Mickey Rivers Books

ýMickey Mantle Day in Amsterdamý is another gem from the pen of Jim LaBate, author of the tender ýLetýs Go Gaelsý. Once again, the author draws on his love of sports and the fond recollections of his childhood to evoke a bygone era, the pre-video era of wholesome heroes and hot summer afternoons when kids everywhere swarmed the baseball diamonds, gear in hand, and every patch of grass was its own field of dreams.

The generous heart of this story beats loudest and strongest in the young narratorýs exuberant admiration and respect for the singularly great Mickey Mantle and in the vicarious joy the reader experiences as twelve-year-old Jumboýs ordinary world is transformed by an unexpected overnight visit from the extraordinary Yankee slugger.

This is not a story of hero worship for LaBateýs Mantle is life-sized and as common as a next-door neighbor as he plays ball with Jumbo and his gang of friends. Instead, what is ennobled is the broad hearted zeal of youth and its passionate embrace of a game that once defined everything that was great about small-town America. And therein lies the magic and the pleasure of this timeless tale. It captures the beauty and joy of a young boyýs heart without pretence or precocity so that, after reading it, I felt as if these boys, and the Mick himself, might have even been a part of my own childhood.

But there is a bittersweet cloud behind the joy of LaBateýs silver-lined fable. Two weeks ago I made a pilgrimage back to my hometown and visited what had been my field of dreams, a broad green expanse with four full ball diamonds, one in each corner, and four full outfields converging and blending together in the middle into one calm sea of grass. It was a beautiful summer day, about two in the afternoon, when I pulled into the lot beside where the dugouts and the water bubbler used to be. On any given summer day when I was twelve, back in 1963, we might have had to rise early to be certain we could get an open field for our daily pick-up ballgames, choosing new sides throughout the day just to make it more interesting. The fields still looked healthy and well-maintained. I got out of my car, walked to home plate and gazed across the fields. There was not a soul in sight.

All right, every red-blooded American male baby-boomer dreamed sometime of having Mickey Mantle come and spend the day at his house and impress the other kids in the neighborhood. It takes an author with the incredible skill of Jim LaBate to transform that fantasy into one of the most charming books of the era. Each character is so cleverly crafted, and the dialogue so genuine, that you almost feel he is writing about real people. No single neighborhood could possibly boast of so many genuine eccentrics! (Could it?)

Besides being a beautiful book, it is very informative and has great detailed instructions. HIGHLY RECOMMEND even for a coffee table book !

I received the book in excellent condition and very fast service. Thanks so much for such great service..

Great book with some really creative ideas. Very detailed instructions and material lists. I can't wait to get started!

Although a few of the projects in this book look like they would come out well, I found most of them tacky, amateurish, and frankly, not very well-designed. I have several books on wire crafts, and this is by far the worst. I think that it is important to have good technique--for example, making round loops, avoiding leaving plier marks in the wire--and I found that in general, the projects were very poorly executed. In particular with regard to the more delicate projects, the person who made these left so many scratches and nicks on the wire that you could see the copper coming through the silver coating. Honestly, I would be embarassed to give some of the items in the photos as gifts because of the poor crafts(wo)manship. Other projects were just lame and seemed very flimsy. The cover project--wire-wrapped flatware--looks really cool and was ultimately the reason I bought the book. I haven't done the project, but I worry about whether it would survive normal use and washing. A much better book that has a variety of projects and will inspire creative thinking is Barbara McGuire's "Wire in Design." Read the reviews and see what I mean.

I came across this book while shopping for fabric, couldn't afford it at the time but immediately put in my amazon wishlist. Of course having it delivered to work was a bad idea, I keep flipping through it and planning all the projects that I can't wait to work on! Not sure about the other reviews that mention materials being hard to find because I haven't started looking for them yet, but as a former art student and hardware store habitue, I don't plan to have any difficulties.
An excellent book for both beginners and the seasoned crafter, the instructions seem very easy to follow and it's full of great ideas. In fact, a local artist has devoted an entire store to selling handmade crafts VERY similar to those in the book...

