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A Season in the Sun

Page 30

by Randy Roberts


  13. DFP, September 1, 1956.

  14. For Al Kaline, see Jack Olsen, “The Torments of Excellence,” SI, May 11, 1964, http://www.si.com/vault/1964/05/11/607197/the-torments-of-excellence; Robert Shaplen, “On the Lookout for a Kaline,” SI, May 14, 1956, 32–39; H. C. Butler, “The Tigers’ Million-Dollar Kid,” SEP, September 3, 1955, 66–69; Tommy Devine, “Kaline Can Be King in Detroit,” Sport, August 1955, 34–35, 60–62. Some sources list Kaline’s batting average at Southern High as .462.

  15. Olsen, “The Torments of Excellence”; Shaplen, “On the Lookout for a Kaline,” 32–34.

  16. Shaplen, “On the Lookout for a Kaline,” 32–34.

  17. Olsen, “The Torments of Excellence”; Shaplen, “On the Lookout for a Kaline,” 32–34; Devine, “Kaline Can Be King in Detroit,” 62.

  18. Bradlee, The Kid, 423.

  19. NYHT, September 12, 1956.

  20. BG, September 10, 1956.

  21. BG, September 10, 1956.

  22. Mantle and Pepe, Mickey Mantle, 169, 173.

  23. DFP, September 4, 1956; BH, September 4, 1956; NYP, September 4, 1956; NYHT, September 5, 1956.

  24. NYWTS, August 6, 1956; Mantle and Pepe, Mickey Mantle, 174.

  25. NYWTS, October 3, 1956.

  26. DFP, September 12, 1956; BG, September 10, 1956.

  27. BG, September 14, 1956; TSN, October 10, 1956.

  28. DFP, September 15, 1956, September 16, 1956.

  29. DFP, September 16, 1956.

  30. BH, September 14, 1956; BH, September 20, 1956; Bradlee, The Kid, 423.

  31. TSN, September 26, 1956; Williams and Underwood, The Science of Hitting, 26.

  32. Mantle and Pepe, Mickey Mantle, 176–177.

  33. NYHT, September 19, 1956; NYT, September 19, 1956.

  34. NYHT, September 19, 1956.

  35. NYHT, September 19, 1956.

  36. TSN, September 26, 1956.

  37. Cincinnati Post, October 2, 1956; NYDN, September 20, 1956.

  38. BH, September 20, 1956; NYDN, September 21, 1956; Williams and Underwood, The Science of Hitting, 14–15, 24.

  39. NYT, September 21, 1956.

  40. BG, September 24, 1956.

  41. NYT, September 22, 1956.

  42. DFP, September 20, 1956.

  43. NYDN, September 20, 1956.

  44. NYP, September 23, 1956.

  45. NYT, September 22, 1956; BH, September 22, 1956.

  46. BH, September 23, 1956.

  47. BH, September 23, 1956; NYHT, September 23, 1956.

  48. NYT, September 22, 1956; NYHT, September 23, 1956; NYP, September 23, 1956.

  49. NYHT, September 24, 1956.

  50. NYHT, September 24, 1956; BH, September 24, 1956.

  51. Mantle and Pepe, Mickey Mantle, 181–184.

  52. Halberstam, Summer of ’49, 266.

  53. NYP, September 27, 1956.

  54. NYHT, September 29, 1956.

  55. Bradlee, The Kid, 423.

  56. NYDN, October 1, 1956.

  57. For the clubhouse scene, see TSN, October 10, 1956; NYP, October 1, 1956; NYWTS, October 1, 1956; NYHT, October 1, 1956.

  CHAPTER 10

  1. Pennington, Billy Martin, 114; Paul O’Neil, “The Damndest Yankee of Them All,” SI, April 23, 1956, 69.

  2. NYP, October 3, 1956; Roy Campanella as told to Milton Gross, “How I Catch a Ball Game,” SEP, May 26, 1956, 118.

  3. Lanctot, Campy, 335.

  4. NYP, October 3, 1956.

  5. Prince, Brooklyn’s Dodgers, 57; Golenbock, Bums, 394.

  6. Hughes, Literary Brooklyn, 2, 105.

  7. Hughes, Literary Brooklyn, 233.

  8. Golenbock, Bums, 440; “Brooklyn Rolls, the U.S. Rocks,” Life, October 17, 1955, 38–39.

  9. Golenbock, In the Country of Brooklyn, 193; Frommer and Frommer, It Happened in Brooklyn, 38–39; D’Antonio, Forever Blue, 39–40.

