Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, The Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age

Add to Wishlist

Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, The Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age

View All Available Formats & Editions

Listen on the free Barnes & Noble NOOK app

Related collections and offers

Overview

Allen Barra is a contributing editor of American Heritage magazine and a widely acclaimed sportswriter. In Mickey and Willie, Barra reveals the surprising commonalities of two of the most heralded baseball players of the 20th century. Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays had vastly different backgrounds. But when it came to baseball, they possessed surprisingly similar athletic abilities, played the same position, and shared a close friendship unknown to many.

Product Details
Related Subjects

Editorial Reviews

Each had his own inimitable playing style, but the New York Yankees' Mickey Mantle and the New York Giants' Willie Mays seemed like white and black twins: Both were fleet-footed, hard-throwing, power-hitting centerfielders renowned for their clutch-hitting and their willingness to put themselves on the line even when their team didn't seem have a chance. In this winning double portrait, journalist/author Allen Barra (Yogi Berra) shows that these Hall of Famers were not just friendly cross-town rivals; they were close friends, who, despite their very different backgrounds, shared painful pasts and the isolation of superstardom. A revealing look at two men who helped make baseball's golden age.

Publishers Weekly

In these elegant and touching fan notes, acclaimed sportswriter Barra carries us back to baseball’s golden days, when two giants—Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays—dominated the game through their skill and prodigious talent. Giving a fast-paced, season-by-season account of the lives of these players, whose careers developed along parallel lines and sometimes intersected, Barra recreates the excitement, the adoration, and the adulation that Mantle and Mays inspired in their fans—as well as the occasional disappointments. Barra notes the many similarities in the players’ lives: both hailed from the South and both were talented all-around athletes who played football, baseball, and basketball; both had fathers who encouraged them, though Mays’s let his son follow his talents to center field naturally, while Mantle’s groomed his son for center field from the start. Alike as they were, the differences were stark: Mays came from a broken home and Mantle from a large, close-knit family. Barra pulls no punches as he candidly portrays Mantle’s struggles with alcohol and Mays’s anxiety attacks off the field. Mantle will go down in the record books for his home run of 563 feet on April 17, 1953—famously the first home run ever officially measured (a “tape measure” home run) for distance; Mays would gain his celebrity for ”the catch,” a stunning grab 460 feet from home plate in the 1954 World Series. Drawing on his conversations with Mantle and Mays, Barra offers illuminating insights into their views of success and failure as well as into the ways that we often create larger-than-life heroes out of individuals who sometimes cannot carry the burdens of our dreams and hopes. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Barra (Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee) traces the rise of these two baseball icons of the Yankees and Giants, respectively, the two greatest players, he believes, from roughly 1951 through 1964. In that era the sports world centered on baseball more than it does today, especially on crosstown rivals. Barra recounts his one-time hero worship of both Mantle and Mays, and his coming to terms with the fact that prodigious athletic talent does not necessarily translate into personal heroism. He portrays Mantle, once referred to by a teammate as "a blond god," and Mays, the "Say Hey Kid," as virtually unsurpassed Hall of Fame talents with tortured souls and complex legacies. Their on-the-field feats are legendary, and chronicled again here, but Barra discusses their lives off the field (doomed marriages, financial failure, individual eccentricities). VERDICT Part memoir, part baseball history, part biography, this book is sure to be a winner with multiple audiences: fans, historians, and nonspecialists alike. Highly recommended.—SKS

Kirkus Reviews

Veteran sports journalist and biographer Barra (Yogi Berra, 2009, etc.) returns with a dual biography of two of baseball's all-time greats. The author does not employ Castor and Pollux imagery in his treatment of these two very similar athletes, but he might as well have. Throughout his well-researched and generous tale, he continually alludes to the similarities of these Hall of Fame centerfielders. From their baseball-playing fathers to their eerie physical resemblances to their remarkable multiple talents (hitting, power, speed, throwing arms), Barra highlights the enormous improbability of two such gifted athletes arriving simultaneously. Of course, there were differences. Mays, an African-American, always had to contend with race; there were critics who thought he did not do enough for civil rights. Mantle was an alcoholic (Mays never drank), a weakness that tarnished his image and limited his still-remarkable achievements. Mantle also suffered a bad knee injury in the 1951 World Series, and Barra reminds us that Mays hit the fly that Mantle was chasing at the time. Another difference: Mays entered the military, and Mantle, classified 4-F because of his osteomyelitis, had to endure taunts early in his career about his courage. Barra follows both men from childhood to the present (Mantle died in 1995), writing about their families, marriages, miscues, relationships, friendships (they liked each other) and post-baseball lives. He includes some social history, as well, including the Curt Flood lawsuit, and he blasts Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. The author argues that both players should have won MVP awards more often than they did. Ages are "golden" only in misty-eyed retrospect, but Barra excels at showing these athletes' superhuman abilities and all-too-human frailties.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169302509
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	05/14/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

