The Last Hero: The Life of Mickey Mantle - Hardcover

9780684814247: The Last Hero: The Life of Mickey Mantle
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The death of Mickey Charles Mantle sparked a nationwide outpouring of emotion. How could someone who had stood for so long as a symbol of indestructible American power and vigor die so soon? And why were so many, for whom Mantle symbolized the youth they'd left behind long ago, so bereft at his passing?
In The Last Hero, David Falkner examines Mantle from several perspectives: as the boy from the mining towns of Oklahoma; as a breakthrough ballplayer, the embodiment of power and speed; as a teammate, a leader of men who remained a boy at heart; as a hero to millions in ways he could never fathom; and, finally, as a tragic figure, dying bravely after coming to terms with the price of the irresponsible life he had led. With grace, intelligence, and depth, Falkner provides us with a perceptive look at the man, the athlete, and the American phenomenon who will always be known as, simply, The Mick.

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About the Author:
David Falkner is the author of several books, including The Last Yankee and Nine Sides of the Diamond. A special contributor to The Sporting News, Falkner lives in New York City.
From Booklist:
The Mick. Thirty years after Mickey Mantle's retirement, as he battled cancer, sportscasters still invoked his image with the abbreviated version of his first name. That's all they needed; such was the virtually unprecedented fame Mantle enjoyed and endured. Falkner, the celebrated biographer who has illuminated the lives of sports figures as disparate as Billy Martin (Mantle's teammate and drinking buddy) and Sadaharu Oh, Japanese baseball's version of Babe Ruth, here recounts Mantle's often tumultuous life with an unashamed sentimentality. This isn't intended to be the definitive biography; Falkner is unconcerned with re-creating every day in Mantle's life. Instead, he emphasizes how Mantle the ballplayer and Mantle the man affected both those around him and also the world at large. The oft-told facts set the stage: the humble Oklahoma origins, young Mick's tutelage at the hands of a father who named his son after baseball great Mickey Cochrane; the country-boy-in-the-city years; the stardom; the injuries; the decline; and the drinking. Don't forget the drinking. It's what eventually killed Mantle, and it's also, Falkner argues, what elevated his image as a hero in his last days. Mantle publicly acknowledged his alcoholism and held himself up to kids as a real-life role model: "Don't be like me." Mantle could never recapture a life he felt he had wasted, but over the last few years, as he struggled with his weaknesses and finally achieved sobriety, he became a more enduring kind of hero. This deeply moving biography of a genuine American icon reveals both the cost of fame and the power of redemption. Wes Lukowsky

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  • PublisherSimon & Schuster
  • Publication date1995
  • ISBN 10 0684814242
  • ISBN 13 9780684814247
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages256
  • Rating

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