  10. Prince, Brooklyn’s Dodgers, 102, 106–107; Gay Talese, “There Are Fans—and Yankee Fans,” NYTM, June 29, 1958, 18; Golenbock, Bums, 65, 387.

  11. Goodwin, Wait Till Next Year, 61.

  12. NYT, October 8, 1952.

  13. NYDN, October 3, 1956; NYHT, October 3, 1956; NYP, October 3, 1956.

  14. NYT, October 2, 1956; NYHT, October 2, 1956.

  15. NYHT, October 3, 1956; NYP, October 3, 1956.

  16. “New York Yankees,” SI, October 1, 1956, 18.

  17. NYP, October 3, 1956.

  18. NYT, October 3, 1956; NYWTS, October 3, 1956.

  19. Goodwin, Wait Till Next Year, 45–49; Frommer and Frommer, It Happened in Brooklyn, 36.

  20. NYT, October 4, 1956; NYDN, October 4, 1956; NYWTS, October 4, 1956.

  21. Jay, More Than Just a Game, 20.

  22. NYWTS, October 4, 1956; NYHT, October 4, 1956.

  23. NYWTS, October 4, 1956; NYHT, October 4, 1956.

  24. NYP, October 5, 1956.

  25. NYWTS, October 4, 1956; NYDN, October 5, 1956; NYT, October 5, 1956.

  26. “He Throws Hard,” Time, September 19, 1956, 52; Robert Creamer, “Subject: Don Newcombe,” SI, August 22, 1955, 51.

  27. Don Newcombe as told to Milton Gross, “I’m No Quitter,” SEP, March 9, 1957, 27, 90; BG, October 2, 1956.

  28. NYDN, October 5, 1956.

  29. Arthur Richman and Milton Richman, “Is Larsen a One-Game Wonder?” SEP, March 30, 1957, 83.

  30. NYDN, October 6, 1956.

  31. NYWTS, October 5, 1956.

  32. Mantle and Pepe, Mickey Mantle, 230; NYWTS, October 6, 1956.

  33. NYT, October 6, 1956; Roger Kahn, “Whitey Ford Is His Own Boss,” Sport, December 1958, 54; Robert Creamer, “The Pitcher Who Could Win the Series,” SI, September 10, 1956, 14.

  34. NYHT, October 7, 1956; NYDN, October 7, 1956.

  35. NYHT, October 8, 1956.

  36. Robert Creamer, “The Name Is Yogi,” SI, October 22, 1956, https://www.si.com /vault/1956/10/22/670462/the-name-is-yogi.

  37. Paper, Perfect, 5; Larsen with Shaw, The Perfect Yankee, 33–35.

  38. Larsen with Shaw, The Perfect Yankee, 27–30; Kahn, The Era, 331–332.

  39. Mantle and Pepe, Mickey Mantle, 262–263; Corzine, Team Chemistry, 19–26.

  40. Creamer, “The Name Is Yogi”; Barra, Yogi Berra, 218.

  41. Larsen with Shaw, The Perfect Yankee, 162–163.

  42. Frank Graham Jr., “The Great Larsen,” Sport, April 1957, 54; Barra, Yogi Berra, 218.

  43. Larsen with Shaw, The Perfect Yankee, 179.

  44. Graham, “The Great Larsen,” 54; Richman, “Is Larsen a One-Game Wonder?” 83; NYWTS, October 9, 1956.

  45. Richman, “Is Larsen a One-Game Wonder?” 83.

  46. NYT, October 9, 1956; Graham, “The Great Larsen,” 54.

  47. Mantle and Pepe, Mickey Mantle, 275; Richman, “Is Larsen a One-Game Wonder?” 83; Larsen with Shaw, The Perfect Yankee, 181; Robert Creamer, “The Curtain Rises,” SI, October 15, 1956; NYT, October 9, 1956; Graham, “The Great Larsen,” 54.

