Bookshelf review: 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel

by Peter Golenbock. The Lyons Press, 2007.

When 7 came out a few years ago, many sportswriters — especially in the New York area — considered it a shande (shame). How could Golenbock — who had heretofore published only non-fiction — have besmirched the character of the late lamented Mickey Mantle with this trashy, borderline pornographic piece of … well, you get the idea. (There’s even a warning on the book jacket. It’s that white rectangle on the lower right: “Mickey says: If y’all don’t want to read about sex, don’t buy this book.”)

At the risk of being presumptuous, I would venture that baby boomer fans of The Mick want their memories pure. Sure, he was flawed, they’ll admit, but he was still heroic. Blond, muscular, great smile, five-tool player — everything a young boy could want to be to during the Eisenhower administration. Let us keep our Ozzie and Harriet nostalgia.

But, no. Golenbock writes — in explicit detail — about Mantle’s sexual exploits, which rival, if not exceed, his accomplishments on the field. (Of course, if Mantle was playing in these days of TMZ, Radar, and Deadspin, he would be calling Tiger Woods a piker.)

Golenbock — who had previously concentrated on team profiles (Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Dynasty: The New York Yankees, 1949-1964, and similar volumes on the Mets, Cubs, and Cardinals) and biographies (most recently George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire), as well as collaborating on the autobios/memoirs of Davey Johnson, Sparky Lyle, Graig Nettles, and Billy Martin, among others (I found it interesting that on the page in 7 that lists the author’s other books, these gentlemen all get second billing. I wonder whose idea that was?)

In 7, a deceased Mantle finds a Boswell in the late Leonard Schecter, perhaps best known for his work with Jim Bouton on Ball Four (a book Mantle supposedly detested for ratting him out for his misanthropic behavior). The book then goes into a more-or-less chronology, Mantle’s mea culpa that comes across as part on-the-couch therapy (he was sexually abused as a child, but refuses to divulge the details to Schecter until the book’s last few pages, leaving readers to speculate as to the nature/perpetrator), part titillating true confessions. The success stories about Mantle and the Yankees have been told many times before, including by Golenbock, so there’s not much along those lines to recommend 7.

This is not necessarily a bad book. There’s a certain charm about Mantle’s baring his soul, especially about his mistreatment of his long-suffering wife, Merlyn, and his deep-seated insecurities. But without the sex scenes, I doubt it would have received as much attention as it did. As they saying goes, I don’t care what you say about me, just spell my name right (always a dicey proposition here).

You can read an excerpt towards the bottom of this page from the Barnes and Noble website. Warning: Explicit language. You can hear a sample from the unabridged audio version here.

You can read more about 7, including deleted pages, on Golenbock’s website.

I sent a note to Golenbock requesting an interview, which, after he reads this, might be a moot point. In the meantime, Bob “Mr. Media” Andelman did a good job, which you can read here.