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A Season in the Sun: The Rise of Mickey Mantle
The story of Mickey Mantle's magnificent 1956 season
Mickey Mantle was the ideal batter for the atomic age, capable of hitting a baseball harder and farther than any other player in history. He was also the perfect idol for postwar America, a wholesome hero from the heartland.
In A Season in the Sun, acclaimed historians Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith recount the defining moment of Mantle's legendary career: 1956, when he overcame a host of injuries and critics to become the most celebrated athlete of his time. Taking us from the action on the diamond to Mantle's off-the-field exploits, Roberts and Smith depict Mantle not as an ideal role model or a bitter alcoholic, but a complex man whose faults were smoothed over by sportswriters eager to keep the truth about sports heroes at bay. An incisive portrait of an American icon, A Season in the Sun is an essential work for baseball fans and anyone interested in the 1950s.
Mickey Mantle was the ideal batter for the atomic age, capable of hitting a baseball harder and farther than any other player in history. He was also the perfect idol for postwar America, a wholesome hero from the heartland.
In A Season in the Sun, acclaimed historians Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith recount the defining moment of Mantle's legendary career: 1956, when he overcame a host of injuries and critics to become the most celebrated athlete of his time. Taking us from the action on the diamond to Mantle's off-the-field exploits, Roberts and Smith depict Mantle not as an ideal role model or a bitter alcoholic, but a complex man whose faults were smoothed over by sportswriters eager to keep the truth about sports heroes at bay. An incisive portrait of an American icon, A Season in the Sun is an essential work for baseball fans and anyone interested in the 1950s.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published March 27, 2018
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140 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
May 27, 2018
Early part is a little routine with much-covered ground dealing with his early years in Oklahoma and his early fits and starts, including the injuries. Focus is on the magic 1956 season where Mantle finally emerged from the shadow of DiMaggio and became the most iconic sports figure in NY if not the country. He experienced his share of stress in that year and a nagging slump as he battled for the Triple Crown which he would eventually secure. Off to a fast start in '56 Mantle flirted with surpassing Ruth's then home run season mark of 60 before tailing off and finishing with 52. Mantle's celebrity status would also contribute to his ultimate undoing as being the toast of the town he partied recklessly with teammates Ford and Martin. His health would suffer in later years and he acknowledged his lack of good judgment.
Pace of the book is good and replete with interesting anecdotes.
Pace of the book is good and replete with interesting anecdotes.
December 24, 2019
Great read for any history/baseball lover out there! 5 stars!!!
May 24, 2020
On first glance, I was afraid that this would be a rehash of what we already know about Mickey Mantle, and his magnificent 1956 baseball season. But I was very pleasantly surprised to read this fresh take on his life on and off the field, as well as looking at it within the context of America in the 1950s. And, as with history well-written and well-told, even though I knew essentially what was going to happen, I still found myself turning pages to read what came next. An excellent look at an extremely talented, flawed and quite human baseball player and man.
August 11, 2018
Mickey Mantle was my first hero/role model, and it started during this (1956) season. I was six, and began playing organized baseball the next summer. I sign my name with a capital K (at the end of MarK) because Mantle signed his name with a capital K in MicKey. I've read many of the books written about him, including his autobiography, "The Mick" (1980), in which I diagnosed him as an alcoholic before he came to grips with it. Jane Leavy's book is probably the best, most accurate; but this one is worth reading, mostly because it captures a moment (summer) in time accurately. It almost could have been called "Make America Great Again". The authors, for the most part, use real-time references (articles and quotes) from that year to build the story, and the contrast to today's sports' world, and the culture in general, is stunning. The two worlds could hardly be more different. The way events are "covered", or "reported" on, is night and day. The use of drugs (to include alcohol) to kill the pain (of life as well as injury) is vastly different. Is it "better" today? Does all the technology make Life (and sports) better? Even today, with all technology/science, there has never been a human being capable of hitting a baseball as far or as hard as Mantle could. What might he have done with today's medical miracles, or if he hadn't drank? Who would he have been? Would he have "chosen" whiskey over baseball? Mantle, and because of him, baseball, actually "saved" the country from despair, in the summer of 1956. Those were dark days - the cloud of nuclear holocaust permeating everyday life, and the Red Scare - and Mickey and baseball became the healing ointment. He was the distraction. Everybody, everywhere, was talking about The Mick, and would he break the Babe's record (of 60 homers in a season). His home runs were the headlines, "Did he hit one today? How far did it go?" He was Superman! He was The Hero. He was "the country boy who made good, a modest, hardworking husband and father who overcame injuries, immaturity, and struggles ... to become the embodiment of the American dream." (pg. 110) But it was all a fiction, invented by the media, yet his strength and power were not. What a story!
