All-Star: Mickey Mantle. How the Game Has Changed

I grew up in Dumont, NJ; a bedroom community 25 minutes away from the Bronx and Yankee Stadium. I grew up loving the Yankees (the Mets didn’t come to town until I was 12), and I grew up in awe of Mickey Mantle.

My first trip to Yankee Stadium was with my Dad and I guess I thought the stadium was black and white, because that’s the way it always looked to me when we watched the games on WPIX-TV, Channel 11. We walked down to the railing at field level and there were Mantle, Berra, Kubek, Richardson and Skowron playing pepper. They were no more than 20 feet away and occaisionally a kid would yell out one of their names and they would look up, smile and wave. And every kid at the rail thought they were waving at them.

Much has changed about baseball and much has changed about me. And while I tend to follow the home team (AZ Diamondbacks), I still like the Yankees tradition and their great history. Most of their players now are overpaid and underworked. The late GeorgeSteinbrenner bought the Yankees in 1973 for less than $9 million. Now, many Yankee players work less than a season to make that money.

So, at this year’s MLB all-star break I’m going to pay homage to Mickey Mantle.. The Mick.

Mickey Mantle was a man’s baseball player. He had his share of vices.. one that eventually took his life, but on the baseball field he was without equal.
Today we make a big deal out of a player hitting a 450 foot home run. Mantle holds the record for the longest documented home run at 565 feet.

Mickey loved the month of July.  How much?  Read on.
July 1, 1956 - Hit 525' Homer at Yankee Stadium (Upper Deck)
July 4-6, 1962 - Hit Homers in Four Consecutive At Bats
July 6, 1953 - Hit Grand Slam Out of Shibe Park (Philadelphia) (530')
July 9, 1955 - Went 5 for 5
July 13, 1955 - Hit 500' Homer at Comisky Park (Chicago White Sox) (Upper Deck)
July 20, 1957 - Hit 530' Homer at Yankee Stadium (Upper Deck)
July 23, 1957 - Hit for the Cycle

In addition to being the greatest switch hitter of all time (9 different times Mantle hit homers from the right and left sides of the plate in the same game), he is also the undisputed king of the World Series.  He holds World Series records for most home runs, RBIs, total bases, runs scored, and walks.
He holds the record for most at bats and games played by anyone to ever wear the Yankee pinstripes.

Need more?  He won the Triple Crown, was league MVP 3 times, won a Gold Glove, and in 18 seasons he played in 16 All-Star Games. His batting average was .300 or more in ten different seasons.

His last official at bat came on September 28, 1968.  He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame 1n 1974 on the first ballot; only the 7th person in baseball history to be so honored.

As perfect as he may have been on the field, I mentioned he had vices.  He came from a family of alcoholics and Mickey was legendary off the field for his drinking.  Although it seemed never to affect him on the field, it eventually killed him.  He developed cirrhosis of the liver and had a liver transplant late in his life, and eventually succumbed to liver cancer.  He died on August 13, 1995.  He was 63 years old.

But before I end, I mentioned at the very beginning of this blog how the game has changed.  Mickey Mantle had all his success and inspired millions of kids to play baseball and he never made in excess of $100,000 in any year.

But here may be the biggest example of how the game has changed.

In June of 1965, Yankees management feared that Mickey was at the end of his playing days so they announced that September 18 of that year would be "Mickey Mantle Day" at Yankee Stadium. At that time, only four other Yankees had received such an honor. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Yogi Berra.
September 18 came and it was time to honor Mantle.
The game that day was between the Yankees and the Detroit Tigers. Right hander, Joe Sparma was on the mound for the Tigers. When Mickey stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first inning, with two outs, he received an ear-splitting ovation. Sparma, then did something unprecedented in major league baseball - he stepped off the mound, walked to home plate, and shook Mickey's hand in open admiration. He walked back to the mound and the game continued.

And that's how much baseball has changed since Mantle played the game.