My Dad was born in 1945 so he was primetime Mantle when he was a kid. He grew up in Cincinnati at a time when there were local stars like Frank Robinson and Ted Kluszewski, but even he worshipped Mickey Mantle.
He was like a god to kids. Good-looking, great baseball name, a 5 tool player, and he played for what was already a dynasty team.
Now when you look at his overall career stats they are good but not god-like like other players of his era like Willie Mays. But I think collectors look at Mantles glory era, during the 50s when he was relatively healthy and not plagued by alcoholism. He played a majority of his career with a torn ACL and in many ways the bottle helped ease the pain.
Mantle is like Mike Trout, but on a higher profile team. Now image if Mike Trout got hurt and found the bottle in the 2020s. That is Mickey Mantle.
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