September 21, 2019
Disappointing. Read most of the stories elsewhere. Only half of the book is about 1956 so it doesn’t fully commit to just telling the story of the triple crown chase the way that 61* did the Maris-Mantle pursuit of Ruth’s record. And as is often the problem with baseball biographies of people from the past, there doesn’t seem to be any original research in this book. Just reframing newspaper stories about games from the day with seemingly random interspersing of deeper tidbits about marketing Mantle or relations with the press. The best part of the book was it’s accurate portrayal of Mantle’s flaws as well as his assets, but those are things I think Tony Castro and especially Jane Leavey did better in their books on Mantle earlier.
April 29, 2018
As the 1956 season approached baseball was in transition. Joe DiMaggio, the Yankee Clipper, was sailing into the twilight, attendance was falling as fans moved to the suburbs farther away from the city ballparks and the rise of black players challenged a society not yet willing to give full recognition to their talents. When the National Pastime was expected to provide a model of true Americanism in the Cold War era a superstar from Commerce, Oklahoma took his place in the Yankee outfield. Mickey Mantle had the strength to hit tape-measure home runs, in fact he created the need for the tape-measure, the speed to run like the wind and the arm to throw runners out. As a bonus he had enough aw, shucks eloquence to endear himself to the writers who framed the game for the national audience.
“A Season in the Sun” tells the saga of Mantle’s background, his meteoric rise to Yankee Stadium and his off the field antics that threatened his career. Authors Rand Roberts and Johnny Smith have crafted an easy read that transports the reader into the Yankee locker room and on to the field, into the world of Toots Shor where ballplayers were gods and the provide insights into the illnesses and injuries that limited the on the field accomplishments of Mantle who stepped into DiMaggio’s place in the hearts of the Yankee nation. The carousing of Mantle, Billy Martin and Whitey Ford are incorporated into the tale but do not dominate it as in some other works.
The book covers the lead up to 1956, then gives almost a day-by-day account of the spectacular year in which Mantle overcame determined challenges from Ted Williams for the batting title and Al Kaline for the RBI championship to become the first Triple Crown winner since “Teddy Ballgame” Williams nine years. The only shortfall for Mickey was that he fell behind Babe Ruth’s record setting home run pace of 1927. Mantle’s performance propelled the Yankees to repeat as American League Champions and take revenge against the Brooklyn Dodgers who had beaten them in the World Series the year before.
“A Season in the Sun” is an enjoyable and edifying read for any fan of baseball lore.
“A Season in the Sun” tells the saga of Mantle’s background, his meteoric rise to Yankee Stadium and his off the field antics that threatened his career. Authors Rand Roberts and Johnny Smith have crafted an easy read that transports the reader into the Yankee locker room and on to the field, into the world of Toots Shor where ballplayers were gods and the provide insights into the illnesses and injuries that limited the on the field accomplishments of Mantle who stepped into DiMaggio’s place in the hearts of the Yankee nation. The carousing of Mantle, Billy Martin and Whitey Ford are incorporated into the tale but do not dominate it as in some other works.
