DI'S

MICKEY MANTLE TRIBUTE

[IMAGE]

Mickey Mantle

Three-time American League Most Valuable Player.

1974 Hall of Fame inductee.

Mickey Mantle's awesome power and speed made him a rightful heir to the legacy of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio.
By the time he retired in 1968 after 18 years in the big leagues, Mantle ranked among the all-time leaders in home runs and home run percentage, had played in 12 World Series, and had won three Most Valuable Player Awards, two back-to-back.
Mantle was the son of Oklahoma lead and zinc miner Mutt Mantle. "I always wished my dad could be somebody else than a miner," Mantle once said. "I knew it was killing him. He was underground eight hours a day. Every time he took a breath, the dust and dampness went into his lungs."
Mutt Mantle had a better future planned for his son: baseball. He named the boy after legendary catcher Gordon "Mickey" Cochrane and started him switch-hitting at age 5. "He believed that any kid could develop into a switch hitter if you taught him early enough," recalled Mantle. Mutt would pitch to young Mantle from one side, and Mickey's grandfather would lob the ball to him from the other.
Mantle played football and baseball for Commerce High School, earning the nickname "the Commerce Comet." During one football practice he was kicked in the left shin, and not only did his ankle swell to twice its normal size, but he also developed a 104-degree fever. He eventually developed osteomyelitis (inflammation of the bone marrow) and was threatened with amputation. But at Oklahoma City's Crippled Childrens Hospital, Mantle received penicillin injections every three hours around the clock, and his condition improved almost immediately.
When he recovered Mantle was signed to a New York Yankee contract by scout Tom Greenwade for only $400 a month. When Mutt Mantle hinted that his son could make as much working in the mines and playing ball on Sundays, Greenwade threw in a $1,100 bonus. Greenwade knew at the time that he was getting someone special. "The first time I saw Mantle I knew how Paul Krichell felt when he first saw Lou Gehrig. He knew that as a scout he'd never have another moment like it."
Mantle was sent to Independence of the Class D K-O-M League, where he batted .313. He played shortstop and committed 47 errors in only 89 games. His next destination was Joplin in the Class C Western Association, where he hit a league-leading .383 with 26 homers and 136 runs batted in.
Mantle made 55 errors at Joplin. With Phil Rizzuto still firmly in control of the position in New York, Mantle had to find another role. He had the speed and range to play center field, but an aging Joe DiMaggio still owned the position, and any attempt to move New York's hero could cause a riot. Stengel decided to try Mantle in right field.
Mantle went north with the Yankees in 1951 and started on Opening Day. He impressed observers with a 450-foot homer off Randy Gumpert on May 1, but, overall, he had trouble adjusting to big league pitching. The Yankees finally realized that Mantle required more seasoning in the minors and shipped him down to Kansas City.
Mantle's hitting slump continued. He called home and told his father, "I don't think I can play baseball any more." The next day Mutt Mantle arrived in Kansas City and started packing his son's belongings into a suitcase.
"What are you doing?" asked Mickey.
"Packing," his father answered. "You're going home. You're going to work in the mines, that's what we'll do. You can go back down there."
That was enough to jolt Mantle out of his slump. During his 40-game stay at Kansas City, he batted .361, hit 11 homers, drove in 50 runs, and was back in Yankee Stadium by the close of August.
In Game 2 of that year's World Series, Mantle tripped over an exposed drain pipe in Yankee Stadium's right-center field. He tore cartilage in his knee and missed the rest of the Series. The day after the injury, Mutt Mantle, a spectator at the Fall Classic, was taken ill. By the next summer he was dead of Hodgkin's Disease, the same malady that had killed Mutt's father.
Mickey Mantle soon developed into a star, but he was still a small-town boy in the big city. He shared an apartment above the Stage Delicatessen with Hank Bauer and Johnny Hopp, and in his first year gained 25 pounds from eating corned beef, cheesecake, and matzoh ball soup. He eventually became fast friends with Whitey Ford and Billy Martin, and with that duo his diet was often more liquid than solid. "Everybody who roomed with Mickey said he took five years off their career," quipped Ford.
In 1957 a fight broke out at New York's Copacabana night club involving Mantle and Martin. In an effort to protect Mantle from further trouble the Yankees traded Martin to the Athletics. The two remained friends, however. "We used to tease each other about whose liver was going to go first. I never thought it would end for him this way," said Mantle.
Part of the reason for Mantle's high living was his suspicion that he would follow his father and grandfather to an early grave. At age 46 he said, "If I knew I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself."
Mantle specialized in monster home runs. One of his most famous was a 565-foot explosion at Washington's Griffith Stadium in 1953. "I never saw a ball hit so far. You could have cut it up into 15 singles," marveled Yankee pitcher Bob Kuzava. On May 13, 1955, Mantle hit three homers into the distant Yankee Stadium bleachers. Each cleared the 461-foot sign. On May 23, 1963, he struck the park's right field facade. It's estimated that, had it kept sailing, the ball would have traveled 602 feet.
But many of Mantle's pokes went for outs in Yankee Stadium's appropriately-called "Death Valley," the deep left-center field portion of the park. Mantle hit 266 homers at home, 4 fewer than he blasted on the road.
Mantle was perhaps at his finest in the mid-1950s. In 1956 he won the American League Triple Crown with 52 homers, 130 RBIs, and a .353 batting average. He hit three more home runs in the World Series, won the AL Most Valuable Player Award, and was named Major League Player of the Year by the Sporting News.
In 1957 Mantle again won the MVP Award. In the 1957 World Series, Milwaukee second baseman Red Schoendienst came down on Mantle's right shoulder. The injury would dog Mantle for years, although he would win another MVP Award in 1962, along with a Gold Glove.
In 1961 Mantle and teammate Roger Maris were both in pursuit of Babe Ruth's 60-home run single-season record. In September, Mantle developed a cold he couldn't shake and announcer Mel Allen recommended an East Side physician who could fix him right up--"the best there is." The doctor, garbed in a bloodstained smock, injected Mantle with some mysterious substance that immediately put him into a dizzied, feverish state.
Mantle missed several crucial games and had to have the area where he had been injected cut open and lanced. In the end he played eight fewer games and had 76 fewer at bats than Maris, who had eclipsed Ruth's record by a single homer. The doctor even had the nerve to send Mantle a bill. "I never did pay it," said Mantle. "I wanted to sue. A few years later he stopped practicing."
Even though that malady went away, injuries continued to haunt Mantle. Playing in Baltimore in June 1963, he broke his ankle and was out of the lineup for two months. His first at bat after returning to active duty was a pinch-hit, game-tying homer with two out in the ninth inning.
But Mantle's best days were over. His damaged shoulder caused him great pain, and in the mid-1960s he had difficulty throwing and even batting from the left side. He played first base the final two years of his career.
During spring training in 1969 Mantle announced his retirement. "I can't play any more," he stated. "I can't hit the ball when I need to. I can't steal second when I need to. I can't go from first to third when I need to. I can't score from second when I need to. I have to quit."
After his retirement Mantle became involved in a number of ventures including a popular restaurant on New York's Park Avenue South. He also announced for a while on NBC's y Game of the Week. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974, his first year of eligibility. When Mantle and Willie Mays worked as public relations representatives for Bally's Park Place Casino in Atlantic City, they were banned from baseball by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Both players were reinstated in 1985.
Mantle repented his fast living at the end of his career and died of cancer in 1995. While still alive, he told many people about what he expected after death. He said he would meet St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter says, "Sorry, Mickey, but because of the way you lived on earth, you can't come in. But, before you leave, would you please autograph these baseballs for Him?"

Mickey Mantle Stats

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