Like its protagonist, 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel by Peter Golenbock has become the stuff of legend. "I don't care what the newspapers say about me," the old PR adage goes, "as long as they spell my name right." It's Golenbock, not —block,and he is more well-known now for a book that he didn't publish than the dozens he did. The controversy surrounding the galley of 7 (first reported in PW Daily) precipitated Judith Regan's firing by Rupert Murdoch and, eventually, cancellation of the much talked about novel about former Yankee great Mantle.
Thus, it was surprising to many in publishing circles when Globe Pequot, the New England house known for its conservative bent, announced that it would publish the book that Whitey Ford called "junk" and that the New York Daily News declared "fished out of a trash can."
"There are things I would not publish," declares Gene Brissie, associate publisher of Lyons Press, the Globe Pequot imprint that will publish the book in April with a whopping 250,000-copy first printing (more than four times the planned Regan Books printing). "But I immediately thought we ought to publish and let readers make up their own mind." Globe Pequot's publisher, Scott Watrous, is "totally on board," according to Brissie. "He thinks it's a hoot."
It's a big gamble for a midsize press to take on a book that the global News Corp. thought was too hot to handle. Two other publishers have told PW that they were interested in publishing 7, but they saw more problems than sales in the project. One of the hurdles is the Mantle estate, which is known for its litigiousness. "I'm not expecting trouble" from the estate, said Brissie. "I certainly hope not. I think if the fans read this book, they will enjoy it. The book is a blast."
"We expect that level of interest," says Brissie about the whopping first printing, which exceeds by 50,000 Norton's first run for Michael Lewis's blockbuster Moneyball four years ago. "We've talked to some accounts. We think it's going to be huge. Peter [Golenbock] is definitely doing publicity," adds Brissie, who has set a $150,000 promo budget. "Yes, there are adult romantic encounters in this book, and the language is very raw. But I found this a very moving book."
Even before acquiring Golenbock's tome, Lyons planned this month to publish Mickey Mantle's: Behind the Scenes in America's Most Famous Sports Barby William Liederman, the original owner of Mickey Mantle's Restaurant. "We felt the author's story provides a raw, entertaining look at the intersection of sports/celebrity culture and high-stakes restaurant management," says Rob Kirkpatrick, senior editor at Lyons. "It's the bastard child of Ball Four and Kitchen Confidential." Lyons had a 25,000-copy first printing and Liederman, now a radio sports jock, will be hitting the sports publicity circuit.
It remains to be seen if baseball fandom will share Gene Brissie's enthusiasm for 7 or Kirkpatrick's for tavern tales at Mick's place. But Whitey Ford and his other Mantle pals can always wait for Jane Leavy's bio of Mantle, due from David Hirshey and HarperCollins next year. Leavy's perspective on Mantle can be sampled in her essay, "Forever Mick," included in The Glory Days: New York Baseball 1947—1957, coming from HC in May. "If at the beginning he was the incarnation of the strong silent Fifties," Leavy writes, "he evolved into a psychobabble raconteur, the Will Rogers of postmodern athletes. He turned effusive, laying himself on the public couch with touching naïveté and reflexive honesty, recounting the particulars of his recurring nightmares for analysis. It is hard to imagine Joe DiMaggio discussing bedwetting with Johnny Carson."
Clearly, Mantle was a complex personality, which is part of the enduring fascination with his life and exploits. But none of it would exist if not for good old American hero worship. A Great Teammate: The Legend of Mickey Mantleby Randall Swearingen is another March entry bidding for attention. "Our book takes a look at the Mickey Mantle a lot of people have never seen portrayed: a teammate," says Peter Bannon, publisher of Sports Publishing LLC. "So much of the focus of his life has been on his monumental individual achievements in the game of baseball, but rarely has a book detailed the kind of person he was to play with and how much of a leadership role he shouldered during his Yankees career."
Teammates such as Bob Turley, Johnny Blanchard and Tony Kubek recall what Mantle meant to those great Yankee teams of the 1950s and '60s. SP has a 20,000-copy first printing of this upscale trade paperback ("a softcover with flaps," Bannon calls it), which Bannon hopes will allow Sports Publishing "the opportunity to sell a high-quality book at a cost that is more affordable ($16.95) to the sports fan.
