Randy Roberts
Please join me in congratulating Randy Roberts, 150th Anniversary Distinguished Professor of history, on his new book: A Season in the Sun: The Rise of Mickey Mantle (Basic Books, 2018), co-written with Shaw Assistant Professor in Sports, Society, and Technology Johnny Smith (PhD 2011).
The book explores the legendary baseball player’s 1956 season where he established himself as one of the greatest players in the sport’s history despite injuries, criticism, and off-the-field failings that sportswriters compliantly overlooked. Mantle is the most recent iconic figure to become one of Randy’s biography subjects – a list that also includes basketball player Oscar Robertson and boxers Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Jack Johnson, and Mike Tyson, as well as actor John Wayne.
Basic Books published the Mantle book in March, and The History Book Club scheduled it as a selection.
Congratulations, Professor Roberts!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts