Mickey Mantle

Mantle began his professional baseball career in Kansas with the semi-professional Baxter Springs Whiz Kids.[9] In 1948 Yankees scout Tom Greenwade came to Baxter Springs to watch Mantle's teammate, third baseman Billy Johnson. During the game, Mantle hit three home runs. Greenwade returned in 1949, after Mantle's high school graduation, to sign Mantle to a minor league contract. Mantle signed for $140 per month (equivalent to $1,600 in 2019) with a $1,500 signing bonus (equivalent to $16,100 in 2019).[9]

Mantle was assigned to the Yankees' Class-D Independence Yankees of the Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League,[14] where he played shortstop.[9] During a slump, Mantle called his father to tell him he wanted to quit baseball. Mutt drove to Independence, Kansas and convinced Mantle to keep playing.[9] Mantle hit .313 for the Independence Yankees.[9][14] Shulthis Stadium, the baseball stadium in Independence where Mantle played, was the site of the first night game in organized baseball.[15] Mantle hit his first professional home run on June 30, 1949 at Shulthis Stadium. The ball went over the center field fence, which was 460 feet from home plate.[16]

In 1950 Mantle was promoted to the Class-C Joplin Miners of the Western Association.[14] Mantle won the Western Association batting title, with a .383 average. He also hit 26 home runs and recorded 136 runs batted in.[9] However, Mantle struggled defensively at shortstop.[9]

Mantle as a 19-year-old rookie in 1951

Mantle was invited to the Yankees instructional camp before the 1951 season. After an impressive spring training, Yankees manager Casey Stengel decided to promote Mantle to the majors as a right fielder instead of sending him to the minors.[9] Mickey Mantle's salary for the 1951 season was $7,500.

Mantle was assigned uniform #6, signifying the expectation that he would become the next Yankees star, following Babe Ruth (#3), Lou Gehrig (#4) and Joe DiMaggio (#5).[9] Stengel, speaking to SPORT, stated "He's got more natural power from both sides than anybody I ever saw."[18] Bill Dickey called Mantle "the greatest prospect [he's] seen in [his] time."[17]

After a brief slump, Mantle was sent down to the Yankees' top farm team, the Kansas City Blues. However, he was not able to find the power he once had in the lower minors. Out of frustration, he called his father one day and told him, "I don't think I can play baseball anymore." Mutt drove up to Kansas City that day. When he arrived, he started packing his son's clothes and, according to Mantle's memory, said "I thought I raised a man. I see I raised a coward instead. You can come back to Oklahoma and work the mines with me."[19] Mantle immediately broke out of his slump, and went on to hit .361 with 11 homers and 50 RBIs during his stay in Kansas City.[9]

Mantle was called up to the Yankees after 40 games with Kansas City, this time wearing uniform #7.[9] He hit .267 with 13 home runs and 65 RBI in 96 games. In the second game of the 1951 World Series, New York Giants rookie Willie Mays hit a fly ball to right-center field. Mantle, playing right field, raced for the ball together with center fielder Joe DiMaggio, who called for the ball (and made the catch). In getting out of DiMaggio's way, Mantle tripped over an exposed drain pipe and severely injured his right knee. This was the first of numerous injuries that plagued his 18-year career with the Yankees. He played the rest of his career with a torn ACL.

Mantle on the cover of Time (June 15, 1953)

Joe DiMaggio retired from baseball following the 1951 World Series. The following year, Mantle moved to center field.[9] He was selected an "All-Star" for the first time and made the AL team, but did not play in the 5-inning All-Star game that had Boston Red Sox Dom DiMaggio at center field. In his first complete World Series (1952), Mantle was the Yankees hitting star, with an on-base percentage above .400 and a slugging percentage above .600. He homered for the third Yankee run in a 3–2 Game 6 win and he knocked in the winning runs in the 4–2 Game 7 win, with a homer in the sixth inning and an RBI single in the seventh inning. Mantle played center field full-time for the Yankees until 1965, when he was moved to left field. He spent his final two seasons at first base. Among his many accomplishments are all-time World Series records for home runs (18), runs scored (42), and runs batted in (40).[20]

Bowman's Mantle trading card, 1954

The osteomyelitic condition of Mantle's left leg had exempted him from being drafted for military service since he was 18 in 1949,[21][22] but his emergence as a star center fielder in the major leagues during the Korean War in 1952 led baseball fans to question his 4-F deferment. Two Armed Forces physicals were ordered, including a highly publicized exam on November 4, 1952 which was brought on by his All-Star selection, that ended in a final rejection.[22][23]

Mantle had high hopes that 1953 would be a breakout year but his momentum was stopped by an injury. He missed several weeks, so his numbers were modest but respectable, especially with 92 RBIs.

