Mickey Mantle: Inside and Outside the Lines

This was interesting but had trouble with the writing style

Nice easy read. Good concise review of both Mantle the person and Mantle the player

Are you a Mickey fan? A Yankee fan? A baseball fan?  If you answer yes to any of these questions then you will love this book.  This is a great, easy read about Mantle on and off the field.  I've read a number of books on Mantle and found I got a fresh new understanding of the man and player.  I wish I got to see him play, but may just be seeing that in Harper.

Every time Mickey Mantle stepped to the plate was a special occasion.  It was an experience that was filled with the anticipation of seeing the longest home run ever hit, the fear of seeing Mickey getting injured, the apprehension of Mickey striking out.

Tom Molito grew up a New York Yankee fan and along with many other New Yorkers and others throughout the U.S., a huge Mickey Mantle fan.  After Mantle’s career was long over, Molito was able to use his successful movie company to meet and develop a relationship with his hero.  This book not only shows how fortunate Molito was and the interesting times he was able to have with Mickey Mantle, but he also adds some good background information of Mantle’s life and career.

I do have to admit that I’m a big Mickey Mantle fan myself even though my favorite team has been the Philadelphia Phillies for as long as I can remember (and I don’t remember why I’m such a Mantle fan). Of course, I was a Yankees fan too, especially when I was fortunate enough to see Mickey Mantle play.  I’m a bit younger than Tom Molito so I only saw Mantle at the end of his career in both 1966 and 1968. (I still have most my own mementos from that 1966 trip to Yankee stadium.) Of course, this means I understand the Mantle mystique that Molito presents in the book. I’m also mildly jealous of Molito being so fortunate in getting to meet, work and develop a relationship with Mickey Mantle. I did really enjoy reading this book and learning more about Mantle especially with how he handled himself later in life – the bad (drinking) and good (finally sober and encouraging others to toward organ donation).

There are lots of books about Mickey Mantle out there and I’ve read many of them but I certainly recommend this book to all the still many Mantle fans, Yankee fans and really anyone that enjoys a good baseball book.

Thanks to Netgalley and to the publisher Black Rose Writing for a complimentary copy of this book for an honest review

MICKEY MANTLE: INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE LINES by Tom Molito is part homage to Mickey Mantle the player and the man, part a defense against those who question his greatness, and part a memoir of the writer's experiences as a Mantle fan, a Yankees fan, and later a business partner and friend to Mickey Mantle.
   Molito touches on the important moments, good and bad, in Mantle's career, from his quick ascension to the majors, to his almost immediate  slow decline in health after reaching the pinnacle of his career.  He delves deeply why Mantle was so beloved, how so many people hung on his every at bat, and how in his prime, however fleeting that moment was, he was almost superhuman is his ability to play baseball.  Molito also dives into the critics of Mantle, those who thought Mays was a better player, how Mantle's drinking made him a rather unsavory individual at times, and Molito evens goes as far as to admit that he found, at certain times, being in the company of a man who talked about little else other than himself was disappointing.  Molito had a personal relationship with Mantle, and some of the most entertaining and interesting parts of the book is his stories of working and hanging out with Mantle.  I found myself laughing out loud several times.  The structure and flow of the book was clunky and awkward at times, but to a fan of baseball, Mickey Mantle, and the history of baseball, this is definitely a book to read and enjoy.

I found this book to be a disappointment for me. First there really is no new information about Mickey, and second most of the book I felt was just made of the authors’ thoughts and times he spent with Mickey. Nothing that really made for any great reading I am sorry to say. I will say I am and have been a lifelong Yankee fan since the 60’s so I was looking forward to reading to his book.