[jsq]

before he screwed his leg up he was timed going to first base in 3.1 seconds. fastest guy today is probably 3.4?? look it up. every player who saw him before he screwed his leg up said the same thing, they had never seen anyone that fast on the bases.

as a 165 lb 17 yr old was hitting 450 ft home runs (think how much the mediocre high school or american legion pitcher did NOT help with piitching speed. what were those hacks throwing in rural oklahoma a whopping 85 mph, if you are a good player at 17 hitting an 85 mph fastball is easy and great for getting hits, getting distance.... not so much , so Mantle was providing most of the physics of the distance) as he got older and added 35 - 40 lbs he got stronger and better.

was a winner, teamates loved the guy and viewed him as the key to many of their pennants and world series. go look at some of those yankee teams lots of solid players but some other teams in the league were equally stacked yet could not touch the yankees.

on the negative side, not the brightest guy in the room, played football with his high school buddies on the injured leg after being told to stay off it completely and totally screwed himself. still put up monster numbers with one bum leg. your power comes from your legs. think that through very carefully. yet he still hit 500 plus homers when that still meant something before steroids and guys who play for 40 years (humour related to some of these guys that play forever and produce many good yrs but are not great players)

maybe most importantly mick was a hail fellow well met when sober. people liked him. i met him once with wife along and he was a joy to meet. nice. he was sober at the time.

popularity of a player has a LOT to do with the demand and price for his card. Willie, Joe D who i met and talked with about gambling at atlantic city and was quite nice to my wife and me, and Teddy Ballgame were all over the place as to how they interacted with their fans.

in contrast Mickey was pretty good for the most part, exceptions were when he was drunk and most fans did not interact with the mick when he was drunk. most interacted with the mick at card shows and generally he was a fun guy who met you with a smile and a kind word at the card shows.

just a few reasons his cards are so popular.