Mickey, Whitey and Me is a first-person narrative about a week at the Mickey Mantle-Whitey Ford Fantasy Baseball Camp. Originally written in 1987, this book has been updated in 2010. The book was written by David E. Carter, an Emmy-winning TV writer-producer who had the idea for the Mantle-Ford camp, and ran it for the first three years.
In 1985, 56 "campers" who had paid $3,400 each came to Ft. Lauderdale to the first Mantle-Ford camp – seven days of playing baseball in the Yankee pinstripes. They got to see Mickey and Whitey in the very location where both had had spring training. In addition, former Yankee greats Moose Skowron, Hank Bauer, Tom Sturdivant, Jake Gibbs, Tom Tresh and Bobby Murcer and Ralph Houk were there for the week.
If you ever dreamed of playing baseball with your major league heroes, this book will take you there while third-base coach Mike Ferraro gives instruction, major-league style. You'll get to know Hank Bauer, the outfielder who starred for the Yankees in the 1950s, who could teach sailors some new words. You'll meet Moose Skowron, an easy-going gentleman who brought tears to the eyes of one of his players – with a very special gift.
You'll meet Jake Gibbs, the All-American quarterback who spurned the NFL to become a catcher for the Yankees. You'll learn pitcher Tom Studrivant will do anything for a joke– even if he has to moon someone for a photo. And you'll see Whitey as he runs the camp, while Mickey.... well, he's Mickey. You'll be part of the "surprise birthday party" where Mickey brings in two strippers to entertain the fantasy campers. And that's just the beginning of the Mickey Mantle stories that you will find in this book.
If you even wanted to play major league baseball, a fantasy camp is as close as you'll likely get to having that happen. And this book will take you inside the Mantle-Ford fantasy camp with candid details.
Special book bonus: author David E. Carter spent an amazing afternoon with Ted Williams in 1986, and he write about it in "The Eulogy that Ted Williams Deserved (But Never Got).
One book, three Hall of Famers. And stories you will never forget.
