The Mick

I am nearing the end of Jane Leavy's fantastic biography of Mickey Mantle. It's called "The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood." Rather than write a traditional biography she has chosen to tell his story by focusing on 20 days in his life and how those individual days exemplify Mantle's life. I highly recommend it. Mantle's story is fascinating, tragic and heroic. I didn't realize this but back when Willie Mays was banned from baseball for working for a casino, Mantle was also banned for the same reason. In 1985 Peter Ueberroth reinstated both players and all three were then pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.