cover image Slick: My Life in and Around Baseball

Slick: My Life in and Around Baseball

Whitey Ford. William Morrow & Company, $16.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-688-06690-1

Hall of Famer Ford was the Yankee pitching ace in the 1950s and early 1960s, when the team frequently won the pennant. Raised in Queens, he was a quintessential New Yorker, and his well-publicized friendship with country boy Mickey Mantle made him seem the archetypal city slicker. Here he and New York Daily News columnist Pepe cover his diamond career, which was pretty much an uninterrupted triumph. Ford's lifetime winning percentage was .690, he played in 11 World Series and set the record for most consecutive scoreless innings in the series. There are also tales of his epoch-making carousing with Mantle and Billy Martin, his doctoring of baseballs and the greats he has known. Additionally, there is a warm introduction by pal Mantle. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (May 14)