Mantle

the long version

MOVE OVER BABE, THE MICK IS THE GREATEST * From Tony Castro, the *New York Times* bestselling author, comes the concluding book of his brilliant biographical trilogy of Mickey Mantle -- of whom even Joe DiMaggio begrudgingly told the author: "to say there was anyone better in the game, to say there was anyone better than Mantle is what we Italians would call 'un sacco di stronzate,' a load of crap." "An American literary stylistic masterpiece... Tony Castro paints Mickey Mantle with the pinstripe magic of Garcia Marquez phantasmagoria and realism..." -- Tom Wolfe In *Mantle: The Best There Ever Was,* former Harvard classics scholar Tony Castro delivers a bold retelling of the Greek mythological hero Achilles from The Iliad in the powerful but doomed legendary baseball slugger who came to symbolize post-World War II American might in the 20th century. "Mantle's life story has been told many times, but it's never received as loving a treatment as this one," raves *Booklist* in its Starred review. Castro offers illuminating new insight into Mantle's extraordinary career, including the head-turning conclusion based on the evolution of analytics that the beloved Yankee switch-hitter may ultimately win acclaim as having fulfilled the weighty expectations once placed on him: of being greater than even Babe Ruth.