The book covers the lead up to 1956, then gives almost a day-by-day account of the spectacular year in which Mantle overcame determined challenges from Ted Williams for the batting title and Al Kaline for the RBI championship to become the first Triple Crown winner since “Teddy Ballgame” Williams nine years. The only shortfall for Mickey was that he fell behind Babe Ruth’s record setting home run pace of 1927. Mantle’s performance propelled the Yankees to repeat as American League Champions and take revenge against the Brooklyn Dodgers who had beaten them in the World Series the year before.
“A Season in the Sun” is an enjoyable and edifying read for any fan of baseball lore.
May 5, 2018
This isn't a biography of Mickey Mantle. It's really only a close look at the New York Yankees outfielder's 1956 season and his ascension into stardom after grabbing headlines and fans with his Triple Crown race.
But this works. Roberts and Smith look closely at that season and how Mantle changes, both in the public eye and in his own world. The authors do offer some early stuff about Mantle to provide a nice contrast. He was a shy kid from Commerce, Okla., carrying the stereotypical cardboard suitcase to the Big Leagues. He didn't know how to answer reporters' questions and he struggled early on. Contrast that with his 1955 season when he wouldn't talk with reporters and really carried on an aggressive nightlife.
Roberts and Smith don't shy away themselves from Mantle's dark side. They touch on Mantle's fear of dying young, as did most of his family, and, like so many others, blame Billy Martin for leading Mantle down the alcoholic road of ruin.
Most of us who've ended up reading this book have already read many of the other books on Mantle over the years. Some differ greatly (read Mantle's "My Favorite Summer" about the same season and see what I mean). Roberts and Smith note the variances... was Don Larsen nursing a hangover when he pitched the perfect game against the Dodgers in Game 5? for example. This book is a nice look at how a grueling baseball season, a statistical race against Ted Williams and Al Kaline and the overwhelming demands of fans and reporters can take something out of a player. The authors also provide context of the time, historical facts, events, et al., to provide a bigger picture of the era.
Granted, it starts out a little slow, hence the 4-star review. But then it picks up and moves faster than a Bob Feller fastball. The game recaps of 1956 are excellent and the reader can feel the daily excitement fans back in those days felt as Mantle chased Ruth's home run record. Give this 4.5 stars.
This is a fun book to read and a great reminder of how baseball was in the 1950s and how Mantle came to be revered as one of the greats.
But this works. Roberts and Smith look closely at that season and how Mantle changes, both in the public eye and in his own world. The authors do offer some early stuff about Mantle to provide a nice contrast. He was a shy kid from Commerce, Okla., carrying the stereotypical cardboard suitcase to the Big Leagues. He didn't know how to answer reporters' questions and he struggled early on. Contrast that with his 1955 season when he wouldn't talk with reporters and really carried on an aggressive nightlife.
Roberts and Smith don't shy away themselves from Mantle's dark side. They touch on Mantle's fear of dying young, as did most of his family, and, like so many others, blame Billy Martin for leading Mantle down the alcoholic road of ruin.
Most of us who've ended up reading this book have already read many of the other books on Mantle over the years. Some differ greatly (read Mantle's "My Favorite Summer" about the same season and see what I mean). Roberts and Smith note the variances... was Don Larsen nursing a hangover when he pitched the perfect game against the Dodgers in Game 5? for example. This book is a nice look at how a grueling baseball season, a statistical race against Ted Williams and Al Kaline and the overwhelming demands of fans and reporters can take something out of a player. The authors also provide context of the time, historical facts, events, et al., to provide a bigger picture of the era.
Granted, it starts out a little slow, hence the 4-star review. But then it picks up and moves faster than a Bob Feller fastball. The game recaps of 1956 are excellent and the reader can feel the daily excitement fans back in those days felt as Mantle chased Ruth's home run record. Give this 4.5 stars.
This is a fun book to read and a great reminder of how baseball was in the 1950s and how Mantle came to be revered as one of the greats.
December 2, 2021
A Good and Bad Book About Mantle
Good parts are those potion devoted to his life, ability, and personality. The bad parts the excessive details often in the vain of psychoanalysis of Mantle, his detractors, other individuals, long lengthy references to facts or past sports events, world politics, detailed descriptions of people who interacted or part of the sports world which sidetracked the book’s main purpose, Mickey Mantle.