My 2 year old son loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I love it too for its educational value. The book is just like the show. It asks you to choose tools to help Mickey. It also uses simple words and even includes pictures for some words. It's perfect for beginning readers who love Mickey!

I purchased this book for my 3 year old daughter who enjoys watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I read it to her once, and she has not wanted me to read it again. It is meant to be interactive, asking the child to do things like "find the round door" and choose tools to do different tasks involved in getting to the Three Bears' cottage. It also stresses directional words like under, through, across, up, down, between, and into. The text does include some pictures for words like "meadow, river, dark forest, pond, and cliff," but my three year old was not able to tell what the pictures were. She would have to learn them from memory of having the book read over and over to her.

I think this book is the best of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ones currently available. I just don't know why my daughter doesn't like it.

In a sense, this book IS Mickey Rivers - humorous, irreverent, oddly distracted, and in a sense somewhat disassociated from the reality that the rest of us live in. On the surface, the book is little more than a collection of mildly to moderately humorous stories: other than (arguably) Billy Martin, Rivers does little to expose facets of the people he discusses that we aren't already well aware of.

Yet in the telling of the stories Mickey does expose much of his inner self to the reader, and in so doing he more or less validates the title of the book. Apparently, Mickey truly didn't believe in worryin' about anything: his marriage, taking care of himself physically, what others thought of his various and sundry antics. Having said all of that, though, Rivers does come off as quite likable - he may have more or less unconsciously made his way through his career, but at least he did so with a smile on his face and a desire to do the best he could with those talents that he could readily muster.

In the end, I gave this book three stars because one doesn't get the feeling that Rivers put much thought into it, but what the heck... if the book was full of deep self-contemplation, it wouldn't be Mickey, would it?

I had hoped this book would be a lot more of a biography. Instead it was written as if the reader was a 10 year old. Not informative and a waste of money.

A great book for Yanks fans as well as other baseball fans, and a great trip down memory lane for those of us who remember and treasure the late 70s Yanks and Sox.

I bought this because Mick's odd yet wise quotes were legendary during his playing career, kind of a next-generation Yogi Berra. (A nice touch in the book is that it includes many of these quotes in his own handwriting.) Mick recalls his baseball life with humor and a deep sensitivity, especially for those teammates who are gone -- Thurman Munson, Billy Martin, Catfish Hunter, Jim SPencer, etc. For example, he recounts his post-game activities playing ball with kids around the stadium and racing them down the street, and talks about the importance that today's players - Jeter, Williams, etc. - be role models for children.

A quick read that will bring you back to the Bronx Zoo. (Particularly enjoyed the story about how Mick's wife played bumper cars w/ his Benz and Cadillac in the Yankee Stadium parking lot - bet The Boss loved cleaning up...)

This book by Mickey Rivers is truly unique. It reads more like a loosely connected bunch of stories somewhat covering his life and career. Mickey breaks the rules of proper grammar in favor of telling a story in his own words.
The book is interesting, but lacking in any real depth. You can probably read it quickly in one setting, but I would rather have a meatier book from one of the true characters of the game, a man who spent time on one of the craziest and greatest baseball teams ever.

I purchased this book at the Yogi Berra museum in Montclair, NJ during a book signing by Mickey Rivers himself. I always liked him, and knew about his witty quotes, however, I never realized what a genuinely nice person he was. At the book signing, he talked to me for more than 5 minutes. The fact he's a nice person comes across loud and clear in the book as well. He tells tales of his childhood, the minor leagues, the Angels, Yankees, Rangers, and other experiences. The book is written in a conversational style, as if Mickey is talking right to you. You get a feel for the man, and you get to hear good stories as well. As you read, you'll laugh and come to like Mickey more and more. For me, I started to long for the days of my youth when the Yankees Bronx Zoo team battled with the Boston Red Sox, the KC Royals and the LA Dodgers. All in all, this book is a thoroughly enjoyable read. If you enjoy humorous baseball stories in an easy-to-read format, I highly recommend Ain't No Sense Worryin'.