  48. Barra, Yogi Berra, 223.

  49. Graham, “The Great Larsen,” 55.

  50. NYT, October 9, 1956; NYDN, October 9, 1956; NYHT, October 9, 1956.

  51. Creamer, “The Name Is Yogi.”

  52. Barra, Yogi Berra, 226.

  53. NYHT, October 10, 1956.

  54. Mantle and Pepe, Mickey Mantle, 293; Golenbock, Dynasty, 188.

  55. Golenbock, Dynasty, 188.

  56. Barra, Yogi Berra, 227.

  57. Gross, “I’m No Quitter,” 90.

  58. NYHT, October 11, 1956.

  59. Golenbock, Dynasty, 189–190; NYDN, October 11, 1956.

  60. NYHT, October 11, 1956; NYDN, October 11, 1956.

  61. NYHT, October 11, 1956.

  62. NYHT, October 11, 1956.

  63. NYP, October 11, 1956.

  EPILOGUE

  1. Gerald Holland, “All Hail Mighty Mickey,” SI, March 4, 1957, 53.

  2. Holland, “All Hail Mighty Mickey,” 53.

  3. Holland, “All Hail
Mighty Mickey,” 54 (emphasis in the original).

  4. Mantle with Gluck, The Mick, 143–145.

  5. Mantle with Gluck, The Mick, 143–145.

  6. Mantle with Gluck, The Mick, 143–145.

  7. Mantle with Gluck, The Mick, 146–147; “Penthouse Interview: Mickey Mantle,” Penthouse, September 1986, 86.

  8. Holly Brooke, “I Own 25% of Mickey Mantle,” Confidential, March 1957, 32; Gabler, Winchell, 468.

  9. Castro, Mickey Mantle, 150.

  10. Alfred Garvey, “There Was No Umpire Around When These Yankees Had a Ball,” Confidential, September 1957, 29–30; Jim Hanks, “Have Those ‘Damn Yankees’ Ruined Mickey Mantle?” Suppressed, October 1957, 15–17, 50; Gabler, Winchell, 81.

  11. Unless noted otherwise, this section on the Copacabana incident and its aftermath is drawn from Corzine, Team Chemistry, 14–16; Barra, Yogi Berra, 235–239; Leavy, The Last Boy, 163–167, 180–181; Pennington, Billy Martin, 126–129.

  12. NYJA, May 16, 1957, June 24, 1957; NYDM, May 17, 1957.

  13. Roger Kahn, “Why They Broke Up Billy Martin’s Gang,” Sport, October 1957, 20.

  14. NYP, June 24, 1957; Irv Goodman, “You Think You Know Billy Martin?” Sport, August 1958, 57.

  15. NYP, May 17, 1956; Stanley Frank, “The Yankees’ Southpaw Wizard,” SEP, May 12, 1956, 33, 101; Roger Kahn, “Whitey Ford Is His Own Boss,” Sport, December 1958, 55.

  16. “Mantle’s Breaks and Yours,” Popular Science, October 1964, 100.

  17. NYT, June 9, 1969.

  18. Castro, Mickey Mantle, 238; Bouton, Ball Four, 30, 37–39.

  19. Bouton, Ball Four, ix.

  20. Elias, The Empire Strikes Out, 263.

  21. Falkner, The Last Hero, 188–189.

  22. Canale, Mickey Mantle: The Yankee Years, 22.

  23. This description of the fishing trip is drawn from Canale, Mickey Mantle: The Yankee Years, 80–95; Canale, Mickey Mantle: Memories and Memorabilia, 11; “Sweet Memories,” SI, October 16, 1991, 27–28; Pennington, Billy Martin, 130–131. A few of the photos were published in various issues of Sport in 1957. See Kahn, “Why They Broke Up Billy Martin’s Gang,” 19; Ed Linn, “If You Were Mickey Mantle,” Sport, August 1957, 62.

  24. Mantle with Gluck, The Mick, 161.

  MORE ADVANCE PRAISE FOR A SEASON IN THE SUN

  “It is not hard to believe that if Mickey Mantle had been healthy and took better care of his body, he would probably be remembered as the best baseball player ever. This excellent book proves why.”

  —KEN BURNS

  “A Season in the Sun is the best book on Mickey Mantle that I’ve read by some margin. It succeeds in answering the three big questions: how he became an icon, why 1956 was so important, and especially how the ‘mythologizing’ of Mantle can only be understood in the context of the 1950s. Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith stitch together not only a damn good baseball story—I found the game-by-game arc very compelling—but also link Mantle to his times in a way that really makes the book stand out. It’s informative, thoughtful, and without being hokey or hagiographic, it is almost a love letter to a lost and often misunderstood period of baseball history.”

