A Season in the Sun: The Rise of Mickey Mantle

by Randy Roberts, Johnny Smith

Overview

The story of Mickey Mantle's magnificent 1956 season

Mickey Mantle was the ideal batter for the atomic age, capable of hitting a baseball harder and farther than any other player in history. He was also the perfect idol for postwar America, a wholesome hero from the heartland.

In A Season in the Sun, acclaimed historians Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith recount the defining moment of Mantle's legendary career: 1956, when he overcame a host of injuries and critics to become the most celebrated athlete of his time. Taking us from the action on the diamond to Mantle's off-the-field exploits, Roberts and Smith depict Mantle not as an ideal role model or a bitter alcoholic, but a complex man whose faults were smoothed over by sportswriters eager to keep the truth about sports heroes at bay. An incisive portrait of an American icon, A Season in the Sun is an essential work for baseball fans and anyone interested in the 1950s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780465094424
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	03/27/2018
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	556,046
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Randy Roberts is distinguished professor of history at Purdue University. An award-winning author, he focuses on the intersection of popular and political culture, and has written or co-written biographies of such iconic athletes and celebrities as Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Bear Bryant, Oscar Robertson, John Wayne and Muhammad Ali, as well as books on the Vietnam War, the Alamo, the 1973-1974 college basketball season, and West Point football during World War II. A Season in the Sun is the second book he has written with Johnny Smith. Roberts lives in Lafayette, Indiana.

Johnny Smith is the Julius C. "Bud" Shaw Professor in Sports, Society, and Technology and an Associate Professor of History at Georgia Tech. He is the co-author of Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X (with Randy Roberts) and the author of The Sons of Westwood: John Wooden, UCLA, and the Dynasty That Changed College Basketball. Smith lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Blue-Eyed Boy ix

1 A Father's Dream 1

2 The Commerce Comet 11

3 The Natural 33

4 The Great American Game 57

5 "Match That!" 83

6 The Boy Has Come of Age 107

7 The Gods 131

8 "I Love Mickey" 155

9 The Best in the Game 179

10 Aristocrats and Bums 207

Epilogue: The Last Snapshot 233

Acknowledgments 245

Abbreviations used in Notes 247

Notes 249

Bibliography 267

Index 271

Editorial Reviews

12/18/2017
Historians Roberts and Smith (Blood Brothers) detail the defining season of legendary New York Yankee Mickey Mantle: 1956, during which Mantle threatened to break Babe Ruth’s single-season record of 60 home runs. The authors tell the story of Mantle: his youth in rural Oklahoma, his early years of frustration and injuries after joining the Yankees in 1951, and the 1956 World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers during which he displayed his defensive as well as offensive skills. From here, the authors weave Mantle into a much larger cultural tapestry, explaining how Mantle’s “emergence as an icon was a product of a particular moment when the country confronted the Cold War and baseball confronted an array of problems.” They argue that Mantle’s athletic prowess was used by baseball professionals, writers, and fans to maintain the game’s image as a wholesome sport during a perceived rise in juvenile delinquency and massive social change, as America was suburbanized and men who had returned from war saw women in the workplace as a threat against “traditional masculinity.” Against this backdrop, the authors write, “Mantle’s ascendance occurred at a time when Americans revered traditional masculine vigor and rugged individualism.” This is a rich, detailed exploration of the Mantle legend. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Anyone who loves the sport will find hours of undiluted joy in one of the best books on baseball—or any other sport—that I have encountered."—Washington Times

"It is not hard to believe that if Mickey Mantle had been healthy and took better care of his body, he would probably be remembered as the best baseball player ever. This excellent book proves why."—Ken Burns

"Mickey Mantle was a genuinely great baseball player. But at his very best, he was among the greatest of the great. A Season in the Sun vividly illuminates the Mickey Mantle of 1956, when he was at his very best." —Bob Costas, NBC Sports

"[Roberts and Smith] masterfully spin a narrative that places Mantle and his trials as a microcosm of America during the evolving decade... A Season in the Sun is a must-read for not just any baseball fan, but anyone interested in the peculiarities of postwar American culture."—Off the Bench

