in 1983 (He was 52 she was 32). Let's face it guys, back then women learned how to deal with uncouth, ill-mannered and downright rude behavior. It was before testosterone was banned from society. I am not making excuses for this behavior, but when you get a bunch of young boys and men together with free flowing booze and women, you cannot expect choirboy behavior. Times have changed: Ask Donald Trump.
As always, I try to make notes of the memorable quotes, which give a flavor of the person and the story. It is kind of a footnote of the larger narrative.
Here are a few from the book:
"I believe in memory, not memorabilia," Leavy writes in her preface.
Everyone had an opinion about why Mantle Drank. He drank because he was good at it: because he got paid to do it: because he had nothing else to do. " I think he drank to go to sleep.' Clete Boyer said: 'After he got out of baseball, he drank to wake up." (PG312)
He Drank, Mantle said, because "it was there all the time for me."
Jane sums it up as only a woman could: "He drank because that's what alcoholics do."
Frank Sullivan, the pitcher, said when asked how he picthed to Mickey Mantle at the plate "With Tears in my eyes." (pg 162)
One of his teammates, Jerry Coleman said: "He never grew up, and it ruined him."
Who is Mickey the Good?
Mickey the Good was the guy who stopped the Yankee team bus en route to a Florida exhibition game and gave $100 to a homeless man lying by the railroad tracks.
Who is Mickey the Bad?
Mickey the Bad was the guy who farted in my face when, at age eight, I waited in vain for an autograph outside the players entrance at Yankee Stadium. Mickey the Good made up for it by giving me an autographed photo when I met him in 1983. It is signed: "Sorry I farted. Your friend, Mick." Jane Leavy
sycophants who hang around the sports heroes waiting for a story. Like Max in the movie "The Natural," they are enablers of the game and the players. Also like Max they don't care if the player is 'a goat or a hero, its going to make a great story.' Back in the 1950-60's era, the off field antics of both sports heroes and politicians were ignored or glossed over by the media. They were participants as well as scribes. It made for a very incestuous relationship then and now.
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