Mantle Reality

[Volod]

Saw him play a few times in the old Cleveland Muni stadium. He was not only the enemy, but the embodiment of all things feared and hated by Indians fans, even though I don't recall him doing a lot of great hitting there. Maybe the tough pitching the Indians enjoyed during most of the 50's figured into that. I remember one game in 1958, must have been very late in the season because there were white chalk lines on the outfield grass from a Browns game and between innings, Mantle kidded around with the bleacher fans, getting down into a three-point stance, as if about to run a football play. That bit of playfullness stuck in my mind for some reason.

[tjenkins]

I was born in 1963 and never got to see Mantle play in person (I just missed him). He was my Dad's favorite player so I can vaguely remember him playing on TV. I attended my first actual MLB game Saturday May 24th at the Old Metropolitan Stadium in Minneapolis when the Twins beat the Yankees (2-1). Even though I was only 6 years old I do remember most of the game. Their was lots of chatter about Mickey Mantle retiring during spring training because he said he couldn't hit anymore. I remember my Dad talking about it. His replacement I believe was Bobby Murcer, he got two hits that day. Harmon Killebrew was my favorite player and he got one hit in the game. Jim Kaat on the other hand pitched what I thought was a sensational game. He quickly became my favorite pitcher.

[50sBaseball]

I saw Mickey Mantle play in Fenway Park in 1959 (age 12 almost 13) and though the Red Sox (and Ted Williams) were not having a great year, neither were the Yankees. But it was, and still is, the Rivalry. And it was the presence of two legitimate superstars. I was a Red Sox fan, but had great respect for Mantle and treasured his cards.

In another thread about how friendly pro athletes were to us in person, I noted that at this game Ted Williams kindly posed for me with a bat on his shoulder so I could take a picture with my modest camera. (A quick primer on 1950s era inexpensive cameras: one put film in the camera, one could take about 20 photos, and then one took the film to be developed and prints made from negatives. BUT, one had to remember to manually advance the film, or one took two pictures on the same piece of film; these were "double exposures.")

I was taking pictures of Fenway Park near the visitors' dugout, and who happens to come out but Mickey Mantle. He was no more than 4 or 5 feet from me. I asked if I could take his picture. He said, "Sure, kid," and posed for me. BUT, I was so excited to see him that I forgot to advance the camera film manually. My Mickey Mantle picture was a "double exposure" with a view of Fenway Park.

Mantle's cards were valued highly in the 50s because he was a superstar, and if one had the opportunity to trade for a Mantle card, one paid dearly. I had the Topps 53,56,57,58 and 59 cards as a kid, and picked up a few 60s ones later. Mantle was a stud.

[drmondobueno]

1. His legs were bad. After hurting his leg in 1951, he played in pain the rest of his career.

2. Both his father and grandfather died young, in their forties, and Mick was terrified the same was happening to him. He admitted later in life he did not take care of himself, and drank a little.

I am sure baseball historians could put things much more accurately than I have. I remember conversations between my dad and uncle talking about how Mick looked like he was always hurting when he ran. This was around 1959-1960. At the time I was a Yogi fan ( how many world series championships ?) at the age of seven and later would wear a Maris jersey before I saw Clemente play. Never saw Mantle in person but saw him play dozens of times on the tube. Mays was healthy, Mantle wasn’t.

[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.

[tedzan]

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
.

[nat]

"My Mickey Mantle picture was a "double exposure" with a view of Fenway Park."



You can't say something like that without showing us the picture!

[50sBaseball]

"NAT" -- your request to show the double exposure photo of Mickey Mantle and Fenway Park (August 1959) sent me on a search, and surprisedly I found the photo! Included the Ted Williams photo as well.
Would appreciate any technical support as to enlarging the photos. Thanks.

Jim