Swing, Batter! New Play About Baseball Legend Mickey Mantle Aims for Broadway

Baseball legend Mickey Mantle's life story is heading to Broadway in a new (for now untitled) play produced by his sons, Danny and David Mantle, and documentary film producer David Leaf. The trio is currently developing a show that will bring Mickey Mantle’s incredible life and career to the stage and introduce audiences to the man behind the myth. No playwright, casting, creative team or timeline have been announced for the project.

“There has been so much written about my dad over the years,” Danny Mantle said in a statement. “When my brother and I met David Leaf, we felt we could work with him to finally tell the real story of who our dad was as a man.”

Mickey Mantle played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball as a center fielder. He is considered one of the greatest switch hitters in baseball history. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Game in 1974 and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. Mantle was the New York Yankees all-time leader in games played, until Derek Jeter broke his record in 2011. He was born in 1931 in Oklahoma and died in 1995 at age 63 in Texas.

This new Mantle play is latest in a trend of Broadway dramas about sports figures. The Great White Way previously welcomed sports-centric plays Lombardi (about the Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi) and Magic/Bird (about basketball greats Magic Johnson and Larry Bird). The Mantle show may face some Broadway baseball competition though as the team behind Lombardi and Magic/Bird are also at work on a new play about the Yankees.