Mantle had his first 100 plus RBI year, in 1954, in a full season and regained .300 status .

The next is arguably his first great year, as he concluded with 37 home runs and a .306 batting average. With 37 homers, he was now a home run hitter, not just an all-around player with tremendous power.

Mantle had his breakout season in 1956 after showing progressive improvement each of his first five years. Described by him as his "favorite summer", his major league-leading .353 batting average, 52 home runs, and 130 runs batted in brought home both the Triple Crown and first of three Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Awards. He also hit his second All-Star Game home run that season. During Game 5 of the 1956 World Series—Don Larsen's perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers—Mantle kept the perfect game alive by making a running catch of a deep fly ball off the bat of Gil Hodges, and provided the first of the two runs the Yankees would score with a fourth-inning home run off Brooklyn starter Sal Maglie. Mantle's overall performance in 1956 was so exceptional that he was bestowed the Hickok Belt (unanimously) as the top American professional athlete of the year. He is the only player to win a league Triple Crown as a switch hitter.

Mantle signing an autograph in the early 1960s

Mantle won his second consecutive MVP in 1957[24] behind league leads in runs and walks, a career-high .365 batting average (second to Ted Williams' .388), and hitting into a league-low five double plays. His batting average in mid-season had climbed as high as .392. His on-base percentage at one point, reached .537. Mantle reached base more times than he made outs (319 to 312), one of two seasons in which he achieved the feat. The 1958 season started slowly for Mantle—the first half saw him at the .274 mark, as a shoulder injury from a collision with Braves’ Red Schoendienst in the World Series left him with permanent struggles in his uppercut from the left side. He did, however, regain his status, hitting .330 in the second half, and leading his team back to the Series. The 1959 season was another frustrating situation—this time the first half of his season was good and his second-half comparatively bad. The season was bad for the Yankees, too, as they finished third. Although his numbers dipped again, he managed to score 104 runs and his fielding was near perfect. It was that year, also, he was timed running from home plate to first base in 3.1 seconds, considered outstanding for a heavy hitter. ‘59 was the first of four consecutive seasons that two All-Star games were played and Mantle played in seven of these games.[25] Mantle made the AL All-Star team as a reserve player in 1959, as his numbers had tailed off from previous seasons, he was used as a pinch runner for Baltimore Orioles catcher Gus Triandos and replacement right fielder for Cleveland Indians Rocky Colavito in the first game with Detroit Tigers Al Kaline playing the center field position. Mantle was the starting center fielder in the second All-Star Game's lineup, getting a single and a walk in four at bats. In 1960 Mantle started in both All-Star games, getting two walks in the first and a single in the second game. Mantle had another “off year”, - indeed, the first week of June saw his batting average drop to .228 - although by mid-August, he was back in his prime, leading the team to another World Series. Although his batting average was his lowest since his rookie year, his league-leading 40 home runs and 94 runs batted in, saw him come in a close second to Roger Maris’ MVP award. His on-base percentage was .400, for the year.

1960 was also the year he hit what was and is, the longest home run, in history. He hit one reportedly over the right center field roof at Briggs Stadium, which is said to have traveled 643 feet.

On January 16, 1961, Mantle became the highest-paid player in baseball by signing a $75,000 (equivalent to $640,000 in 2019) contract.[26] DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, and Ted Williams, who had just retired, had been paid over $100,000 in a season, and Ruth had a peak salary of $80,000. Mantle became the highest-paid active player of his time. Mantle's top salary was $100,000, which he reached for the 1963 season. Having reached that pinnacle in his 13th season, he never asked for another raise.[27]

Roger Maris and Mantle during the historic 1961 season, when they both chased Babe Ruth's home run record

During the 1961 season, Mantle and teammate Roger Maris, known as the M&M Boys, chased Babe Ruth's 1927 single-season home run record. Five years earlier, in 1956, Mantle had challenged Ruth's record for most of the season, and the New York press had been protective of Ruth on that occasion also. When Mantle finally fell short, finishing with 52, there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief from the New York traditionalists. Nor had the New York press been all that kind to Mantle in his early years with the team: he struck out frequently, was injury-prone, was a "true hick" from Oklahoma, and was perceived as being distinctly inferior to his predecessor in center field, Joe DiMaggio.

