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Book Nook provides readers with insights into the world of books. Vick Mickunas takes you into the center of the publishing world with the latest book buzz, book reviews, and exclusive chats with authors..Home > Blogs > Book Nook > Archives > 2007 > April > 05 > Entry
I miss Mickey Mantle
Well, I’ve kept my promise. I said that I would not write about baseball books again until the season was underway. I waited. Now, I have something to write about.
Judith Regan the former publisher of the now defunct Regan Books imprint caught a lot of flak over an OJ Simpson book that she planned to publish a few months ago. That uproar led to her dismissal by Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Harper Collins which provided a corporate umbrella for Regan’s imprint.
It has been alleged that Ms. Regan was shown the door after she made some anti-Semitic remarks to a Harper Collins lawyer. Maybe so.
I seem to recall that she was removed after more bad publicity came out about another book she planned to publish, a novel about the former Yankee slugger, Mickey Mantle.
The OJ book deal was killed and it looks like it will never see the light of day. The Mantle book, “7: The Mickey Mantle Novel,” by Peter Golenbock has been acquired by another publisher, The Lyons Press. They have just done a printing of 250,000 copies.
The early publicity for the book a few months ago was uniformly bad. Mantle, who had a reputation as a boozer and hard partier is supposedly depicted in the novel as a boozer and a hard partier. The late slugger’s family is apparently perturbed about the portrayal of this iconic baseball star.
I have not read the book. I plan to read it. I’ll reserve judgement until I do. I miss Mickey Mantle. And Richard Nixon. And Elvis Presley. I really do. They were fun to watch.
Speaking of fun to watch, did you see that the Red Sox rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka struck out 10 batters today? Ah, baseball.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: secret passions
Comments
By John Sollami
April 6, 2007 12:37 PM | Link to this
Vick, I grew up in Queens, New York in the 1950s. My father would spend most of his spare time sitting in front of our black and white, 12-inch, gigantic Dumont TV watching the Yankees, and I’d be sitting right next to him. I can recite to you right now the name and position of every player on the 1956 Yankee team. They were all my heroes. But the greatest, even greater than Yogi, Whitey Ford, Billy Martin, Hank Bauer, Bob Turley, Elston Howard, and Tony Kubek, was the great Mickey Mantle. His mighty swing would send a tingle down my spine. Every time he came to the plate, he was a dream in motion, capable of anything at all, even flying into the air and out of the park. His hustle in center also was incredible to me. I remember him during one afternoon rushing to get a gapper between center and right. He got there, but not quite fast enough. The ball bounced off his glove, but Hank Bauer was right beside him and caught the richochet off Mickey’s mitt. Out!! Tell me I’m a fool, but I loved the guy. I knew nothing about his faults. All I knew was his smile, his swing, his magnificent homers, his hustle, and that picture of him wearing the triple crown in 1956. For a 10-year-old boy, nothing in the world could come close to this amazing marvel.