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THE M & M BOYS
LARA REZNIK, author
A tender tale of coming-of-age meets baseball heroes. Who wouldn't want to be in that kid's cleats when two of sports' greatest legends move in next door?
In the summer of 1961 a Little League player’s joy of making the All-Star team evaporates when his father, too busy with a girlfriend, misses his triumphant opening game, and his mother spirals into a bed-ridden depression. Then, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle move next door as they battle to break Babe Ruth's home run record.
Based on historical facts, The M&M Boys explores the parallel lives of an embittered Maris and a self-destructive Mantle who live together incognito in a remote Queens apartment. Maris, a misplaced Midwesterner, gets booed by the Yankee fans who prefer Mantle, and the press pursue him mercilessly. Mantle, on the other hand, basks in New York fans approval, but a series of injuries destroy his hope of winning the competition. Marshall's friendship unearths childhood memories for both men. What all three M&M Boys have in common is a good lesson in how to play the game of life, on and off the field.