Mickey and Willie: Mantle and Mays, the Parallel Lives of Baseball's Golden Age (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780307716491)

Acclaimed sportswriter Allen Barra exposes the uncanny parallels--and lifelong friendship--between two of the greatest baseball players ever to take the field.

Culturally, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were light-years apart. Yet they were nearly the same age and almost the same size, and they came to New York at the same time. They possessed virtually the same talents and played the same position. They were both products of generations of baseball-playing families, for whom the game was the only escape from a lifetime of brutal manual labor. Both were nearly crushed by the weight of the outsized expectations placed on them, first by their families and later by America. Both lived secret lives far different from those their fans knew. What their fans also didn't know was that the two men shared a close personal friendship--and that each was the only man who could truly understand the other's experience.

Author: Allen Barra
ISBN-10: 030771649X
ISBN-13: 9780307716491
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
Language: English
Published: 04/01/2014
Pages: 528
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.10w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 06/08/2014 pg. 36