SOLD 1951 Season Pass Mickey Mantle Sent Down to the Minors

[Shoeless Moe]

Pretty RARE 1951 Season Pass for the Saint Paul Saints. What makes this pass so unique is that a struggling Rookie #6 Mickey Mantle was sent down to the minors to the Yanks Kansas City ballclub on July 13, 1951. The lucky holder of this pass very well may have witnessed Mick in his first game after being sent down. Mantle's first game would be at St Paul. Mantle stayed in the minors until August 23 playing his first game back with the Yankees on August 24. So Mantle that season played his first game at St Paul and his last game before returning to the Yankees also at St Paul. He'd rejoin the Yankees as #7 and never look back.




Mantle played his first major-league game on April 17, 1951, at Yankee Stadium against the Boston Red Sox. Although he started the season well, hitting strong in April and early May, he slumped badly in June and early July, prompting Stengel to send him back to the minor leagues for more seasoning, telling him: “It’s not the end of the world, Mickey. In a couple of weeks you’ll start hitting and then we’ll bring you right back again. I promise.”

The decision crushed Mantle. Three months earlier, he was being touted as the next Ruth, Gehrig, and DiMaggio all rolled into one. Now he was going back to the minors, to the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in Kansas City. Things were about to get worse. In his first 18 at-bats in Kansas City, he managed only three hits, one of them a bunt single. He grew lonely and despondent, believing that his career was over before it had a chance to begin.

He reached out to his father, hoping for support, telling Mutt over the phone that he couldn’t play anymore and wanted to go home. Mutt hung up the phone and drove from Commerce to Kansas City, where he confronted his son in his hotel room. Mantle reiterated that he had tried his hardest, but that he had lost his confidence and wanted to quit. “Now you shut up! I don’t wanna hear your whining! I thought I raised a man, not a coward!” yelled Mutt.

Mantle later said that it was “as though Mutt had leveled a double-barreled shotgun at my head.” Mutt proceeded to pack up Mantle’s belongings, all the time grumbling that “he thought he raised a man, and you’re just a coward.” When the time came to leave, Mickey broke down crying and told his father that he would give it another chance.

The incident lit a fire under Mantle, who went on a tear for the next month. By late August, after playing 40 games for Kansas City, Mantle was batting .361 with 11 home runs and 60 RBIs, and was recalled by the Yankees. Upon his return, he was assigned uniform number 7, which he would wear for the next 18 years. In the final 27 games of the season, Mantle hit .284 with six home runs and 20 RBIs.



Only 1 Graded by PSA.

1 up on Ebay for $999.99

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1951-Mickey...IAAOSwuHJbqQmQ

I'm asking $200 or Best Offer Shipped for a great/unique piece of Mantle & Baseball History

(schedule and pix of Mantle not included, just taken from Internet)

[Shoeless Moe]

and SOLD!