Gould Turns to Sportswriting

What happens to all the Little League players who grow up?

Unless they play pro-ball or coach, not all of them can combine their love of the sport with business. But at least one Harvard professor successfully mixes biology, statistics and Mickey Mantle.

Sport Magazine recently asked Stephen J. Gould, professor of biology and zoology, to write an essay about the Mick for its 40th anniversary edition.

Last August, Sport sent Gould to New York to interview the "greatest baseball player of his time" at a Yankee game.

Although Gould said "it was quite a thrill to sit next to Mantle at the game," he admitted that "my real childhood dream would have been to sit with DiMaggio."

In the article, Gould uses the art of baseball number-crunching, which he calls sabermatrics, to prove Mantle was the most well-rounded player of the era. But Gould also emphasizes the dichotomy between Mantle the common man and the public's glorified portrait of Mantle the legend.

Gould writes of the excitement of growing up in New York City during its reign of baseball glory. "The fifties were the greatest baseball years that any single city ever experienced. We had three great teams and seven subway Series in the 10 years between 1947 and 1956," he said.

Gould's array of baseball statistics indicates that Mantle was the man who dominated the 1950s and 1960s Yankees, which the professor calls "probably the greatest teams of all time."

And even in the modern era, Gould says "Mantle's 1957 season is unsurpassed." Gould cites Mantle's on-base percentage of .512, which no player since Mantle in 1957 has come close to beating. "Willie Mays only reached .425 in his best year," he says.

"Mantle would have hit 100 home runs at Fenway park," says Gould, adding that if he had played for the Red Sox they would have come home with a World Series victory.

Nevertheless, Gould treats Mantle's alcoholism as a serious part of his life which escaped public attention. "Mickey the myth has had a different status from Mickey the man," Gould says.

"Mantle teetered for years on the edge of a serious drinking problem, and his legendary late nights were not a mere innocent exuberance of youth," says Gould.

Gould says the Yankee legend's public didn't want to acknowledge his problems because the nature of the sport was so different at the time. "Sports biography was strictly cardboard heroism. Mantle's near alcoholism was seen as high spirits," he says.

"Mantle was a player in an era when they represented different ideals," Gould says, "Mantle put his heart and his life into baseball before the era of great material reward."

And as for baseball heroes of today? "Don Mattingly is probably the one player who has the potential to become a player like Mantle," Gould says. "Their combination of skills is very rare."

An avid fan who rooted for the Sox in the Series, Gould says "I know a helluva lot about baseball. It's a closed system. There's only so many facts you can know of which I know a great deal. It's not like understanding the history of life."

Gould, who has contributed sports articles to both Sports Illustrated and Vanity Fair magazines, says, "Writing sports articles is not a big profession of mine, but it's a secret pleasure."

In his new book, entitled "The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History," Gould puts together a series of essays ranging from "flamingos that feed upside down" to "the extinction from baseball of the .400 hitter."