More than any other athlete, Mickey Mantle was the American hero whose life personified the great expectations and unfulfilled dreams of the twentieth century. Hailed by Casey Stengel as the next Ruth and successor to DiMaggio, Mantle would become the first true sports icon of the television age. In Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son, formerSports Illustrated writer Tony Castro recounts a story of fathers and sons, rebels and heroes, and a youth's rite of passage. He interviewed over 250 of Mantle's friends, teammates, lovers, acquaintances, and drinking partners,producing an explosive biography of one of the world's most fascinating sports heroes and a telling look at the American society of his time.

Author Biography

Tony Castro is a former staff writer for Sports Illustrated who did graduate work on socio-psychology in American studies while a Nieman Fellow at Harvard. He currently writes for the Los Angeles Daily News, and his work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, and other publications. Castro lives in Beverly Hills, California.