  —NATHAN CORZINE, author of Team Chemistry: The History of Drugs and Alcohol in Major League Baseball

  INDEX

  Aaron, Hank, 73, 122, 131

  Adair, Robert K., 1

  All-Star Game

  1956, 142-144

  Allen, Lee, 85

  Allen, Mel, 37, 77, 176, 223-224

  Alston, Walter, 214, 217, 229-230

  Angell, Roger, xix, xx, 54

  Atkinson, Brooks, 21

  Bainbridge, John, 95

  Ball Four (Bouton), 240-241

  Baltimore Orioles, 150, 162-164, 170, 188, 196

  Banks, Ernie, 73, 122

  Baseball cards, 120-121

  Baseball Digest, xiii, 41, 51

  Barrow, Ed, 77

  Bauer, Hank, 19-21, 55, 62, 93, 97, 103, 110, 114, 151, 168, 170, 188, 192-193, 196, 215, 221-222, 225, 236-238

  Bell, Gus, xix

  Berra, Carmen, 237

  Berra, Yogi, xii, xix-xx, 52-53, 55, 77, 90, 92, 95-97, 101, 114, 122, 125-126, 132, 137-138, 142, 144, 151, 159-160, 172, 183, 188, 196, 200, 212, 217, 219, 225-226, 229, 234

  Bernstein, Carl, 241

  Bessent, Don, 208, 217

  Boston Red Sox, 48-49, 78-79, 84, 106, 133, 136-137, 139, 156, 159-162, 168, 188, 190, 192, 201-202

  Boudreau, Lou, 103, 109-110,

  Bouton, Jim, 240-241, See also Ball Four

  Bradley, Hugh, 106, 111, 115, 163,

  Brewer, Teresa, 164-165

  Briggs Stadium, 26, 105, 126-127, 153, 185, 196,

  Bronx, 20-21, 69-71, 73-74, 125, 210

  Brooke, Holly, 156-159, 235-236

  Brooklyn,

  Baseball culture of, 208-211

  Brooklyn Dodgers, 18, 37, 39, 42, 50-51, 54-55, 169, 182, See also World Series of 1956

  Broun, Heywood, 75, 80

  Brownell, Herbert, Jr., xviii

  Byrne, Tommy, 145, 161, 198, 203, 227

  Campanella, Roy, xii, 54, 73, 114, 122, 208, 215, 217, 223, 226

  Cannon, Jimmy, xiii, xx, 12, 37, 79, 104-105, 144, 241

  Carbo, Frankie, xvii

  Catton, Bruce, xiv,

  Cerv, Bob, 202, 222

  Chicago White Sox, 41, 75, 90, 103, 128, 130, 145,

  Clemente, Roberto, 121

  Cleveland Indians, 144-145, 152-153, 171, 180-181, 192-193, 201

  Cobb, Ty, xv, 14, 85, 129, 143, 204

  Cold War, xvii-xviii, 16, 96, 215, 230-231

  Coleman, Jerry, 11, 109, 166,

  Collier’s, 149

  Comiskey Park, 103, 127, 130, 142

  Commerce, Oklahoma, xii, xiv, 4, 7-9, 27, 34, 44, 46, 105, 115, 152, 165, 204

  Como, Perry, 119

  Confidential, 235-236

  Coolidge, Calvin, 59

  Cooperstown, New York, 58, 143

  Copacabana, 116, 236-239

  Corum, Bill, 88

  Creamer, Robert W., 16, 70, 108, 142, 145, 149, 207, 217, 227

  Crystal, Billy, 107-108

  Daley, Arthur, xiii, 12, 47, 72, 111, 195, 212, 225-226

  Damn Yankees, 122-123

  Daniel, Dan, xiii, 22, 57, 68, 76, 80, 111, 116, 147, 166,

  Danny’s Hideaway, 93, 116, 157, 173, 236

  Davis, Sammy, Jr., 237

  Dempsey, Jack, 76, 84, 89

  Detroit Tigers, 125-126, 145, 146, 153, 184-187, 191, 196, 201, 203

  DeWitt, Bill, 52

  Dexter, Charles, 25, 41, 125

  Dickey, Bill, 11, 63, 129, 191-192, 195

  DiMaggio, Joe, xiv, xv, xviii, xix, xx, 11-15, 17, 20, 22-24, 29, 30, 33, 34, 37, 38, 47, 48, 50, 63, 65, 75, 77, 79, 81, 83, 84, 88, 89, 94, 96, 97, 104, 108, 119, 123, 128, 163, 164, 173, 182, 185, 204, 234, 241

