Posted By:
AnonymousI want to say one thing about Mantle and I apologize if it's been said. But he was the fastest guy I have ever seen. I have been watching baseball games for 25 years live and on TV and I have only been able to watch Mantle in taped games.
As you watch so many games you get used to that TV angle from behind homeplate. As you watch more games you see many guys ground out to first base...(stay with me here)...and you gradually become accustomed to where a batter-runner should be in relation to first base after the firstbaseman fields the grounder, jogs over and touches first base with his foot.
Usually the guy is half to three-quarters down the line by the time all that happens. Faster guys get a bit closer and loafers like Belle and Bonds well - they hardly run.
Anyway, I was watching a taped version of Game 7 of the 1952 World Series between Dodgers and Yankees about 6 months ago. Mantle gets up to bat from the left side and after a few pitches he hits a routine grounder to first. The "behind homeplate angle" shows Hodges field it cleanly and while jogging over to first base to touch it - suddenly from the bottom of the screen comes Mantle full force and barreling to first. Now Hodges had merely fielded the grounder and jogged over to first and by the time Hodges touches first, Mantle is like 10 feet from the bag!
I absoultely couldn't believe it. I sat in my living room, jaw dropped, and watched it four more times. Quite frankly, I have no idea how it was possible for Mantle to get from home plate to that spot in that short amount of time. I have never seen anybody get to that point in the baseline on that play ever and I do not think I ever will again. It was unbelievable. Truly. I think it's impossible. But I saw it!
That confirmed to me the legend of how fast this guy was when he first came up - 3.12 home to first is SICK.
Now factor that in to the fact he hit 500 foot homers BEFORE the age of steroids and you have yourself one heckuva freak of nature.