Whitey and Mickey

Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle reminisce about their time in baseball in this 1977 book. Veteran baseball writer Joseph Durso and a few other players give occasional observations, but mostly there is spontaneous commentary from Mickey and Whitey rather than questions and answers, just like in "The Glory of Their Times." Mantle points out that he played in 65 World Series games and hit 18 homeruns, and that Ford started 22 World Series games and ran up a streak of 33-34 consecutive scoreless innings. "So we never had a hell of a lot of privacy," he says. But while there was so much going on concerning their life on the field, there was a lot going on off the field too. Mantle and Ford were full of stunts, shenanigans, wild times, and crazy bets: in the locker room, at golf tournaments, in business engagements, living it up at nightclubs and restaurants, and even at horseracing tracks. Reading this book will certainly make you a witness of these two Yankees' great storytelling ability. This includes Whitey's account of the Copacabana brawl in 1957. Jim Bouton mentioned Whitey's doctoring the ball in the groundbreaking "Ball Four." However, "Whitey and Mickey" was the first time Whitey wrote about it himself: in the 1963 World Series against the Dodgers, in the 1961 All-Star Game against Willie Mays, and on other occasions. You can imagine him smiling in the background. But let us remember their baseball accomplishments; as Willie Mays points out here, "They could always hurt you, whether Whitey was loading one up or not." Mantle and Ford tell us something about life in the trenches and winning ballgames too, although a shortcoming of the book is that there should have been some more of that to provide a balance with the fun stuff. Still, much is here on their early years with the Yankees, manager Casey Stengel, Joe DiMaggio, and Mantle's 1961 home run race with Roger Maris. This book about winning on-the-field and fun off-the-field is sure to be enjoyed by baseball fans, particularly Yankee fans.