The ideal batter for the atomic age, Mickey Mantle was capable of hitting a baseball harder and farther than any other player in history, and he became postwar America's wholesome hero from the heartland. Here Randy Roberts and Johnny Smith return to the peak of Mantle's legendary career: 1956, when he overcame a host of injuries and the skepticism of critics to become the most celebrated athlete of his time. Taking us from the action on the diamond to Mantle's off-the-field exploits, this incisive portrait depicts Mantle not as an ideal role model or a bitter alcoholic, but a complex man whose faults were smoothed over by sportswriters eager to keep the truth about sports heroes at bay.