Over the course of time, however, Mantle (with a little help from his teammate Whitey Ford, a native of New York's Borough of Queens) had gotten better at "schmoozing" with the New York media, and had gained the favor of the press. Maris, a blunt upper-Midwesterner, never did the same; as a result, he wore the "surly" jacket for his duration with the Yankees. So as 1961 progressed, the Yanks were now "Mickey Mantle's team," and Maris was ostracized as the "outsider," and said to be "not a true Yankee." The press seemed to root for Mantle and to belittle Maris. Mantle was unexpectedly hospitalized by an abscessed hip he got from a flu shot late in the season, leaving Maris to break the record (he finished with 61). Mantle finished with 54 home runs while leading the American league in runs scored and walks. For the second year in a row, he narrowly missed winning his third MVP award, finishing four points behind repeat winner, Roger Maris.

In 1962 Mantle batted .321 in 121 games. He was selected an All-Star for the eleventh consecutive season and played in the first game,[28] but due to an old injury acting up, he did not play in the second All-Star game. Despite missing 41 games, he was selected as MVP for the third time, beating out teammate Bobby Richardson in the voting. In 1963 he batted .314 in 65 games. On June 5 he tried to prevent a home run by Brooks Robinson in Baltimore and got his shoe spikes caught in the center field chain link fence as he leaped against the fence for the ball and was coming down. He broke his foot and did not play again until August 4, when he hit a pinch-hit home run against the Baltimore Orioles in Yankee Stadium. He returned to the center field position on September 2. The season featured two amazing feats by Mantle: a line drive home run off the third tier facade at Yankee Stadium, off Kansas City's Pedro Ramos. It was the closest any hitter came to hitting a fair ball out of the park. And the aforementioned home run, following his long rehabilitation .On June 29, he had been selected an All-Star as a starting center fielder, but for the first time, he didn't make the 25-player team due to the foot injury.[29] In 1964 Mantle hit .303 with 35 home runs and 111 RBIs, and played center field in the All-Star game. In the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 3 of the 1964 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, Mantle hit Barney Schultz's first pitch into the right field stands at Yankee Stadium, which won the game for the Yankees 2–1. The homer, his 16th World Series home run, broke the World Series record of 15 set by Babe Ruth. It also was perhaps his only “called shot”, as he told on deck hitter Elston Howard, "he might as well return to the dugout ...this game is over!" He hit two more homers in the series to set the existing World Series record of 18 home runs. The Cardinals ultimately won the World Series in 7 games.

Mantle finished in second place in MVP voting for 1964, as Baltimore Oriole Brooks Robinson won the award. In that season, he also hit another major “tape-measure home run”, a midsummer blast at Yankee Stadium traveling well past the 461-foot sign on the center field fence that landed in the left-center field bleachers. It was reported to have traveled 502 feet.

The Yankees and Mantle were slowed down by injuries during the 1965 season, and they finished in sixth place, 25 games behind the Minnesota Twins.[30] He hit .255 with 19 home runs and 46 RBI, in 361 plate appearances. Mantle was selected an AL All-Star again, as a reserve player, but did not make the 28-player squad for the second and last time due to an injury and was replaced by Tony Oliva. To inaugurate the Astrodome, the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium, the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees played an exhibition game on April 9, 1965. Mantle hit the park's first home run.[31] In 1966 his batting average increased to .288 with 23 home runs and 56 RBI, in 333 atbats, owing greatly to a very strong June–July, when he returned to his 1964 form (until sidelined by another injury). After the 1966 season, he was moved to first base with Joe Pepitone taking over his place in the outfield. On May 14, 1967, Mantle became the sixth member of the 500 home run club.[32]

Mantle hit .237 with 18 home runs and 54 RBI during his final season in 1968.[33] He was selected an AL All-Star and pinch hit at the All-Star Game on July 11. Mantle was selected an All-Star every season during his eighteen-year career except 1951 and 1966, and did not play in the 1952, 1963, and 1965 seasons.[23][34]

