The Last Hero: The Life of Mickey Mantle

The death of Mickey Charles Mantle sparked a nationwide outpouring of emotion. How could someone who had stood for so long as a symbol of indestructible American power and vigor die so soon? And why were so many, for whom Mantle symbolized the youth they'd left behind long ago, so bereft at his passing?
In The Last Hero, David Falkner examines Mantle from several perspectives: as the boy from the mining towns of Oklahoma; as a breakthrough ballplayer, the embodiment of power and speed; as a teammate, a leader of men who remained a boy at heart; as a hero to millions in ways he could never fathom; and, finally, as a tragic figure, dying bravely after coming to terms with the price of the irresponsible life he had led. With grace, intelligence, and depth, Falkner provides us with a perceptive look at the man, the athlete, and the American phenomenon who will always be known as, simply, The Mick.

Mantle, who played for the New York Yankees from 1951 to 1968, was in large part responsible for the 10 pennants the team won during those years. One of the best switch-hitters of all time, he was most famed for his "tape-measure" home runs, one of which may have gone 565 feet, and for his willingness to play when injured and in pain. Raised in rural Oklahoma, Mantle (1931-1995) was greeted skeptically by baseball fans when he arrived in the majors because he was 4-F in the draft owing to osteomyelitis and did not fight in Korea. But the disapproval turned to love and, when his career ended, he was the darling of the fans. Mantle's personal life was far less successful: he was an alcoholic and a womanizer and paid little attention to his wife and five sons, all of whom also developed problems with alcohol. Additionally, he was unsuccessful in business when his playing days were over. Falkner (The Last Yankee) is deeply sympathetic toward Mantle and convincingly suggests that he may be a tragic figure.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Mick. Thirty years after Mickey Mantle's retirement, as he battled cancer, sportscasters still invoked his image with the abbreviated version of his first name. That's all they needed; such was the virtually unprecedented fame Mantle enjoyed and endured. Falkner, the celebrated biographer who has illuminated the lives of sports figures as disparate as Billy Martin (Mantle's teammate and drinking buddy) and Sadaharu Oh, Japanese baseball's version of Babe Ruth, here recounts Mantle's often tumultuous life with an unashamed sentimentality. This isn't intended to be the definitive biography; Falkner is unconcerned with re-creating every day in Mantle's life. Instead, he emphasizes how Mantle the ballplayer and Mantle the man affected both those around him and also the world at large. The oft-told facts set the stage: the humble Oklahoma origins, young Mick's tutelage at the hands of a father who named his son after baseball great Mickey Cochrane; the country-boy-in-the-city years; the stardom; the injuries; the decline; and the drinking. Don't forget the drinking. It's what eventually killed Mantle, and it's also, Falkner argues, what elevated his image as a hero in his last days. Mantle publicly acknowledged his alcoholism and held himself up to kids as a real-life role model: "Don't be like me." Mantle could never recapture a life he felt he had wasted, but over the last few years, as he struggled with his weaknesses and finally achieved sobriety, he became a more enduring kind of hero. This deeply moving biography of a genuine American icon reveals both the cost of fame and the power of redemption. Wes Lukowsky