A Season in the Sun - The Rise of Mickey Mantle by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith

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Metadata	Details
Publication Date	2017-01-01
Journal	Nine
Authors	Ron Briley

Abstract

Reviewed by: A Season in the Sun: The Rise of Mickey Mantle by Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith Ron Briley Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith. A Season in the Sun: The Rise of Mickey Mantle. New York: Basic Books, 2018. 276 pp. Cloth, $25.98. In 1956, centerfielder Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees was the unanimous choice for the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award after leading his team to a World Series victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers. Earning baseball’s Triple Crown, an accomplishment that eluded Babe Ruth, Mantle hit for a .353 average with 52 home runs and 130 runs batted in. With A Season in the Sun, historians Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith chronicle that spectacular season with a lively narrative that will appeal to many baseball fans, although those well acquainted with Mantle’s story will be traveling a rather familiar path. Immersed in a close reading of newspaper and magazine coverage of Mantle during the 1950s, Roberts and Smith attempt to place the baseball slugger within the historical context of the era. While recognizing Mantle’s faults that failed to fit with the wholesome and heroic image depicted by the media of the 1950s, Roberts and Smith have chosen to present Mantle within the projected mainstream heroic image cultivated in 1956. This approach, however, tends to obscure the complex reality of Mantle and America during the 1950s. For example, Roberts and Smith believe that Mantle’s biography is too often viewed through the lens of tragedy as Mantle died from cirrhosis of the liver and expressed regrets about a life too often filled with drinking and promiscuity. Biographers Tony Castro and Jane Leavy portray Mickey’s father, Mutt, as a loving parent who pushed his son to excellence in baseball so that Mickey might escape the zinc mines that destroyed Mutt’s health. They tend to ignore the fact that Mutt’s pressure on his son may have contributed to Mantle’s insecurities that resulted in him seeking solace in drink, just as Jimmy Piersall’s father pushed him toward the mental breakdown depicted in Fear Strikes Out. The dark side of the father/son relationship is not explored as the authors emphasize the positive portrait Mantle painted of his father following his premature death in 1952. The heroic image of Mantle is also emphasized by the athlete’s courage in playing through considerable pain and injuries that began with a serious knee injury after he stepped on an outfield drain cover during the 1951 World Series. Roberts and Smith perceive Mantle as somewhat of a “natural” in the model of Bernard Malamud’s classic baseball novel. Rather than working hard at rehabilitation after an injury, Mantle trusted to the natural recuperative powers of his powerful athletic body. Roberts and Smith contrast Mantle with Red Sox star Ted Williams, who was a student of hitting and waxed poetically on the [End Page 250] act of striking a baseball with a bat. Mantle, on the other hand, found it difficult to think and talk about hitting. When he was in a slump, Mantle simply decided to swing as hard as he could, relying upon his strength, instinct, and speed to get him back on track. He was the natural from Commerce, Oklahoma attempting to cope with the big city lights of New York City. While the temptations of the big city are discussed, Roberts and Smith keep their focus on the baseball diamond, doing an excellent job of describing Mantle’s 1956 effort to eclipse Ruth’s single-season mark of sixty home runs. And as Ruth’s record seemed out of Mantle’s reach, the authors turn their attention to the Yankee’s quest for baseball’s triple crown—an achievement that champions of analytics tend to belittle today. Although we know the outcome of Mantle’s quest, as well as Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the authors are superb in generating suspense, and readers almost wonder if the outcome will be different this time. Roberts and Smith also examine the care taken by the Yankees and New York press to craft a positive image of Mantle…

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/nin.2017.0001