  Doby, Larry, 36-37

  Doubleday, Abner, 58

  Drebinger, John, 170, 196

  Drugs

  baseball players and, 174-177

  Dulles, John Foster, 214

  Dunaway, Donald, 38-39

  Duren, Ryne, 100

  Eagle-Picher Mining Company, 3-4, 15, 19, 40, 204

  Ebbets Field, 39, 42, 50, 65, 74, 193, 210-211, 213-214, 216, 218-219

  “Ed Sullivan Show,” 164, 202

  Effrat, Louis, 41,

  Eisenhower, Dwight D., 57, 61, 96, 168, 182, 183, 190, 209, 213-215

  Ennis, Del, xix

  Erskine, Carl, 42, 54, 169,

  Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), xviii, 23, 116, 140

  Feller, Bob, 152

  Fenway Park, 133, 160, 162, 197

  Ferrell, Jackie, 113

  Ford, Whitey, 45, 55, 72, 77, 78, 79, 88, 93, 97, 102, 125, 140, 148, 167, 172, 177, 183, 193, 216, 220-221, 229, 236, 238-239, 243

  Foxx, Jimmie, 11, 40, 63, 64, 87, 108, 129, 134, 141, 170, 171, 184

  Frick, Ford, 77, 214

  Furillo, Carl, 54, 216, 225

  Furlon
g, Bill, 69

  Gabler, Neal, 236

  Gallico, Paul, 80

  Gaynor, Sidney, 33, 144

  Gehrig, Lou, xiv, xv, 2, 11, 15, 20, 23, 40, 48, 63, 64, 75, 77, 83, 86, 99, 101, 108, 126, 129, 185, 198, 204, 240

  Giles, Warren, 68-69, 129,

  Gilliam, Jim, 228

  Goodwin, Doris Kearns, 210-211

  Graham, Frank, xiii, 52, 77, 80

  Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck), 4, 20

  Greenberg, Hank, 11, 63, 87, 108, 129, 134, 170, 171, 180, 184,

  Greene, Graham, xviii

  Greenwade, Tom, 2, 9

  Griffith, Clark, 59, 69

  Griffith Stadium, 38, 61-63, 142, 163, 182

  Grim, Bob, 243

  Gross, Milton, xii, xiii, 48-49, 51, 207

  Halberstam, David, xiv, xv, 53, 200

  Hamill, Pete, 209

  Harding, Warren, 59, 218

  Harridge, Will, 77, 128,

  Harriman, Averill, 214

  Henrich, Tommy, 29, 105

  Hodges, Gil, 54, 216, 223-224,

  Hoffer, Richard, xiii

  Holland, Gerald, 233-234

  home runs, 128-130

  Babe Ruth’s single-season record, 84-88, 90, 129

  Mickey Mantle’s in 1956, xviii, 63, 79, 89-90, 106, 112, 114, 126, 130, 132-133, 135, 141, 143, 152, 182, 185, 193, 204, 231

  Hoover, J. Edgar, xviii,

  Hoover, Herbert, 214

  Hopp, Johnny, 21

  Hornsby, Rogers, xv, 129, 195, 204

  Howard, Elston, 72, 122, 145, 228, 229, 237

  “I Love Mickey” (song), 164-165

  Irvin, Monte, 114

  Isaacs, Stan, 14

  Jackson, Joe, 63

  Jackson, Reggie, 241

  Jacobson, Max, 176

  Jensen, Jackie, 137

  Kaese, Harold, 131, 135, 148, 189, 191

  Kahn, Roger, 38, 71, 131, 178, 238

  Kaline, Al, 153, 185-188, 189, 191, 195, 196, 199, 200, 201, 203-204, 205

  Kansas City Athletics, 89, 105, 109, 185, 191, 239

  Kansas City Blues, 26-28

  Kelly, Grace, 51, 63

  Kempton, Murray, 107

  Kiner, Ralph, 170, 175

  King, Larry, 210

  Kluszewski, Ted, 129, 144

  Koppett, Leonard, 70, 127, 168, 216

  Korean War, xvi, 16, 209

  Krichell, Paul, 2, 72

  Kubek, Tony, 73, 99

  Kucks, Johnny, 88, 136-137, 229-230, 236

  Kuehn, Harvey, 153

  Kuhn, Bowie, 241

 

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