For me I’m there ware too many deviating detailed events vaguely related to the main theme Mickey Mantle.
Good parts are those potion devoted to his life, ability, and personality. The bad parts the excessive details often in the vain of psychoanalysis of Mantle, his detractors, other individuals, long lengthy references to facts or past sports events, world politics, detailed descriptions of people who interacted or part of the sports world which sidetracked the book’s main purpose, Mickey Mantle.
For me I’m there ware too many deviating detailed events vaguely related to the main theme Mickey Mantle.
May 5, 2018
What a nice surprise. I have read just about everything ever written about “ The Mick”. When I saw that this book was coming out I thought there is no way it could add anything about Mantle. I was wrong! A delightful book that covers a lot of almost forgotten ground. The book goes a long way to explain why Mickey Mantle is still remembered as a baseball icon. Even by people who never saw him play. A worthwhile read . Thank you to the authors for adding to the treasure trove of Mantle lore .
May 27, 2018
Excellent book about Mickey Mantle's 1956 season, his quest for the Triple Crown, and his chase of Babe Ruth's single season home run record. OK, let's be real...I really liked this book because I am a huge fan of baseball, the Yankees, and Mickey Mantle. While this book is not a literary classic, it does a very good job of detailing one of the greatest season's ever by a baseball player. If you are a baseball fan, especially a Yankees/Mantle fan, you will definitely enjoy this book.
June 2, 2018
It's a nice book with a bunch of interesting stories about Mickey Mantle and his career with the Yankees. While the book focuses on Mantle's triple crown season in 1956, the author has anecdotes going back to the days of Babe Ruth in the 20's. While the author tells funny stories, he also dives into the darker side of MLB in the 40's and 50's. If you're a Yankee fan, you will want to add this book to your library.
July 20, 2018
I've read a lot of similar books but I thought that this book really captured not only how Mickey Mantle was portrayed in the newspapers, but also why he portrayed that way. Back then, the writers would make up stories and personalities for the big-name players. As long as they performed well and didn't do anything terrible, the writers made them out to be squeaky-clean, family-oriented heroes. Good book.
April 7, 2018
I was too young to remember Mickey playing but have always been drawn to bios about him. I wonder what kind of numbers he could have put up in today's era where his injuries would have been addressed better due to advancements. His career was tragic. Hurt early and often, with little self control or discipline, he still put up amazing numbers and left many awestruck.
May 26, 2019
The story of Mantle's 1956 season, but also a story about his career. This is Mantle distilled down to his essence, and as much a tale of baseball's mid-century trials as it is about the man himself. Would serve as an excellent gateway book for more baseball history, or an interlude between bigger stories. Highly recommend to Mantle fans, Yankees fans, and baseball fans generally.
December 22, 2019
A fast read and a better than average sports story about Mickey Mantle and his Triple Crown season of 1956. I found it a good read, probably perfect for a sports fan to take for a beach read. There is always a sadness to remembering Mantle, the injuries and the self inflicted bodily harm. This is handled well without rising to preachy.
June 17, 2018
Mickey Mantle, and how his image and the Yankees relate to society from the early to mid 50s. Not bad, but if you’re interested in either topic, there are better books out there. This one is a tad pretentious.
June 23, 2018
As a long time fan of baseball, I found this book to be a good mix of the game and the players who make it all that it is. Mickey Mantle is sort of a tragic hero who never gave up despite a career riddled with injury.
April 17, 2020
You could tell that the author had great aspirations of writing a Roger Angell, beautiful prose type book. Instead it is just a couple hundred pages of stories that any MM fan knows, squeezed between seemingly random history. I wanted so much to love this book but I can’t.
February 14, 2022
A study of my favorite ball player of my childhood
The book is well researched. It captures the feel of that era when baseball and Mantle were the most important sports figures in America.
