Book Watch

Phil Taylor

March 12, 2007

READERS WHO don't want to lose their idealized views of certain baseball legends (not to mention their lunch) would do well to avoid a pair of forthcoming works. Peter Golenbock's 7, what the author describes as an "invented memoir" of Mickey Mantle, has found a new publisher (after HarperCollins kicked it to the curb, along with O.J. Simpson's If I Did It, and the �bereditor responsible for both, Judith Regan). Over the objections of the Mantle family, Lyons Press plans to release 7: The Mickey Mantle Novel—which reportedly includes a fictional scene, related in Harlequinesque prose, in which the Mick beds Marilyn Monroe, and another in which he accuses Billy Martin of "having sex with women against their will"—next month. And Secrets of a Hollywood Super Madam, by convicted madam Jody (Babydol) Gibson, contains a graphic chapter that alleges that former Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda paid for the services of a "Swedish gal" called Nanna. Lasorda (whose name is misspelled in the book as La Sorda) issued a statement vehemently denying the story.