Leo T. reviewed Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, The Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age on + 1775 more book reviews
The author, a well experienced writer and journalist, believes his two protagonists (and all of us) lived in a simpler time, although not without rivalries. Mr. Mantle and Mr. Mays were both flawed characters, thus allowing Mr. Barra to offer a 480 page tome.
Sample: "With just a few games left in the 1955 season, Durocher asked Mays to step into the tunnel behind the dugout, where he quietly told Mays that he would not be back as manager the next season. Willie was, Leo told him, the greatest ballplayer he had ever seen and he had already spoken to the new manager, Bill Rigney, about how to treat him. Then he leaned over and kissed Willie on the cheek. It was perhaps Durocher's most gracious moment in a big league uniform. It would be Willie, after all, who was responsible for Leo getting into the Hall of Fame, though Leo would not live to see the honor." Durocher had not sent Mays back to Minneapolis when he was in a deep slump as a rookie in 1951.
Endnotes, bibliography, index.
Sample: "With just a few games left in the 1955 season, Durocher asked Mays to step into the tunnel behind the dugout, where he quietly told Mays that he would not be back as manager the next season. Willie was, Leo told him, the greatest ballplayer he had ever seen and he had already spoken to the new manager, Bill Rigney, about how to treat him. Then he leaned over and kissed Willie on the cheek. It was perhaps Durocher's most gracious moment in a big league uniform. It would be Willie, after all, who was responsible for Leo getting into the Hall of Fame, though Leo would not live to see the honor." Durocher had not sent Mays back to Minneapolis when he was in a deep slump as a rookie in 1951.
Endnotes, bibliography, index.