The book is well researched. It captures the feel of that era when baseball and Mantle were the most important sports figures in America.
April 29, 2018
This book is about Mickey Mantle's greatest season. There were myths, but many of his feats were true. A triple crown season, his triumphs and flaws are well detailed. Enjoy!
May 24, 2018
An interesting look at a Yankees star from the 50s. Ideal for the baseball fan, Yankees fan or not.
October 6, 2018
Well done, didn't focus on his demons.
May 17, 2020
If you like baseball and a Yankee fan you will love reading about the Mic. My husband is a huge Yankee fan so I read it to be knowledgable about his favorite Yankee idol.
October 19, 2021
This book was not very interesting to me. Its subject is Mickey Mantle's '56 season. The authors bounced around and stretched it out to 244 pages.
February 7, 2025
Great companion to the Mantle books about his full career.
May 29, 2019
Mickey Mantle occupies an unusual place in the iconography of sport, in baseball’s memorialisation in recollections of its ‘golden years’, whenever they were… Many argue, with some justification, that he is one of the greatest players ever – certainly he is one of only a very few to have had best performance statistics for home runs, batting average and runs scored of his hitting in a single season (the so-called ‘triple crown’ of baseball). Yet for those beyond the game, and even more so for those beyond the USA, Mantle is far from the profile of better known Yankees – Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig & Joe DiMaggio, and I suspect he is overshadowed by their celebrity as much as he overshadowed by playing the game in the 1950s and ‘60s as it was losing its nationally iconic status to football.
For those in the know, however, Mantle’s is a fairly well-known story, from the lead mines of Oklahoma to the glamour of Yankee Stadium, it was a fairy tale early ‘50s rise through multiple tiers of the leagues to the Majors. What followed was not unexpected: he struggled in his opening season, got shunted off to the Minors for a while but within the same seasons brought back to the Yankees where he did OK but seemed in awe of DeMaggio. That is, until the magic season in 1956 with the triple crown and what looked, for most of the season, like a reasonable shot at beating Ruth’s record of 60 home runs in one season. After some biographical scene setting this book deals with that season, with the successes and the failures, the stumbles and recoveries, the down to the wire-ness of the success. Roberts and Smith, academic historians, bring the rigour of their training to the accessibility of writing for a general audience.
Once we get into the year itself, the book has a narrative backbone provided by the season’s games and the impact on the race for records (as well as the league pennant and therefore the World Series, which for the Yankees would mean the opportunity to avenge the 1955 loss to the Dodgers, depending on the results of the National League). This backbone is fleshed out with commentary and contextual explorations dealing with issues of rivalries, celebrity and so forth. Roberts and Smith use this structure effectively to anticipate issues or figures who become important later in the story given the book overall a tight structure of interwoven narratives and incidents making for a much rounder story that simply an account of the season and the race for records. They are particularly good on the image making of sports writers and their need for access making the case that in many ways this is swansong of the writer-producing-the-athlete-as-hero, noting especially the celebritization of athletes. They do not push this further, or even do much to indicate the depth of the structural problem here (in many cases traveling writers, even those working for major newspapers, were dependent on clubs to fund their trips as well as ensure their access to players and officials. There is also a sense here, although Roberts and Smith do little more than quietly hint, of Richard Sennett’s notion of The Fall of Public Man as Mantle becomes the subject of the occasional tabloid story and as those tabloids breach the sports writers’ code of silence.
Unfortunately these ideas are not well developed, although they are clearly present. Roberts and Smith clearly cast Mantle as a figure the cusp of cultural change, but this is tangential. At heart, this is an impressive sports biography, telling the well contextualised story of a single season that was never quite repeated by an icon whose cultural reach was never quite what it could have been.
