Spring Break
The Daily OrangeLucky number seven: Wild tales of sex, booze shed new light on Mickey Mantle's life
By Heath D. Williams
Posted: 4/24/07, 11:27 PM EST Section: Bindings
"7: The Mickey Mantle Novel"
By Peter Golenbock
The Lyons Press
286 pages
$24.95
4.5 out of 5 stars
Mickey Mantle was a hero. Wide-eyed Little League boys imitated his crisp, powerful swing, ran the bases like him, wore his number 7 with adulation, wanted to play centerfield like him. Women wanted him. Their husbands wanted to be him.
"I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about," The Mick once said.
Mickey Mantle didn't understand why. Away from the diamond, where his mammoth home runs, charisma and charm won the heart of America, he was a womanizer, a drunk.
In his eulogy at Mantle's funeral in 1995, Bob Costas said Mickey "came to accept and appreciate the distinction between a role model and a hero. The first he was often not. The second he always will be."
And that's what Peter Golenbock's "7: The Mickey Mantle Novel" is all about: the hero's brutal, too-late realization that yes, he was a hero, but he was also far from the deity baseball fans made him out to be.
Golenbock's sometimes hilarious, other times heartbreaking, all wildly entertaining work reads like an autobiography sent by Mickey from heaven. "7" is 286 pages of stories of pursuits of women while on long road trips with the Yankees, tales of alcoholism and legends of baseball heroics.
The premise of the book is inventive and original - a transcript of conversations Mickey has with an old baseball writer while in heaven, an attempt to let his family, his friends and most importantly, himself, understand why he did the things he did.
Bear in mind this book is a piece of fiction. Not all of the stories are real or proven. But also bear in mind this book paints a painstakingly accurate picture of what Mickey's life away from the baseball field was like. In his introduction, Golenbock writes friends and family of Mickey have praised the book because it is the most accurate portrayal of his life published to date.
By Peter Golenbock
The Lyons Press
286 pages
$24.95
4.5 out of 5 stars
Mickey Mantle was a hero. Wide-eyed Little League boys imitated his crisp, powerful swing, ran the bases like him, wore his number 7 with adulation, wanted to play centerfield like him. Women wanted him. Their husbands wanted to be him.
"I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about," The Mick once said.
Mickey Mantle didn't understand why. Away from the diamond, where his mammoth home runs, charisma and charm won the heart of America, he was a womanizer, a drunk.
In his eulogy at Mantle's funeral in 1995, Bob Costas said Mickey "came to accept and appreciate the distinction between a role model and a hero. The first he was often not. The second he always will be."
And that's what Peter Golenbock's "7: The Mickey Mantle Novel" is all about: the hero's brutal, too-late realization that yes, he was a hero, but he was also far from the deity baseball fans made him out to be.
Golenbock's sometimes hilarious, other times heartbreaking, all wildly entertaining work reads like an autobiography sent by Mickey from heaven. "7" is 286 pages of stories of pursuits of women while on long road trips with the Yankees, tales of alcoholism and legends of baseball heroics.
The premise of the book is inventive and original - a transcript of conversations Mickey has with an old baseball writer while in heaven, an attempt to let his family, his friends and most importantly, himself, understand why he did the things he did.
Bear in mind this book is a piece of fiction. Not all of the stories are real or proven. But also bear in mind this book paints a painstakingly accurate picture of what Mickey's life away from the baseball field was like. In his introduction, Golenbock writes friends and family of Mickey have praised the book because it is the most accurate portrayal of his life published to date.
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