"A Season In The Sun paints the picture of about what New York, America, and baseball was like in the 1950s, a treasure trove of information that is a must read for Yankee fans and admirers of Number 7."—Brooklyn Digest

"A brisk account of a career and a culture that presages much of our current-day obsession with celebrity." —Kirkus Reviews

"Highly recommended for fans of sports, Americana, and those seeking an informative historical read."—Library Journal, starred review

"This is a rich, detailed exploration of the Mantle legend." —Publishers Weekly

"I loved A Season in the Sun. This compelling book on Mickey Mantle at his greatest and most vulnerable illuminates history and shatters myths at the same time." —David Maraniss, author of Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero

"Sex, booze, and an epic home-run race with a ghost: 1956 was a raucous year in baseball, richly recounted here.... A Season in the Sun is a shimmering snow globe of a game and a time gone by." —John Thorn, official historian, Major League Baseball

"A Season in the Sun is the best book on Mickey Mantle that I've read by some margin.... Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith stitch together not only a damn good baseball story—I found the game-by-game arc very compelling—but also link Mantle to his times in a way that really makes the book stand out. It's informative, thoughtful, and without being hokey or hagiographic, it is almost a love letter to a lost and often misunderstood period of baseball history." —Nathan Corzine, author of Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

"From the title to its protagonist, A Season in the Sun is baseball: thrilling, heroic, enduring. Mickey Mantle and his times return to us flawed yet still fabulous. Even 60 years later, some stories are so good, they never get old."—Howard Bryant, author of The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron

From the Publisher

2017-12-12
Roberts (History/Purdue Univ.) and Smith (American History/Georgia Tech Univ.) follow their previous collaboration (Blood Brothers: The Fatal Friendship Between Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, 2016) with a hybrid book about baseball legend Mickey Mantle (1931-1995).The hybrid consists of a spotty biography of Mantle's journey from small-town Oklahoma to the New York Yankees, a deep dive into the nature of American-style celebrity, and fascinating cameos by the men and women who influenced the impressionable Mantle as he rose to fame. The authors suggest that the task of upholding Yankee hegemony while being compared to Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio placed unbearable pressures on the 20-something Mantle. Predisposed to late-night partying and excessive alcohol consumption, Mantle often struggled to report to the baseball diamond. The serious physical injuries wracking his seemingly godlike physique also compromised his ability to reach maximum performance on a regular basis. One year in particular, 1956, was his finest, as Mantle led Major League Baseball in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in—the almost never achieved triple crown. Though the authors recount the 1956 season in detail that might bore those uninterested in baseball history, their narrative of off-field controversies should have no trouble holding the interest of all readers. Most sports journalists and other baseball insiders covered up for the naïve Mantle, feeling that dishonesty by omission served their audiences' desire for hero worship. After 1956, as Mantle's stardom peaked and then declined, revelations about his less-than-sterling behaviors seeped out. The publication of Ball Four (1970), the classic memoir by pitcher Jim Bouton, ended any remaining illusion of Mantle as a golden boy. When Mantle died relatively young in 1995, few who knew the real Mantle expressed shock.A brisk account of a career and a culture that presages much of our current-day obsession with celebrity.

Kirkus Reviews

Every baseball fan dreams of witnessing greatness. In 1956, Mickey Mantle gave fans one of the greatest seasons in the history of MLB. Though Pete Larkin is well known for his narrating talent, it’s his experience as an MLB announcer and his love of the game that make him ideal to deliver this audiobook. He brings the enthusiasm of a devoted fan as he recounts that magical season with the exhilaration and breathlessness of chasing history. Listeners will be captivated as they hear about Mantle’s extraordinary season in a bygone era when kings ruled the diamond and baseball ruled America. T.D. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2018 - AudioFile

Every baseball fan dreams of witnessing greatness. In 1956, Mickey Mantle gave fans one of the greatest seasons in the history of MLB. Though Pete Larkin is well known for his narrating talent, it’s his experience as an MLB announcer and his love of the game that make him ideal to deliver this audiobook. He brings the enthusiasm of a devoted fan as he recounts that magical season with the exhilaration and breathlessness of chasing history. Listeners will be captivated as they hear about Mantle’s extraordinary season in a bygone era when kings ruled the diamond and baseball ruled America. T.D. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2018 - AudioFile