Filled with stunning photos, this book by the #1 New York Times–bestselling sportswriter tells the story of Mickey Mantle’s legendary career. Mickey Mantle has long been considered one of baseball's most memorable figures—playing his entire eighteen-year baseball career for the New York Yankees (1951-68), winning three American League MVP titles, playing in twenty All-Star games, and winning seven World Series. Today, decades after his retirement, he still holds six World Series records, including most home runs (18). Buzz Bissinger, Pulitzer Prize winner and acclaimed author of Friday Night Lights and Three Nights in August, goes beyond the statistics to bring Mantle to life, and striking photographs by Marvin E. Newman make this book a fitting tribute to Mantle’s career and his lasting impact on the sport of baseball.

A look at the life and career of the famous baseball player.

Join The Sporting News for a fascinating journey through one of baseball's most magical seasons--the Summer of '61.

Yankee Greats features 100 baseball cards of the greatest and most popular Yankees from the celebrated trading-card company Topps. Showcasing original cards for hall-of-fame players such as Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, and Yogi Berra, and current heroes like Derek Jeter, this unique package provides a fun and fresh approach to revisiting America’s favorite pastime with one of baseball’s most beloved teams. Since the Yankee’s humble beginnings in 1903 as the New York Highlanders to today’s star-studded team, the Bronx Bombers have won 27 World Championships—more titles than any other professional sports franchise in history. Yankee Greats will let Yankee and baseball fans alike revel in and reminisce over so many of the players that helped make baseball what it is today, and these legendary cards will bring back fond memories for both young and old collectors.

Acclaimed sportswriter Allen Barra exposes the uncanny parallels--and lifelong friendship--between two of the greatest baseball players ever to take the field. Culturally, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were light-years apart. Yet they were nearly the same age and almost the same size, and they came to New York at the same time. They possessed virtually the same talents and played the same position. They were both products of generations of baseball-playing families, for whom the game was the only escape from a lifetime of brutal manual labor. Both were nearly crushed by the weight of the outsized expectations placed on them, first by their families and later by America. Both lived secret lives far different from those their fans knew. What their fans also didn't know was that the two men shared a close personal friendship--and that each was the only man who could truly understand the other's experience.

I really do believe I would be way up at the top of everything if I hadn’t been injured. When I was healthy, I really believe I was the best of anyone I ever saw play.—Mickey Mantle, reflecting on his career Mickey Mantle is one of baseball’s all-time greats. Playing for the New York Yankees for his entire professional career, Mantle was named to the All-Star team for 11 consecutive seasons, won three MVP awards, and was a seven-time World Series champion. He quickly became an icon who achieved hero status even while playing through injuries for most of his career. In Mantle: The Best There Ever Was, Tony Castro makes the impassioned argument that Mickey Mantle truly was the greatest ballplayer of all time. Acclaimed by the New York Times as the definitive biographer of baseball’s fabled number 7, Castro shares many of his personal conversations with Mantle, demystifying the legend and revealing intimate, never-before-published details from Mantle’s personal life. In addition, Castro offers illuminating new insights into Mantle’s extraordinary career, including the head-turning conclusion based on the evolution of analytics that the beloved Yankee switch-hitting slugger may ultimately win acclaim as having fulfilled the weighty expectation once placed on him: being even greater than Babe Ruth. Drawing from hundreds of interviews with ex-teammates, friends, and family, Castro masterfully blends Mantle’s public and private selves to present a fully rounded portrait of this complex, misunderstood national hero.

Build a classic mantel from stock materials and moldings, and tools found in the most basic of workshops. From measurement to the finished product, the authors take the reader through the complete process. Every step is illustrated with a color photograph and a concise instruction. In the back are photographs of many design variations that can be made using the same building techniques.