Win A Copy of "The Last Boy:Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood"

I was lucky enough to get a copy of Jane Leavy's new book, "The Last Boy:Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood" to give away to one of my blog readers. First, some background on the book. Second, the contest details. If you don't feel like reading through the book description just keep scrolling. If you don't feel like participating in the contest, the book is available now.

Here's a book description, as listed on the publisher's website:

Jane Leavy, the acclaimed author of the New York Times bestseller Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, returns with a biography of an American original—number 7, Mickey Mantle. Drawing on more than five hundred interviews with friends and family, teammates, and opponents, she delivers the definitive account of Mantle's life, mining the mythology of The Mick for the true story of a luminous and illustrious talent with an achingly damaged soul.

Meticulously reported and elegantly written, The Last Boy is a baseball tapestry that weaves together episodes from the author's weekend with The Mick in Atlantic City, where she interviewed her hero in 1983, after he was banned from baseball, with reminiscences from friends and family of the boy from Commerce, Oklahoma, who would lead the Yankees to seven world championships, be voted the American League's Most Valuable Player three times, win the Triple Crown in 1956, and duel teammate Roger Maris for Babe Ruth's home run crown in the summer of 1961—the same boy who would never grow up.

As she did so memorably in her biography of Sandy Koufax, Jane Leavy transcends the hyperbole of hero worship to reveal the man behind the coast-to-coast smile, who grappled with a wrenching childhood, crippling injuries, and a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. In The Last Boy she chronicles her search to find out more about the person he was and, given what she discovers, to explain his mystifying hold on a generation of baseball fans, who were seduced by that lopsided, gap-toothed grin. It is an uncommon biography, with literary overtones: not only a portrait of an icon, but an investigation of memory itself. How long was the Tape Measure Home Run? Did Mantle swing the same way right-handed and left-handed? What really happened to his knee in the 1951 World Series? What happened to the red-haired, freckle-faced boy known back home as Mickey Charles?

"I believe in memory, not memorabilia," Leavy writes in her preface. But in The Last Boy, she discovers that what we remember of our heroes—and even what they remember of themselves—is only where the story begins.

Sounds like a good read, eh? I can't wait to get into it and write up a review for my Boogie Down Book Club. As mentioned, I have a copy to give away. So here's what we're going to do. It's simple: Send me an e-mail (contact info in upper left) with your prediction on how many total runs will be scored by both teams in this year's ALCS. I'd say to leave your guess in the comments but an e-mail prevents people from "price is righting" one another.

Winner will be the person closest to the combined runs total, without going over of course. In the event a tie-breaker is needed, also guess the following: total combined hits, total combined strikeouts, total combined walks. Hits will be tie-breaker #1, Ks will be tie-breaker #2, and walks will be #3. So if two people predict the same # of runs and hits, I'll go to Ks. If still tied, I'll go with walks. If still tied, I'm not sure what I'll do. Here's a summary of what to do:

1)Send me an e-mail (address in upper left) with how many total runs will be scored by both teams in the ALCS. Just need one total. Subject can be "Mantle book contest"
2)Include in your e-mail how many combined total hits, and combined total strikeouts, and combined total walks there will be in the ALCS.

I'll take it from there. Any questions, feel free to fire off a comment. Good luck and go Yankees!

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie