I watched (on our TV) Mickey play from his rookie year in 1951 thru most of his career. Believe it or not, throughout the 1951 season Mickey was booed quite often.
It wasn't till the 1952 season when most baseball fans became quite excited over this 20 year old rookie. He had a great season in 1952 with 171 Hits and 23 HR's.
Scored 94 Runs....87 RBI's....and, batted
.311.......what a coincidence, Mickey's BB card number in 1952, how did TOPPS know that ?
The most exciting game I saw as a young kid was on Oct 8th 1956. The day Don Larsen pitched his Perfect No-Hitter in the World Series vs the Dodgers. That day,
Mickey hit a HR. Plus, he made an unbelievable running catch of a 440-foot drive by Gil Hodges in deep Left-Centerfield (near the Yankee Stadium Monuments).
I could fill up this page with my Mickey Mantle stories. But, I'll leave you with this event......in July of 1973, my young daughters (avid Yankees fans) and I went to
the Oldtimer's Game. We saw Mickey hit his last HR deep into the Left-field seats at Yankee Stadium.
Here is the very Mantle card I acquired in the Fall of 1952. I paid a nickel at our neighborhood candy store, and opened up a Topps waxpack expecting to get Mickey.
I will never forget that day, as I very carefully shuffled thru the cards and Mickey was in the middle of the stack.
Also, I was very fortunate, as my folks stashed all my Sports and Non-Sports cards in our attic when I was in the Air Force.
I saw Mantle hit a number of 500+ foot HR's , but this one was one of his greatest.
TED Z
T206 Reference
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