Customer Reviews

A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantle

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My kids grew up wanting to BE LIKE MIKE. Like many of my generation, I always wanted to be like Mick. THE MICK.

Mickey Mantle was, for us, the consummate baseball player. He hit the ball hard and ran the bases fast. His arm was strong and his glove golden.

But that's only part of why he was our hero. Randall Swearingen's book, A Great Teammate, covers the rest. Mickey was one of the greatest team players the game has ever known. He found a way to win. One day he'd hit a home run. The next he'd bunt and steal--or literally outrun a fly ball. It added up. Between 1951 and 1964, Mickey's Yankees made twelve trips to the World Series. Twelve!

When his teammates batted, Mickey cheered. When they slumped, he took them to dinner. When Roger wilted in the Babe's mighty shadow, Mickey took him under his wing and into his home--even as The Mick took his own shot at THE RECORD.

Mickey played hurt nearly every game of his major league career because, as a rookie, he deferred to a teammate named Joe DiMaggio. Mickey never complained or made excuses. He just came to the park early, took his treatments, hid the pain, and played hard. As good as he was, he could have been even better with two legs rather than one.

When asked why he didn't take himself out of the lineup to rest the legs, Mickey replied that some child might come to the ball park to watch him play, and he didn't want to let that child down. Mickey didn't know it, but I was that child. My family drove from North Carolina to New York City in 1961. It was the only chance I ever had, as a kid, to watch a major league game. Mickey didn't disappoint: he hit a line drive into the right field bleachers for a home run. From then on, Mickey was my hero. And, like so many southerners in those days, I became, of all things, a Yankee.

Then came the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Sportswriters forgot who Mickey Mantle was and why he had been our hero. They publicized his alcoholism. His business failures. His divorce. If only he had fallen in his prime, they implied, like Gehrig with ALS or Ruth with cancer. But somehow he dodged the Hodgkin's curse. And even though alcoholism is every bit as much a disease as ALS, or cancer, or Hodgkin's, America stopped loving Mickey the way he had loved us. We forgot. And, I must admit, as I almost forgot.

Then I read A Great Teammate, and the memories came pouring back. Mickey winning games for his team. Mickey bringing out the best in his teammates. Mickey loving and respecting the game. Playing hard. Playing hurt. Always humble. Ever helpful. Never making excuses. And, in bottom of the 9th, whipping his toughest foe, alcoholism, and helping others do the same.

No doubt, Old Timers told these stories time and again at ball games, fantasy camps, reunions, and funerals. But, no one ever bothered to write them down for us, the fans. Until now. Mickey, Randall: thank you.

It was very important to our dad that he be remembered as a great teammate and this book does an excellent job of explaining why he was admired, not only by the fans but his teammates and opponents as well. Randall went to great lengths to research the relevant details of key events in dad's career in order to show the magnitude of dad's courage, competitiveness, loyalty, determination, athleticism and perseverance both on and off the field. Randall spent time with dad and his teammates at the Mickey Mantle fantasy camps and his knowledge and love of dad really shows in this book. Reading the book brought back many great memories and magically transported us back in time to our childhood. The Mantle family gives this book a big "thumbs up" and wishes to extend our heartfelt thanks to Randall for writing this inspiring and enjoyable book that beautifully echoes our deep love and respect for our dad. "A true teammate". - Merlyn, David and Danny Mantle

Excellent chronology of many highlights of Mickey's career ... especially the descriptions of those monsterous home runs ... no one before or since has had "power for distance" that Mickey had ... lists his lifetime stats, offense and defense, in the back of the book ...

the numerous descriptions of Mickey by his beloved teamates gives the reader clear insight into what kind of person Mickey was ...

the quintessential teammate who gave everything he had on and off the field to win and help his teammates ... e.g., playing in tremendous amounts of pain (so as not to disappoint, in case the father of a poor family took his boy once a year to see him play); at restaurants, picking up "the check" most of the time; insisting that old teammates come to autograph sessions (or he wouldn't attend) so they could make money too; and the lovable prankster (the "TP" prank)...

truly a one of a kind, the last of the 4 great Yankees (Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle), one of those who really was head and shoulders above the rest, and he was the last player to connect us to the baseball of a by-gone era ...

and to prove it all, he's got his own 4,500 lb. monument in Center Field! I could go on and on ... but ... the book is well worth the money ... buy it!

A GREAT BOOK ABOUT #7. IT IS FILLED WITH INTERVIEWS FROM MICK'S TEAMMATES, WHO KNEW HIM BEST. SWEARINGTON DID HIS HOMEWORK ON THIS ONE. IT'S FILLED WITH LOTS OF STATISTICS AND INFORMATION THAT WILL POSSIBLY INTRODUCE "THE MICK" TO A NEW GENERATION. A HOMERUN.

KELLY R. EISENHAUER

I wanted to read something different, like what did Mickey REALLY think about, and what did his teammates and others REALLY think about him? "A Great Teammate" does just that! I always knew that Mickey Mantle was a baseball legend, but after reading this delightfully entertaining and informative book, I found myself admiring him even more, but not only as a great baseball player, but as a person. He endured so much physical pain just to play baseball with his teammates and kept them encouraged whether he was on the field or in the dugout; he was there for the team.

"A Great Teammate" recounts those memorable moments that makes the readers experience the excitement of the games as if they were there witnessing those clutch homerun plays, and then reading that last paragraph again just to be sure of what they just read. The awe of those incredible hits, catches, and even imagining Mickey Mantle running the bases, this book honors the man in more ways then one.

Mr. Swearingen did a great job in expressing the respect, the admiration, and the love, not only from his teammates, but from other opposing teammates, the fans, and others had for this incredible, athletic, baseball player. Mickey Mantle was and will forever be a `Great Teammate.' This is truly a great book for baseball fans of all ages. Reading about "The Mick" just doesn't get any better than this.

Swearington has written an excellent and inspiring book about Mickey Mantle. I especially appreciated the way the book is organized, which makes it easy and enjoyable to follow the development of Mickey's long and eventful career.

My only complaint is the title. The book is not about Mickey as a teammate. It is about Mickey. In the Preface the author tells us that Mickey "always wanted to be remembered as a great teammate" (pg. xi). I was dissappointed that Mickey's impact as a teammate is almost absent from this otherwise excellent book.

I highly recommend you buy and read this book. But if you are looking for insights into Mickey as a teammate, you may be dissappointed. I am still waiting for somebody to write that book.

This book was a birthday gift for my brother, a "rabid" Mickey Mantle fan!!! He's just about finished it and said it was jut "GREAT" - lots of "unknown facts" and wonderful insights by "The Mick's" team mates !

I've got several Mickey Mantle books, but I really think this one is the best. Very detailed and accurate. Well done!

Very impressed with book - my son is big fan and loves it.

Excellent portrayal of Mickey Mantle as that most rare athlete who, unlike Mays and Snyder and other baseball superstars of that era, played virtually his entire 18-year career, as Casey Stengel often remarked (with sheer awe!) "on one leg." While today's ballplayers beg out of baseball games over "a sore writst" or "a stubbed toe," "The Mick" inspired his Yankee mates with his courage; his willingness to play through the kind of pain that would keep today's spoiled-rotten, steroid infused "athletes" (???) on the disabled list for weeks on end! The many testimonials from Yankee teammates and opponents alike on behalf of this courageous Hall of Famer, without question the greatest switch hitter in the history of the game, are, one and all, a touching tribute to the "Oklahoma Comet!"