Review of "Mickey & Billy"

Ending February with a slew of books - this one being an audio book.  Was surprised that on NetGalley it was only offered as an audiobook after publication, but no matter - I enjoyed listening to this one.  Here is my review of "Mickey & Billy". 

 

Title/Author:

“Mickey & Billy: The Glory and Tragedy of a Yankee Friendship” by Tony Castro, narrated by Matt Godfrey

Rating: 

4 of 5 stars (very good)

Review:

Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin were teammates on the New York Yankees during the team’s great run of success in the 1950’s.  They played hard together both on and off the field. While some of their stories have been known for year, this book by Tony Castro does bring some fresh material to their stories, especially that of Mantle.

Mr. Castro is a noted historian of Mantle’s career, having previously published several books on the Yankee legend and at the beginning of this one, he acknowledges his personal relationship with Mantle as well. Given that, it isn’t surprising that the bulk of the book is about Mantle, but there’s good information on Martin as well, especially about his upbringing with his mother.

Without going into too much detail on the stories, as many of them are either well known or as Mr. Castro noted, they are gained from his personal relationship with Mantle. I did appreciate some of the stories from Holly Brooke, a woman with whom Mantle had a relationship even while he was married to his high school sweetheart Merlyn.  I also did enjoy the description of how much Mickey wanted to please his father and how his father’s death in 1951 soon after Mickey’s rookie season was completed affected Mickey so greatly.  Even to the point of marrying Merlyn because he felt his father would not approve of not doing so.

The narration by Mr. Godfrey is also very good and kept me engaged in the book, even if I had found the information elsewhere.  Whether that was from previous books by Mr. Castro or other books I have read on both ballplayers, I found this one to be very enjoyable to listen to and recommend it for any Yankee fan.

I wish to thank Dreamscape Media for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Link: Amazon.com: Mickey & Billy: The Glory and Tragedy of a Yankee Friendship (Audible Audio Edition): Tony Castro, Matt Godfrey, Dreamscape Media: Books