Today on WFAN Mike had Jane Leavy on talking about her new book The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle. It was the best hour and a half of radio that I've heard in a long time. For any Mickey fan it's a must listen. A ton of new revelation and twists on old stories.
It's unbelievable to think that he played the '52 and '53 seasons on a non-surgically repaired kneeas had been repoted. The whole knee was shot and he still dragged himself out onto the field to play day in and day out. No wonder they were such pedestrian years numbers wise. Can you imagine a guy today going out and playing on a hurt knee let alone a devastated one for 2 seasons?
I'm too young to have seen him play in person but was raised by my father to be a Mickey guy. The only Mickey story I have is the day of his passing. I was dating a girl and we were sitting in my den watching tv when the story came on. I burst into tears and my girlfriend couldn't understand why I was crying unconsolably. I told her of the stories my father would tell me at bedtime and how "The Mick" was my guy, almost a mythical figure in my formative baseball years. She just didn't get it. He was the guy in my eyes flaws and all. Hard to beleieve he's been gone 15 years now.
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