I never saw Mickey Mantle play an inning of baseball, but as a child of the 60’s, you couldn’t help but hear his name constantly and even in childhood know that the name Mickey Mantle was associated with greatness.
Through the years, I’ve found Mickey Mantle to be an interesting study in perspective and through the summer, bit by bit on visits to Midland, I worked my way through ” The Last Boy- Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood ” written by Jane Leavy.
This work is an expansive one that travels so many avenues of Mantle’s life and pokes every emotional button a human body can manufacture.
You get capotivated by his potential, you root for his greatness the way Baby Boomers were drawn to him, you admire the skills he displayed, choose a side in the ” who-was-the-greatest-Mays-Snider or Mantle ? ” debate and you ache with him as he plays courageously through pain.
But this is far from typical, light years beyond the normal hero worshipping piece of literature.
” The Last Boy ” also lets you travel with Mantle and frequently upsets you, agitates you, makes you sick, makes you angry, makes you feel sad and quite often gets you to think, ‘ served him right “.
Like the still ongoing argument on whether Mantle was better than Mays or Snider, your perspective on Mickey Mantle can be justified from any angle you choose.
For me, having never seen him homer to win a game, I’ll stick with his final public words as the enduring image of the Mick, ” God gave me everything and I blew it ! For the kids out there, don’t be like me ! ”
I’m Fred Wallace