Related Subjects

From the B&N Reads Blog

Page 1 of

Editorial Reviews

Each had his own inimitable playing style, but the New York Yankees' Mickey Mantle and the New York Giants' Willie Mays seemed like white and black twins: Both were fleet-footed, hard-throwing, power-hitting centerfielders renowned for their clutch-hitting and their willingness to put themselves on the line even when their team didn't seem have a chance. In this winning double portrait, journalist/author Allen Barra (Yogi Berra) shows that these Hall of Famers were not just friendly cross-town rivals; they were close friends, who, despite their very different backgrounds, shared painful pasts and the isolation of superstardom. A revealing look at two men who helped make baseball's golden age.

In these elegant and touching fan notes, acclaimed sportswriter Barra carries us back to baseball’s golden days, when two giants—Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays—dominated the game through their skill and prodigious talent. Giving a fast-paced, season-by-season account of the lives of these players, whose careers developed along parallel lines and sometimes intersected, Barra recreates the excitement, the adoration, and the adulation that Mantle and Mays inspired in their fans—as well as the occasional disappointments. Barra notes the many similarities in the players’ lives: both hailed from the South and both were talented all-around athletes who played football, baseball, and basketball; both had fathers who encouraged them, though Mays’s let his son follow his talents to center field naturally, while Mantle’s groomed his son for center field from the start. Alike as they were, the differences were stark: Mays came from a broken home and Mantle from a large, close-knit family. Barra pulls no punches as he candidly portrays Mantle’s struggles with alcohol and Mays’s anxiety attacks off the field. Mantle will go down in the record books for his home run of 563 feet on April 17, 1953—famously the first home run ever officially measured (a “tape measure” home run) for distance; Mays would gain his celebrity for ”the catch,” a stunning grab 460 feet from home plate in the 1954 World Series. Drawing on his conversations with Mantle and Mays, Barra offers illuminating insights into their views of success and failure as well as into the ways that we often create larger-than-life heroes out of individuals who sometimes cannot carry the burdens of our dreams and hopes. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Barra (Yogi Berra: Eternal Yankee) traces the rise of these two baseball icons of the Yankees and Giants, respectively, the two greatest players, he believes, from roughly 1951 through 1964. In that era the sports world centered on baseball more than it does today, especially on crosstown rivals. Barra recounts his one-time hero worship of both Mantle and Mays, and his coming to terms with the fact that prodigious athletic talent does not necessarily translate into personal heroism. He portrays Mantle, once referred to by a teammate as "a blond god," and Mays, the "Say Hey Kid," as virtually unsurpassed Hall of Fame talents with tortured souls and complex legacies. Their on-the-field feats are legendary, and chronicled again here, but Barra discusses their lives off the field (doomed marriages, financial failure, individual eccentricities). VERDICT Part memoir, part baseball history, part biography, this book is sure to be a winner with multiple audiences: fans, historians, and nonspecialists alike. Highly recommended.—SKS

Library Journal

Veteran sports journalist and biographer Barra (Yogi Berra, 2009, etc.) returns with a dual biography of two of baseball's all-time greats. The author does not employ Castor and Pollux imagery in his treatment of these two very similar athletes, but he might as well have. Throughout his well-researched and generous tale, he continually alludes to the similarities of these Hall of Fame centerfielders. From their baseball-playing fathers to their eerie physical resemblances to their remarkable multiple talents (hitting, power, speed, throwing arms), Barra highlights the enormous improbability of two such gifted athletes arriving simultaneously. Of course, there were differences. Mays, an African-American, always had to contend with race; there were critics who thought he did not do enough for civil rights. Mantle was an alcoholic (Mays never drank), a weakness that tarnished his image and limited his still-remarkable achievements. Mantle also suffered a bad knee injury in the 1951 World Series, and Barra reminds us that Mays hit the fly that Mantle was chasing at the time. Another difference: Mays entered the military, and Mantle, classified 4-F because of his osteomyelitis, had to endure taunts early in his career about his courage. Barra follows both men from childhood to the present (Mantle died in 1995), writing about their families, marriages, miscues, relationships, friendships (they liked each other) and post-baseball lives. He includes some social history, as well, including the Curt Flood lawsuit, and he blasts Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. The author argues that both players should have won MVP awards more often than they did. Ages are "golden" only in misty-eyed retrospect, but Barra excels at showing these athletes' superhuman abilities and all-too-human frailties.

Kirkus Reviews