For those in the know, however, Mantle’s is a fairly well-known story, from the lead mines of Oklahoma to the glamour of Yankee Stadium, it was a fairy tale early ‘50s rise through multiple tiers of the leagues to the Majors. What followed was not unexpected: he struggled in his opening season, got shunted off to the Minors for a while but within the same seasons brought back to the Yankees where he did OK but seemed in awe of DeMaggio. That is, until the magic season in 1956 with the triple crown and what looked, for most of the season, like a reasonable shot at beating Ruth’s record of 60 home runs in one season. After some biographical scene setting this book deals with that season, with the successes and the failures, the stumbles and recoveries, the down to the wire-ness of the success. Roberts and Smith, academic historians, bring the rigour of their training to the accessibility of writing for a general audience.
Once we get into the year itself, the book has a narrative backbone provided by the season’s games and the impact on the race for records (as well as the league pennant and therefore the World Series, which for the Yankees would mean the opportunity to avenge the 1955 loss to the Dodgers, depending on the results of the National League). This backbone is fleshed out with commentary and contextual explorations dealing with issues of rivalries, celebrity and so forth. Roberts and Smith use this structure effectively to anticipate issues or figures who become important later in the story given the book overall a tight structure of interwoven narratives and incidents making for a much rounder story that simply an account of the season and the race for records. They are particularly good on the image making of sports writers and their need for access making the case that in many ways this is swansong of the writer-producing-the-athlete-as-hero, noting especially the celebritization of athletes. They do not push this further, or even do much to indicate the depth of the structural problem here (in many cases traveling writers, even those working for major newspapers, were dependent on clubs to fund their trips as well as ensure their access to players and officials. There is also a sense here, although Roberts and Smith do little more than quietly hint, of Richard Sennett’s notion of The Fall of Public Man as Mantle becomes the subject of the occasional tabloid story and as those tabloids breach the sports writers’ code of silence.
Unfortunately these ideas are not well developed, although they are clearly present. Roberts and Smith clearly cast Mantle as a figure the cusp of cultural change, but this is tangential. At heart, this is an impressive sports biography, telling the well contextualised story of a single season that was never quite repeated by an icon whose cultural reach was never quite what it could have been.
May 17, 2024
In A Season in the Sun: The Rise of Mickey Mantle, Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith chronicle the 1956 season of one of the most popular players to ever step on a baseball field (even if he is a Yankee). Starting with his humble beginnings in Oklahoma, the authors trace Mantle’s meteoric journey to the big city of New York. It was not without difficulty or adjustments, but it was soon apparent that Mickey hit the ball farther than most players could. Despite being plagued with injuries most of his career, including a partially torn ACL which was never fixed, Mantle quickly became a fan favorite because of his boyish charm and ballpark exploits. A Season in the Sun details the highs and lows of the 1956 season as Mantle battles for the Triple Crown and documents how the press fought to keep Mantle’s private life from sullying his public image.
A Season in the Sun is incredibly well-written and well-searched. As an avid baseball fan, I was captivated on page one. It is amazing to read how Mantle was able to excel of the field while dealing with so many injuries. One can only wonder what stats he would have put up if he had been healthy. The grit required to withstand the grueling season, as well as a picture of the milieu of 1950’s America was diligently described throughout the narrative. The public persona and Mickey’s private life were telling and tortuous. Some of the deportment of other players was eye-opening and disconcerting as well. Finally, I originally thought A Season in the Sun covered the majority of Mickey’s career, not just 1956. I was wrong. If you are a baseball fan you will enjoy it nonetheless, as it is both entertaining and fascinating.
A Season in the Sun is incredibly well-written and well-searched. As an avid baseball fan, I was captivated on page one. It is amazing to read how Mantle was able to excel of the field while dealing with so many injuries. One can only wonder what stats he would have put up if he had been healthy. The grit required to withstand the grueling season, as well as a picture of the milieu of 1950’s America was diligently described throughout the narrative. The public persona and Mickey’s private life were telling and tortuous. Some of the deportment of other players was eye-opening and disconcerting as well. Finally, I originally thought A Season in the Sun covered the majority of Mickey’s career, not just 1956. I was wrong. If you are a baseball fan you will enjoy it nonetheless, as it is both entertaining and fascinating.
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