The Quality of Courage

by Mickey Mantle

Bantam Edition March 1976

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction, History

Unknown Binding

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

Mickey Charles Mantle was an American baseball player who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

He played his entire 18-year major-league professional career for the New York Yankees, winning 3 American League MVP titles and playing in 16 All-Star games. Mantle played on 12 pennant winners and 7 World Series Championship clubs. He still holds the records for most World Series home runs (18), RBIs (40), runs (42), walks (43), extra-base hits (26), and total bases (123).

Reviews

[Peyton Vieyra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Quality of Courage by Mickey Mantle & Robert Creamer is a great book. Mickey Mantle explains how being on the Yankees gave him the opportunity to meet a lot of the greatest ballplayers.

He tells stories about Joe DiMaggio, Whitey Ford, Ted Williams, and Roy Campanella. The stories he tells about how courage made these guys successful and what it really takes to have such courage.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves baseball. Even if you just like sports in general this book will be a great read!

[Murph]

Read this as a boy and loved it.

[Don Heiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mickey Mantle and Robert Creamer’s book “The Quality of Courage: True Stories of Heroism and Bravery” was published by Doubleday Bantam Books in 1964. The book has wonderful storylines about how baseball players in the post depression area achieved brilliance on and off the field despite overwhelming health and physical injury challenges. It is an inspiring and timeless read. (P)

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Quality of Courage by Mickey Mantle/Robert Creamer is a good book about courage, and what it takes to have courage. Mickey Mantle, being on the Yankees, met a lot of people, and ballplayers. He tells stories about people who had courage, what they did, and how it was courage. He tells the story of people such as his father, Whitey Ford, Roy Campanella, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and others, and when and how they were courageous. It is a good but quick read.

This book has a lot of interesting characters in it. First, Mickey Mantle wasn’t just a ballplayer, he had to fight through many tough injuries and problems, to show that he did have courage, but not in a show-off way, (He wrote the book) but as a way to say that he wasn’t only the New York Yankees’ star outfielder, he was a courageous man. Other than that, he jumps from person to person, without maintaining one person throughout, so nobody really unfolded completely, but he portrayed everybody (as far as I could tell) accurately and well. Most characters that are shown aren’t completely unraveled, but all of them are displayed well.

The setting(s) of this book is/were confusing. Every once in a while there would be a year, and they weren’t always in chronological order, so it was hard to track the time. The place was easy to see, because all baseball games (that he was in) were either at Yankee Stadium, or at the place of the player that he talked about (ex. Ted Williams of the Red Sox would either be at Yankee Stadium, or in Fenway Park). The setting in The Quality of Courage was hard to follow.

I would recommend this book for baseball lovers ages 7 and up, or just someone who wants a nice story. It is light with language, and has good messages to send. This book can be and should be read by a range of people. It reads quick (not a lot of reading-between-the lines), and it is very literal in its words.

[Tiger Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the first books I ever read in school and loved it. It was also the first inspirational book I ever read. Very good stories about courage and the great outcomes that happened as a result.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an old book of my husband's from his youth. I found it while we have been on a downsizing the junk in our garage. I decided to read it even though I'm not much into baseball. Baseball aside I loved the topic of courage and I think it would be great for a young sports fan to read as well.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as a kid. Loved it.

[Ronald · Rating 2 out of 5]

probably read some time in spring of 1967

[Wendi Enright · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meant for young men, but it has valuable advice for anyone. A bit repetitive after a time, though.