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Mantle - The Definitive Story of Mickey Mantle by George Roy (II)
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DVD detailsActor: Billy Crystal, Ed Harris, Marty Appel, Mickey Mantle, Richard Lewis (II) Director: George Roy (II) Brand: Team Marketing DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 58 minutes DVD Release Date: 2006-06-13 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Hbo Home Video Product features: - Officially Licensed
- Highest Quality Recording
DVD Reviews of Mantle - The Definitive Story of Mickey MantleDVD Review: Mickey Mantle DVD Summary: 5 StarsI am very pleased with my purchase of this DVD and have added it to my Yankee DVD collection. Thanks!
DVD Review: A role model is not necessarily perfect. Summary: 5 StarsMickey was far from perfect, but he was a role model for many baseball fans in the 50's and 60's, a day when stars were shown without their warts and blemishes. This is a greatly painted portrait of a real American hero, warts and all. He seemed to be a simple midwestern boy with great athletic ability, but in reality, he was a driven man, driven by his father and later his father's memory. His heroism really didn't start until he recognized his faults and did his best to overcome them. Unfortunately, he couldn't save himself, but he did show his fans what a hero he was.
DVD Review: dvd review Summary: 5 StarsThe Mickey Mantle dvd showed up on time for Christmas. It was well priced and is a wonderful movie.
DVD Review: Greatness is not perfection. Summary: 5 StarsWhat a terrific and poignant insight into the man every boy hoped to be, the man who never was, and the man he became. It reaffirmed, and even further defined, his greatness on the field, and cast a light on the sad, tragic, wasted, and ultimately redemptive path he traveled. Viewers will be moved anew by their childhood memories and this hero of every boy, and again by their adult realiziation of "the man behind the myth", and the tragic irony that ultimately led to his greatest contributions to society and himself as told by his family, teammates, friends, and fans.
DVD Review: The boy with a man's back! Summary: 5 StarsThis is as good a video on Mick as you will find ... every true fan of The Mick should own it. But ... due to its time limitations for obvious reasons (made for TV), there was much left out that I would like to have seen.
Surely there is more video footage somewhere showing him hitting a few of his trademark/monstrous home runs ... or least the ball parks where he hit them and the places where the ball landed, or how about letting us listen to several radio broadcast clips by Mel Allen when The Mick "came to bat"? That would let us again enjoy the true excitement of those times.
Also, I would like to hear someone's thoughts on why Mick, not a huge guy at 5'11 1/2" and 195 lbs, had so much power "for distance", which was his distinction, heck, anyone can plink balls out there that just clear the fence ...
I personally think his power was a combination of two things, a) his quick twitch muscles (they had to be "quick twitch" because he also was the fastest guy around) combined with his b) early and extensive practice at swinging a bat ... nothing technical, he just put everything into every swing ... he just had that little something extra ... even today, no home run hitters can hit for distance like The Mick, certainly not consistently or even once in a while. I'd take The Mick over Bonds any day! Mick could hit the ball "over buildings"!
Otherwise, it's a fairly comprehensive look at Mick's life from his early days right up through the very sobering and sad ending ... it covers Mick's start in baseball beginning with the everyday practices by the barn with his Dad from his early youth, which Mick apparently enjoyed (though his younger brothers became "burned out" on baseball from it, who according to Mick, could have been pretty good ball players), thru the wonder years of when his god given superstar talents blossomed fully (MVP years and between), and his injuries and slowly declining skills leading to his retirement, then his "aimless years" of middle age when he was "on-display" through countless golf tournaments and corporate events, and ultimately to the end, a life cut short by cancer, caused by who knows what, a lifetime of abusing his body????
"The Mick", what a guy! I loved him and still do ... I watched him play often on TV when I was in Junior High & High School, but what a person of extremes ... a heroic & charming super athlete (who comes along once every 100 years), as well as a tragic & pathetic drunk ... self-admitedly he wondered what he could have accomplished as a player had he skipped the booze, carousing late at night, and avioded those crippling/career limiting injuries ... we miss him.
Because of The Mick, I taught my son to switch hit ... down in the barn!
Jim
Description of Mantle - The Definitive Story of Mickey MantleThe almost mythic career of Yankee slugger Mickey Mantle is the subject of this acclaimed HBO Sports documentary special. Over 18 seasons with the Bronx Bombers, despite constant nagging injuries, Mantle managed to hit 536 home runs, twice hitting more than 50 in a season. He finished ten seasons with a batting average of .300 or more and suited up for seven World Series. To this day, ?The Mick? remains the greatest switch-hitter in baseball history; however, behind his country charm and good looks there was his wayward lifestyle that harmed his marriage, his relationship with his four sons and ultimately his health. "Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs and beer," read a sign in the bleachers taunting Barry Bonds as he renewed his allegedly tainted pursuit of the Babe's (and then Henry Aaron's) home run record in 2006. And the Mick? Well, as detailed in Mantle - The Definitive Story of Mickey Mantle, this New York Yankee immortal's rise to fame and glory was fueled by sheer talent; the drinking and carousing that were part of the package could hardly be called "performance enhancing." Indeed, as great as Mantle was--and at his peak in the 1950s and early '60s, only Willie Mays could rival him--he spent his retirement years haunted by the notion that he could have been better. That would have been something, considering that Mantle, the handsome, charming Oklahoma hayseed who was not yet 20 when he joined the Yankees in 1951, played on 12 World Series teams (seven of them winners), made the All-Star team 16 times, won three MVP trophies and one Triple Crown, hit over 500 homers, and made the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Still, he was plagued by serious injuries, not to mention a variety of self-inflicted problems, principally alcoholism; he was also a poor father to his four sons, who were raised mainly by their mother and came to love the bottle as much as their dad did. Retirement (in 1969) only made things worse, as his alcoholism eventually led to the need for a controversial liver transplant (some claimed that his celebrity status pushed Mantle higher up the organ recipient list than he deserved to be) and, finally, the cancer that killed him in 1995. But as this hour-long HBO documentary (narrated by Liev Schreiber and featuring interviews with Bob Costas, Billy Crystal, former teammates, and many others) tells it, Mantle's finest hours came near the end, when he admitted that he'd been a terrible role model who "was given so much. (but) I blew it." Somewhat sentimental but not mawkish, Mantle will transport you back to a simpler, more innocent time. And in an era when so many sports heroes are merely super-rich, arrogant criminals, that can't be bad. --Sam Graham
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