Fred Glueckstein
Major League Baseball’s Opening Day, 1951. Nineteen-year-old MickeyMantle puts on the New York Yankees’ famous white pinstripeduniform. His stomach roils. Sweat beads his brow. Today is his firstmajor league game in front of a near-capacity crowd at YankeeStadium, and there is one man Mickey doesn’t want to disappointabove all others: his father.Mickey Mantle: Rookie in Pinstripes is the uplifting true story of howa painfully shy teenager from rural Commerce, Oklahoma, becameone of the biggest stars in Major League Baseball. While he lookedto Joe DiMaggio for inspiration and dreamed of someday playingwith that great New York Yankee, Mickey’s true hero was his dad.Raised during the Depression, Mickey learned how to catch, hit, andfield the ball from his father, Elvin. In high school, Mickey suffered afootball injury that revealed a serious bone disorder. He wondered ifhe would ever play baseball again. But with the support and love ofhis father, he overcame his affliction and signed with the New YorkYankees in 1949.A moving story of Mickey’s early years in baseball, from his difficultrookie season to his triumphant return in 1951, Mickey Mantle portraysthe everlasting bond between father and son and the making of oneof baseball’s greatest legends.