Tony Castro's America

Author Corner: The Tony Castro Interview

Best-selling author Tony Castro's latest book is Mantle: The Best There Ever Was (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). The softcover edition of his acclaimed 2016 dual biography DiMag & Mick: Sibling Rivals, Yankee Blood Brothers (Lyons Press) was recently released, and his acclaimed biography of Ernest Hemingway will be out in September. NPR named Looking for Hemingway one of the best books of 2016. He was interviewed by Kerri Ladshaw.

Where are you from?

I grew up in Waco, Texas, in the heart of the Bible Belt in mid 20th century America, bilingual, bi-cultural, and religiously bi-polar.

Religiously bi-polar?! What in the world does that mean?

I was both Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic. But I quoted too much Protestant scripture for a good Catholic, and I knew too many saints and too much Latin for an acceptable Baptist.

 

Mickey Mantle Meets Moneyball

But in the light of the new baseblall analytics, Mickey Mantle's 1956 season comes off as one of the greatest in the game's history -- and part of the finest back-to-back seasons in the modern era, which started in 1947.

In 1956, Mantle won the Major League’s Triple Crown when he batted .353, hit 52 home runs and batted in 130 runs. In 1957, he batted .365 with 34 home runs and 94 RBIs. It would appear to have been a horrendous follow-up season, but it wasn't. 

Mantle's on-base percentage was almost 50 points higher in 1957 than in 1956, and his OPS of 1.177 was better than the 1.169 he recorded while winning the Triple Crown.

Enter then what may be Sabermetrics' most powerful statistic -- Wins Above Replacement, known among baseball nerds as WAR -- that takes into account everything that a player accomplishes. Wins Above Replacement asks the question, “If this player were injured and his team had to replace him with a minor leaguer or someone from the bench, how much value would the team be losing?”

In his Triple Crown winning season, Mickey had a WAR of 12.9 in 1956, which ranks second only to  Babe Ruth's WAR of 14.7 1923 and 14.0 in 1921. Mantle's WAR in 1957 was 12.5.

By comparison, Barry Bonds’ best three seasons produced WAR marks of 12.5, 12.4, and 12.2. Willie Mays’ best was 11.0, Lou Gehrig’s higher was 12.0 and Ted Williams’ topped out at 11.8.

Thank You, Mad Dog and SiriusXM!

My interview on the Mad Dog Show, Chris Russo of the SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio #GehrigTheBabe
https://player.siriusxm.com/#/player/on-demand

Interviewed by ESPN's Jeremy Schaap

Thank you, Jeremy Schaap, for your interest in Gehrig & The Babe!

'A Masterpiece and An Instant Baseball Classic'

Corpus Christi Caller Times, May 10, 2019  http://bit.ly/2E92cAe

"Mutt Mantle was a constant in Mickey’s life, even after he died. He would dream about his dad constantly. He also 'saw' him at games. When he did see him, Castro writes, Mickey would “swing from his soul.”

"And, that is what Castro has done in this book – swing and write with his soul.

"Mantle: The Best There Ever Was is a masterpiece and an instant baseball classic."

 

#MantleTheBest @RLPGBooks http://bit.ly/2E92cAe

REVIEW: Tony Castro 'brings Mantle to life in all his complicated facets'

This book completes the author’s trilogy on Mickey Mantle. It is filled with accounts by many people associated with “The Mick,” and Castro exploits the book’s subtitle throughout its 20 chapters, divided into three parts: “The Best There Was,” “The Best There Is,” and “The Best There Ever Will Be.” In the epilogue, Castro continues making his case for Mantle being the best ballplayer ever. He recalls that in his last conversation with Merlyn Mantle, Mickey's widow, as they explored Mantle's mystique, they had remembered a 1981 Rolling Stone magazine cover of the late Jim Morrison (lead singer of the rock band The Doors), which proclaimed: “He’s hot, he’s sexy, and he’s dead.” Merlyn commented: “Oh, dear lord ... You know, Mickey being the way he was and that crazy sense of humor of his, that’s something he would haveloved on his gravestone" (p. 226). This book brings Mantle to life in all his complicated facets. From his greatness as an athlete and ballplayer — permanently marked by his injury in the 1951 World Series — to his raucous lifestyle in New York and later in Texas, Castro brings readers the highs and lows of Mantle’s life, creating an intimate portrait and a fascinating look at an American hero.

This review appears in the November 2019 issue of CHOICE, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries — A division of the American Library Association

— D. K. McKim, formerly, Memphis Theological Seminary

Summing Up: Recommended. All readers.