My Favorite Summer 1956

(Book summary from inside jacket cover)

"It's Tuesday, October 2, 1956, and I'm in the apartment that I rent during the season at the St. Moritz Hotel.  I'm trying to relax, but I can't.  It's the night before the first game of the World Series.

"Playing in a World Series was always special, but this was extraspecial.  We were playing the Brooklyn Dodgers.

"You had to be around New York in those days to fully appreciate what that meant.  There was never a time like that before in sports, and I think I'm safe in saying there'll  never be a time like that again..."

It was 1956, a time of peace and prosperity, of the baby boom and the exodus to suburbia.  America liked Ike, but loved Lucy.   Thirty-eight million households had television sets, and most were tuned to The Ed Sullivan Show when Elvis Presley made his first appearance.  And in the South Bronx, at venerable Yankee Stadium, a young man named Mickey Mantle was having the season of his life.

Only twenty-five years old, the future Hall-of-Famer from Spavinaw, Oklahoma, was already a national hero - one of the most powerful and gifted players in baseball - and he would put it all together, like no one before or since, in 1956.  He would become only the twelfth player in history to win the Triple Crown, leading the league in batting (.353), home runs (52), and runs batted in (130).  He would lead the Yankees to their fifth pennant in his six seasons with the team, and then in the classic World Series rematch with the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had beaten the Yankees 1n 1955, he would top off his year with three big home runs and an unforgettable running catch in center field to preserve Don Larsen's historic perfect game.

Now, in My Favorite Summer 1956, the Mick chronicles that amazing season as only he can.  Here is his battle with idol Ted Williams for the batting title; his challenge of the Babe's home run record; the wild adventures of the Three Musketeers: Mantle, Martin, and Ford; and his fond memories of playing for the legendary Casey Stengel.  And here too is a nostalgic trip to a time gone by, a time when players were regular guys, earning regular pay, when Willie, Mickey, and the Duke all played center field in New York, a time of simple pleasures and bigger-than-life heroes.

Out of this time came Mickey Mantle, the biggest hero of them all.  And he had the greatest season of a legendary career - as great a season as any professional athlete ever had, any time anywhere - in 1956.  Mickey Mantle's favorite summer.