I Am the Water Bucket

After reading the latest biography of baseball legend Mickey Mantle, the author's hero, he was stunned to realize that his own life had, in his later years, turned out much like Hall of Famer Mantle—a life of deep regret, guilt, depression, and alcoholism. Robinson immediately recognized a series of similarities in their childhood experiences, especially with their respective relationships with their fathers. Robinson decided to journey to Commerce, Oklahoma, on a kind of pilgrimage to the childhood home of the baseball legend and see if he could find some insights about his own life. The journey opened up painful questions about his relationship with his football coach father and led him to further investigate the father/son issues of some of his favorite authors, such as Hemingway, Faulkner, McMurtry, Salinger, and James Joyce. The pilgrimage ended in a visit to the grave of his father and served to reset his life back on course. He has written with pain, humor, honesty, and insight about his salvation through Mickey Mantle.