43
Mancini looking forward to fans
Ex-boxer to be in town for book signing, screening
By Joe Scalzo
YOUNGSTOWN
In 1982, 21-year-old Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini won the WBA lightweight title, made his first successful defense in front of a massive hometown crowd and gained infamy for his role in one of boxing’s saddest moments.
Over the next 30 years, Mancini would never again reach those heights — or those depths.
“Just when life is going good, it has a way of kicking you in the a--,” Mancini said. “And life has whipped my a--.”
The way Mancini sees it, each of his decades has a theme.
His 20s were his great decade, when he won his title, made his money and got married.
His 30s were his transitional decade, when he became a father and a businessman.
His 40s were his “lost decade,” when his movie career floundered and he got divorced.
“Life kicked my a-- the whole decade,” Mancini said. “My 50s have to be my comeback decade. I hope so.”
He’s off to a good start.
Mancini’s biography, “The Good Son,” was released nationwide last week to critical acclaim. The New York Times ran a lengthy excerpt in its sports section, Kriegel talked on “The Jim Rome Show” and to NPR’s “Morning Edition” and Washington D.C.’s Italian Embassy hosted the debut of the book’s accompanying documentary.
This Thursday, Mancini will join author Mark Kriegel at the Boardman Barnes & Noble for a two-hour book signing.
“I hope to see a lot of people, a lot of friends and family,” Mancini said. “They told me they had a line out the door for [former Youngstown State and Ohio State football coach] Jimmy Tressel when he signed his book.
“I hope I can do as good as Jimmy.”
On Friday, Powers Auditorium will screen the documentary at an invite-only event. (Actors Ed O’Neill and Mickey Rourke, who were originally scheduled to attend, will not appear due to scheduling conflicts.)
Mancini’s enduring popularity, both in Youngstown and elsewhere, is due to his boxing career (his exciting style made him a network favorite at a time when boxing was still relevant), his personality (Kriegel’s book repeatedly mentions Mancini’s ability — and his need — to work every room he enters) and the pride he brought his hometown during one of the city’s lowest points.
“As soon as Ray opened his mouth, I knew Youngstown would be a hugely important character in the book,” Kriegel said. “Probably outside of Ray and his father, Youngstown is maybe the most dominant character in the whole thing.”
Mancini has stayed visible in Youngstown (he was the executive producer of the documentary “Youngstown: Still Standing” in 2010 and still comes back several times a year) and in boxing circles (where he works as an analyst for fights and was the subject of an ESPN documentary in 2007), but his with his prime years well behind him, Kriegel said his challenge was to “bring back the idea of how enormously popular he was.”
“Ray’s prime, and the height of Ray’s fame, was really only a couple years,” Kriegel said. “He had an extraordinary year in 1982, where he wins the championship and has [Frank] Sinatra buddying up to him and then he fights the Kim fight. He’s a kid of 21 years old and he becomes a national phenomenon and a pariah in the space of a year.
“The narrative was much more compressed and I really had to remind the audience what he meant and why he’s important. I hope I did that.”