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BY THE BOOK |
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Restaurant |
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Where sports heroes and
their chroniclers dined
By MAURY ALLEN
of TheColumnists.com
The big deal about
being a sportswriter is that somebody says hello to you when
you walk into a restaurant. It may be the maitre d’
if it is a fancy joint or just a waiter, a bartender, a busboy
or even the kitchen cook if eggs lightly over happen to be your
filet mignon.
In my heavy working days, about a decade ago, that could happen
at Toots Shor’s or the ‘21’ club or Duke Zeibert’s
in Washington or the Blue Fox in San Francisco or any of the
places where the expense account meal or sports crowd press conference
was recognized.
At Mickey Mantle’s on Central Park South in Manhattan I
got a hug from the owner, Bill Liederman, and an obscenity from
the name boss, one Mickey Charles Mantle of Commerce, Oklahoma.
That meant I belonged.
Now, mostly in retirement, it is tough to get a nod from the
guy pushing the coffee at the neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts.
Mantle’s was really a special sports place, a hangout after
late night games, a sports buzz place when something was really
going on in the toy department world, a showoff lunch place when
a book editor wanted to mark my latest epistle with a freebie.
It’s still there but Liederman isn’t. He gave up Mantle’s
after some good fights with the Mantle family and the money guys
for a charming, new eatery called Burgers and Cupcakes. No kidding.
He sells burgers in a basket and cupcakes in a plate. Great fun.
Liederman has put all his experiences inside a giddy book called
"Mickey Mantle’s: Behind the Scenes in America’s
Most Famous Sports Bar" (The Lyons Press, $19.95) with the
best look ever at the sports restaurant biz and the loonies who
run them and use them.
Liederman’s story is funny, honest and biting with payback
to lots of so-called celebs who have made freeloading into America’s
second biggest art form. Money laundering is the first.
Liederman tells wonderful stories about Mantle, of course, unguarded
and in his cups and unguarded and out of his cups after he went
for the dryout cure. Mantle died in 1995 but like a few sports
heroes--The Babe, Joe D, Lou Gehrig--never really leaves us.
Every day someone has a new story you never heard.
Then Liederman relates tales about Reggie Jackson and Lawrence
Taylor, the potty-mouthed one, and show biz guys and big biz
execs who filled the place on big sports nights with their hundred
dollar bills and their busty young gals.
How big was Mickey Mantle’s? One tale from real life, hilariously
related in the book, will explain it all.
There was a baseball team in 2004 that carried the burden of
the Curse of the Bambino. The legend goes that the Boston Red
Sox couldn’t win a World Series after 1918 because they
traded away a pitcher/outfielder named Babe Ruth to the hated
New York Yankees.
The Yankees beat the Red Sox out of a pennant in 1949 by winning
the last two games against them and the legend was set. Boston
was nothing but failure while the Yankees notched titles as rapidly
as a New York City subway express.
It all came down to 2004. The Yankees had snuck another away
in 2003 with a miracle homer by a journeyman named Aaron Boone.
Now they were ahead again three games to none. Forget it. Hey,
wait a minute. The wrong team choked. This time it was the Yankees
who blew the lead. The Red Sox won the AL pennant and went on
to sweep the World Series. So now we know the Red Sox can win
a Series every 86 years.
What would Mickey Mantle’s restaurant do to mark the occasion?
Liederman decided to rename the place in honor of the Boston
triumph.
“Ted Williams restaurant,” writes Liederman. “They
say a rose by any other name would smell as sweet but this one
smelled to New Yorkers like month old moo shoo pork.”
Liederman and his clever PR man, Marty Appel, former New York
Yankees spokesman, had come up with the kidding scheme to newly
name Mantle’s after the Red Sox hero, Ted Williams, in honor
of Boston’s triumph and as a tribute to Red Sox Nation.
It would have worked well in “The Producers” with a
little side number for "Springtime for Hitler." but
sports fans are more fanatic than history fans. The city exploded
with venom at Liederman for this act of a traitor to Yankee tradition.
Even the Mantle family, humorless in their pursuit of the Mantle
dollar, was outraged. Of course, someone had called them with
a trumped up tale of what had been done.
Actually, only a computer-printed paper sign with the name of
Ted Williams had covered the outside Mantle name on the famed
awning. Some people just don’t have a sense of humor when
it comes to Yankee losses.
Forget 9/11, the war in Iraq or a burdensome tax. This was BIG.
“The family of the late Mickey Mantle is shocked and outraged
by Bill Liederman’s conduct covering the Mickey Mantle name
in Mickey Mantle’s restaurant and replacing it with Ted
Williams,” wrote a Mantle family lawyer.
Public outrage was incredible. Nasty phone calls filled the restaurant
lines. Vicious emails exploded on their computer screen. People
burst into the place screaming obscenities. A voice mail announced,
“You’re dead, your kids are dead., your days on this
earth are numbered, you money-grabbing Hebe.”
Liederman, who loves a joke almost as he loves a good hamburger,
finally backed off. He had learned a lesson, especially a lesson
about Yankee fans. “You never tread on the sacred ground
of Yankee lore. It just isn’t done,” PR pal Marty Appel
told Burger Bill.
Being recognized in a popular restaurant is a great ego kick.
Bill Liederman explains it better than anyone ever has in his
tome about Mickey Mantle’s.
©2007 by Maury Allen. The Maury Allen
caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The book cover reproduction
is courtesy of The Lyons Press. This column first posted Jan.
29, 2007.
You
can comment on this column online. Please address your message
to either "The Editors" or Maury Allen. To send an
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After the line ..mark the occasion just add, "Liederman
decided to rename the place in honor of the Boston triumph. Then
pick up.."Ted Williams restaurant....."
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