Mantle announced his retirement the at age of 37 on March 1, 1969. He gave a "farewell" speech on "Mickey Mantle Day", June 8, 1969, in Yankee Stadium. Mantle's wife, mother, and mother-in-law were in attendance and received recognition at the ceremony held in honor of him.[35] When he retired, Mantle was third on the all-time home run list with 536,[33] and he was the Yankees all-time leader in games played with 2,401, which was broken by Derek Jeter on August 29, 2011.[36]

Mantle hit some of the longest home runs in Major League history. On September 10, 1960, he hit a ball left-handed that cleared the right-field roof at Tiger Stadium in Detroit and, based on where it was found, was estimated years later by historian Mark Gallagher to have traveled 643 feet (196 m). Another Mantle homer, hit right-handed off Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 1953, was measured by Yankees traveling secretary Red Patterson (hence the term "tape-measure home run") to have traveled 565 feet (172 m). Deducting for bounces,[5] there is no doubt that both landed well over 500 feet (152 m) from home plate. Mantle two times hit balls off the third-deck facade at Yankee Stadium, nearly becoming the only player to hit a fair ball out of the stadium during a game. On May 22, 1963, against Kansas City's Bill Fischer, Mantle hit a ball that fellow players and fans claimed was still rising when it hit the 110-foot (34 m) high facade, then caromed back onto the playing field. It was later estimated by some that the ball could have traveled 504 feet (154 m)[37] had it not been blocked by the ornate and distinctive facade. On August 12, 1964, he hit one whose distance was undoubted: a center field drive that cleared the 22-foot (6.7 m) batter's eye screen, some 75' beyond the 461-foot (141 m) marker at the Stadium. The Daily News reported it as a 502-foot homer.

Although he was a feared power hitter from either side of the plate and hit more home runs batting left-handed than right, Mantle considered himself a better right-handed hitter.[38] In roughly 25% of his total at-bats he hit .330 right-handed to .281 left.[39] His 372 to 164 home run disparity was due to Mantle having batted left-handed much more often, as the large majority of pitchers are right-handed. In spite of short foul pole dimension of 296 feet (90 m) to left and 301 feet (92 m) to right in original Yankee Stadium, Mantle gained no advantage there as his stroke both left and right-handed drove balls there to power alleys of 344' to 407' and 402' to 457' feet (139 m) from the plate. Overall, he hit slightly more home runs away (270) than home (266).[40]

Surprisingly, Mantle was also one of the best bunters for base hits of all time. He is in 10th place in number of bases-empty bunt singles for his career, with 80 in only 148 at-bats.[41] There are no other power hitters in the top ten.

Mantle's career was plagued with injuries. Beginning in high school, he suffered both acute and chronic injuries to bones and cartilage in his legs. Applying thick wraps to both of his knees became a pre-game ritual, and by the end of his career simply swinging a bat caused him to fall to one knee in pain. Baseball scholars often ponder "what if" had he not been injured, and had been able to lead a healthy career.[42][43]

As a 19-year-old rookie playing right field in his first World Series, Mantle tore the cartilage in his right knee on a fly ball hit by Willie Mays. Joe DiMaggio, in the last year of his career, was playing center field. Mays' fly was hit to shallow center, and as Mantle came over to back up DiMaggio, Mantle's spikes caught a drainage cover in the outfield grass. His knee twisted awkwardly and he instantly fell. Witnesses say it looked "like he had been shot." He was carried off the field on a stretcher and watched the rest of the World Series on TV from a hospital bed.[43] Dr. Stephen Haas, medical director for the National Football League Players Association, has speculated that Mantle may have torn his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during the incident and played the rest of his career without having it properly treated since ACLs could not be repaired with the surgical techniques available in that era.[44] Still, Mantle was known as the "fastest man to first base" and won the American League triple crown in 1956. In 1949 he received a draft-examine notice and was about to be drafted by the US Army but failed the physical exam and was rejected as unqualified and was given a 4-F deferment for any military service.[21][22]

During the 1957 World Series, Milwaukee Braves second baseman Red Schoendienst fell on Mantle's left shoulder in a collision at second base.[45] Over the next decade, Mantle experienced increasing difficulty hitting from his left side.