Mickey Herskowitz

Milton Leon "Mickey" Herskowitz (born April 4, 1933) is an American journalist and biographer. He has written more than 50 books and has published autobiographies with several athletes. He was a sportswriter and columnist for the Houston Post and the Houston Chronicle, and a former ghost writer for George W. Bush.

Early life He was born to Herbert S. and Sarah Rheva Herskowitz. Herskowitz's father was born in Illinois, the son of immigrants from Czechoslovakia who relocated to El Paso, Texas in 1910. His mother was born in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1904, but who later lived in Matamoras, Mexico before relocating to Texas. She met and married Herbert there in 1930. He had an older sister named Phyllis Florence Herskowitz. Herskowitz is of Jewish descent.

Writing After writing sports articles and a column for years, he attended the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, where he met television sportscaster Howard Cosell, who had just signed a contract for his biography. He asked Herskowitz to ghostwrite it for him. After agreeing to write The Camera Never Blinks with Dan Rather, other projects were delayed because of the "pressure" to finish the Rather book.

Herskowitz once said of his former employer: "He thought of himself as a superior, more modern politician than his father and [the elder Bush’s close adviser and friend] Jim Baker. He told me, ‘[My father] could have done anything [during the Gulf War]. He could have invaded Switzerland. If I had that political capital, I would have taken Iraq."

Other In response to Astroturf replacing the natural grass inside the Astrodome, Herskowitz commented, "Now Houston has the only ballpark in the major leagues with its own built-in, infield fly."

He was known for his occasional series "Letters from Lefty" about a mythical southpaw pitcher for the lowly Houston Colt .45s. He was hapless, only getting through an inning by the miraculous fielding plays of his team or simply pure luck. Lefty's style of writing was self-effacing and his ability backed it up. The best of these columns were compiled into a book that was popular locally in Houston. Herskowitz covered the first game in 1962 played by the Colt .45s, who later became the Houston Astros.