Mantle Reality

[50sBaseball]

Keith posted an excellent thought to understand the mystique of Mickey Mantle. Indeed, Mantle played hurt most of his career and still put up incredible statistics. In a World Series game on October 6, 1951 -- 2 weeks from his 20th birthday -- Mantle injured his knee and had to have surgery to repair torn ligaments, the first of five knee surgeries over his career. Mike Lupica wrote a story in Newsday (6/10/1995) relating these facts and the fact that by the end of Mantle's career the cartilage in both knees was pretty much gone. Lupica noted that Mantle said in his book, "All My Octobers," that after the 1951 injury "I wouldn't play another game the rest of my career without hurting."
Mantle was a stud.