In the book when Holling approaches Mickey to get an autographed ball, Mickey flat-out refuses to sign it due to Holling wearing his Shakespeare costume from having to rush to the signing, and genuinely acts like a huge prick. I can’t find any evidence on Mickey actually acting like this in real life so I wondered why they portrayed him like this in the book. It’s also weird since Joe Pepitone and Horace Clarke are also in the book but are treated like angels by the author. Why is this?
by B4D_C0MPANY
13 Comments
Because he was kind of a jerk to fans in real life
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Here was the question my friend asked: “Mickey Mantle appears in your novel but comes across as an awful person. Was the scene based on something that happened in real life? If not, weren’t you concerned about depicting a real person so negatively in your novel?”
> Gary Schmidt said that the scene in the book was completely fictional, but since stories of Mantle’s cruel streak were legendary, he had no qualms about depicting the famous Yankee player in such a bad light. Later, someone who worked on the book sent Mr. Schmidt a note saying that scene rang true because they had once witnessed Mickey Mantle’s bad behavior in person.
[Interview with the author](http://collectingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2012/04/april-29-sunday-brunch.html?m=1)
What do you mean you can’t find evidence of Mickey Mantle being a dick?
He was a real-life jerk. He was a booze hound who got a priority donor organ because baseball. Fuck him.
He self-medicated a bum knee with booze. He had some amount of charisma that he could turn on, but he was generally a miserable drunk most of the time.
Mickey Mantle was a drunken asshole. It’s pretty well known among fans of the game.
I read Pepitone’s book a long time ago [mid 80s] and he is completely open about being an asshole his entire adult life
If you think Mantle sucked, do not look up Ty Cobb.
I’m reading this book to my son right now and wondered the same thing.
I haven’t read the book, but here’s an interesting tidbit about Mantle.
I worked in a baseball card shop in Florida when I was about 15 years old. One day, Mantle and Whitey Ford came into the shop together. Both of them were hammered to the gills, were rude to the owner and customers, knocked things off the walls intentionally and left. The owner, who had played pro-ball (mostly minor league with a couple of call-ups in the Pirate organization) tried to talk baseball with them and asked for a picture together and they refused, calling him names with a bunch of **** words.
It’s something I’ll never forget.
When my Dad was eight years old, he waited outside of Yankee Stadium for hours waiting for Mickey Mantle to sign his baseball card. Mantle comes out, looks at my dad, and says, “Fuck off, kid” and walks away.
From the description you gave, this was a habit.
Keep in mind the sports media at the time colluded with teams and players to cover up unsavory behavior by the players and for the most part put out fawning coverage designed to make the players look Godlike.
It wasn’t until Jim Bouton write and had ‘Ball Four’ published which ‘blew the lid off’ of mlb’s squeaky clean image. Bouton talked about seeking out beaver shots (women wearing dresses seated in the stands in such a way that players on the field could see their crotch), drinking and getting drunk, groupies, cheating on wives and girlfriends, the massive use of ‘greenies’ ie speed by every player, the petty hatreds between players.
The book was a bestseller but caused Bouton to be blackballed from baseball for decades.
Most drunks are jerks.