Mickey Mantle and Joe Louis are here to whip your sorry 1950s butts into shape

Is there a greater symbol for both the indestructibility of youth and the fragility of the human experience than Mickey Mantle? The man whose very name — alliterative and straight out of a comic book — screamed larger-than-life manliness nevertheless tore through his body like a cheap pair of drawers. The fresh face you see above is forever young in our baseball diamond memory, but our last look at Mantle, emaciated and more than a bit embarrassed by how he abused his gift of life, will endure just as long.

So maybe this course had “drinking yourself to a kidney transplant and an early grave” as part of its curriculum, to go along with greats like Joe Louis imparting their Charles Atlas-ish “K.O. Power” wisdom.