"There is going to be a lot said about Mickey Mantle over the next few months due to [Golenbock's] novel's release," continues Bannon. "Much of it could possibly be negative. We just hope fans take into account the long-lasting positive influence he had on the game of baseball and realize that there was much more to his career than his towering home runs and off-field activities."
Pioneers—On and Off the Field
April 15 marks the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson stepping onto Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and shattering baseball's—and America's—apartheid. Until recently, Robinson was always honored for his achievement and courage, yet often placed behind other civil rights pioneers like Dr. King or Rosa Parks. Now, it has become obvious how important Robinson's act was, for it forced America to come to grips with the prejudice in one of its sacred institutions.
Robinson's achievement is celebrated in Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Seasonby Jonathan Eig (Mar.). "Jackie Robinson's rookie season was not just important to baseball," says Bob Bender, senior editor at S&S. "There was a lot of pressure to integrate all aspects of American life following World War II: schools, interstate transportation, the military, etc. Once baseball showed it could be done, the rest of American society had moved one giant step closer to integration." S&S started out with a 55,000-copy first printing, but interest has been so great the publisher has already gone back to press for an additional 15,000 copies. A 10-city coast-to-coast publicity tour is scheduled.
Robinson died prematurely at the age of 53, but his life continued to be inspirational to others. After Jackie: Pride, Prejudice, and Baseball's Forgotten Heroes: An Oral History by Cal Fussman (Apr.) looks at those who followed Robinson and made their imprint on baseball and America. "The lasting value of this book," says Chris Raymond, editor at ESPN Books, "is not in the words of Jackie Robinson, but in the words of the men who followed in his footsteps." ESPN's 35,000-copy first printing will be backed by major promotion.
Branch Rickey, the man who picked Robinson for his dangerous mission, is remembered not only as a racial pioneer but also as a baseball genius who forged baseball championships in St. Louis, Brooklyn and Pittsburgh. Branch Rickey: Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman by Lee Lowenfish (Apr.) tells Rickey's fascinating story. "The book is important," says Rob Taylor, senior editor at the University of Nebraska Press, "because it shows why Rickey was perhaps the game's greatest visionary executive and innovator. He helped create the farm system that exists today and encouraged now-common tools such as the batting cage and batting helmets. It also reveals the aspects of his personality—his deep commitment to both family and religion and his players—that made him larger-than-life and one of the game's true gentlemen." Nebraska plans radio and TV promotion.
Another black man who extended Robinson's campaign for individual rights was Curt Flood, who set free agency in motion—suffering great personal pain along the way. "The Curt Flood Story: The Man Behind the Mythby Stuart L. Weiss [May]," says Bruce Clayton, editor of the Sports and American Culture series at the University of Missouri Press, "presents Flood as more human and less of the martyr than he has been portrayed by some. It tells how Flood's decision to take his self-destructive stand was complicated and enigmatic in many ways." Missouri plans advertising, author signings and radio interviews.
Baseball had no monopoly on pioneering in the political and civil rights arenas. An image burned deeply into the history of the 1960s in America was sprinter Tommie Smith standing on the platform after winning his gold medal at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, his black-gloved fist extended defiantly in the air and his head bowed. Thirty-nine years later he tells his story in Silent Gesture (Feb.). "This memoir from the man who with John Carlos staged the 1968 Olympic protest," says Gary Kramer, publicity manager at Temple University Press, "debunks the myths surrounding it. Smith tells how, contrary to popular belief, he was not a member of the Black Panthers; he was notejected from the Olympic Village; he did nothave to give the gold medal back; and how, upon returning to the States, he was confronted by the very racism he had tried to call attention to " Temple is in the middle of a national publicity blitz.
Before Flood, before Smith, before Jackie Robinson, there was Jesse Owens. Triumph: The Untold Story of Jesse Owens and Hitler's Olympics by Jeremy Schaap (Feb.) explores many of the myths surrounding America's prewar hero, who gave the lie to Hitler's notion of white supremacy by winning two gold medals in the 1936 Olympics, held in Berlin. "Jeremy Schaap tell Owens's story as it has never been told before," says Deborah DeLosa, publicist at Houghton Mifflin, "putting his achievements in full context, situating him in time and place. That Owens was a national hero is well remembered; that he was treated like a second-class citizen in his own country is not." Houghton Mifflin has 30,000 copies in print and a national publicity campaign is underway.
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