Mantle

April 1, 2019
Journalist Castro (Mickey Mantle: American Prodigal) expertly reveals the flawed yet glorious life of New York Yankee Mickey Mantle (1931–1995), one of baseball’s greatest switch hitters. The shy Oklahoma country boy, raised by a domineering father, joined the Yankees in 1951, replacing an aging Joe DiMaggio. Castro chronicles the psychological wounds of Mantle’s childhood (his grandmother whipped him, and he wet the bed until age 16) and a traumatic molestation by his half-sister, all of which, Castro argues, contributed to his womanizing and his troubled relationship with his wife, Merlyn Johnson. The writer also delves into Mantle’s alcoholism, which led to cirrhosis later in life, and its effects on his family (Merlyn and three of their four sons were also treated for alcoholism). Nevertheless, by 1968—Mantle’s last year before retiring as a Yankee—he had been a 20-time All Star, a seven-time World Series champion, and recipient of three MVP awards: “I may not have been the best goddamned ballplayer of all time, but if I wasn’t, I’d like to see who was,” he once said. Informative and entertaining, Castro’s biography is certain to please Yankee and Mantle fans alike.

Starred review from March 15, 2019
Castro, a veteran journalist, has written extensively on baseball icon Mickey Mantle, and, through the years, he conducted hundreds of interviews with Mantle, his teammates, managers, family, and friends. This new biography is the product of 50 years of those interviews, including several with Mantle's wife, Merlyn, that Castro couldn't use until after her death in 2009. It's an extraordinary effort that can be read not only as a biography of a baseball legend but also as a chronicle of the dark side of fame. For baseball fans, the basic outline of Mantle's life is well known: the son of an overbearing father, Mantle became the foundation of the New York Yankees' incredible success from the early fifties through the mid-sixties. As good as he was, he suffered debilitating injuries that diminished his abilities, and his adult life, as Castro details, was also troubled by alcoholism, womanizing, the ongoing ramifications of his relationship with his father, and the sexual abuse he suffered as a child by a much older half-sister and her friends. Castro was Mantle's friend, and he uses that relationship to bring an intimacy to the book. Mantle's life story has been told many times, but it's never received as loving a treatment as this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)