Mickey Mantle

I'm reading a biog of Mickey Mantle. It's amazing the hold some athletes, Mantle in this case, have over others. A "roast" of Mantle was being planned. Bill Skowron was asked to be one of the roasters. He hesitated and finally declined, saying, "You want me to make fun of Mickey Mantle?" I'll be curious to see how the author (Jane Leavy, who wrote an outstanding biog of Sandy Koufax) sifts through the fact and the fiction. And it will be interesting to see people's perceptions of Mantle, contemporary and otherwise.