Mickey and Willie

Long Island and baseball

I grew up on Long Island where  every kid loved baseball, including myself. My Dad wasn't a big sports fan. Lucky for me I lived next to two guys who were like brothers to me and took their sister and I to see games up close and personal. Also across the street was a whole house of guys that I was friendly with and their dad would take me to games as well.

Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays

Although Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were before my time everyone still knew who they were. They were larger-than-life. The author portrays their strengths and weaknesses and their similarities to each other and where they differed.   For example, Mantle was an alcoholic and a womanizer while Mays was not.  But both of them grew up in working class families, their mothers not really in the picture and an early predilection to playing baseball.  Had it not been for baseball both would have led very different lives.

I can't help but think how sad it is that the game of baseball no longer has that special quality it once had.  Now it is all about football which to me is a gladiator sport that is all about hitting and knocking people down.  It makes me wonder when did our world start moving away from the more gentle times of baseball to a world of violent video games and the increasing popularity of contact sports.  It was definitely way before 911 which was our entry to a very different world.

 If you are a baseball fan and want to know more about these two players you might want to pick up this book.

I received this book as part of Blogging for Books.