I read the new bio out on Mickey Mantle by Jane Leavy entitled The Last Boy. I have to say that the book is chock full of stuff; stuff a Mickey Mantle fan would love to know. But there is also a bunch of revealing things that wounds the hero image of the Commerce Comet. As a 6 year old youngster I became fascinated with Mantle and Roger Maris during the summer of '61. That was the year of the home run as Mantle and Maris, teammates on the Yankees battled all summer for the home run title. Maris hit number 61 during the last game against Tracy Stallard if I recollect correctly. That home run race is a story in itself.
The amazing thing about Mantle was how long and how great he played with pain--pain in his right knee from a freak injury in a World Series game in right field in Yankee stadium. He played in this pain for 17 years. He had other maladies, some social as you can find out in the book, but he had incredible emotional pain that he carried throughout his life. I include here the 5 baseball cards I have of the Mick. They are the 1962-1966 cards.
I have a lot of memories of the old Yankees of the 1960's. I couldn't believe they were swept in the 1963 series by the Dodgers. Mantle had been injured and barely was able to play a little in the series. The next year they played the Cardinals in the Series and lost in 7 games. Bob Gibson was too much. They Yanks looked old. After that they were terrible. Mickey played 4 more years. In 1968 he retired. In his last visit to Tiger Stadium in Detroit Denny McLain, the 30 game winner delivered him up a Little League type pitch that Mick hit out of the park. The league wanted to sanction McLain but he basically told them to shove it. The entire Tiger bench were on their feet as Mick circled the bases. The baseball legend really ended then. If you are a baseball fan, the book is worth reading. It can be caustic and kind of graphic at times and the Mantle family have some rather interesting things to say about it at their Mickey Mantle web page, but the reader can see what is happening in this story of Mick's life.
I read Willie May's bio earlier this year and the argument always has been who was the best. Mick says Willie was and I think I would agree when you consider offense and defense, but Mick I think was a greater offensive threat for most of his career and the Appendices at the end of the book sort of statistically spell this out. I don't want to delve in that argument much. Almost everyone considered Mick a good and loyal friend, a tremendous competitor and certainly one of a kind.
In the late 1940's the newspapers in our area were full of the exploits of a hot young shortstop playing for the Joplin Miners, a farm club for the Yankees. The shortstop of course was Mickey Mantle. I'm glad the media of the day left his personal life to him so we could enjoy the hero he was. I was raised a Cardnial fan, and have often told Barry it was possible on a game day to walk around the town square and not miss a pitch. Every store had a radio going you could stop and enjoy the game. Bob Gibson was one of my favorites. The plate belonged to him. Get close to it at your own peril. He would be banned from the sissy game of baseball today. I used to read about the old Gashouse Gang of the Cardnials, who would sit on the steps of the dugout with a file, sharpening their spikes. They would slide into a base with spikes high.
ReplyDeleteLove all your comments. Mickey just struck a major chord.