Mantle served as a part-time color commentator on NBC's baseball coverage in 1969, teaming up with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek to call some Game of the Week telecasts as well as that year's All-Star Game. "[20] 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.[10]. Dollar Menu. 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). He was of at least partial English ancestry; his great-grandfather, George Mantle, left Brierley Hill, in England’s Black Country, in 1848. [30] In 1964 Mantle hit .303 with 35 home runs and 111 RBIs, and played center field in the All-Star game. "I'm not gonna be cheated", he would say. He was 63. [6] He hit 536 MLB career home runs, batted .300 or more ten times, and is the career leader (tied with Jim Thome) in walk-off home runs, with 13—twelve in the regular season, one in the postseason. Mantle reached base more times than he made outs (319 to 312), one of two seasons in which he achieved the feat. He was also voted American League MVP that year, and again in 1957 and 1962. [31] He hit .255 with 19 home runs and 46 RBI, in 361 plate appearances. 0 0. [44] 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. Maris, a blunt upper-Midwesterner, never did the same; as a result, he wore the "surly" jacket for his duration with the Yankees. In later life, Mickey Mantle expressed great relief that his father had not known Cochrane's real first name, as he would have hated to be named Gordon. Also helping Mantle to make the decision to go to the Betty Ford Clinic was sportscaster Pat Summerall, who had played for the New York Giants football team while they played at Yankee Stadium, by then a recovering alcoholic and a member of the same Dallas-area country club as Mantle. The following year, Mantle moved to center field. Baseball scholars often ponder "what if" had he not been injured, and had been able to lead a healthy career. [59][60] In July, he had recovered enough to deliver a press conference at Baylor, and noted that many fans had looked to him as a role model. For the second year in a row, he narrowly missed winning his third MVP award, finishing four points behind repeat winner, Roger Maris. [21], The osteomyelitic condition of Mantle's left leg had exempted him from being drafted for military service since he was 18 in 1949,[22][23] 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. The massive resupply effort, carried out in weather so bad that some pilots referred to it as ...read more, The German engineer Felix Wankel, inventor of a rotary engine that will be used in race cars, is born on August 13, 1902, in Lahr, Germany. He occasionally attended the local Methodist church, and sometimes ate Sunday dinner with members of the congregation. Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed The Commerce Comet and The Mick,[1] was an American professional baseball player. His old Yankee teammates reunited at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas for the funeral. Unfortunately, he died of cancer at the age of 63 in 1995. Mantle had his breakout season in 1956 after showing progressive improvement each of his first five years. "[18], After a brief slump, Mantle was sent down to the Yankees' top farm team, the Kansas City Blues. During the game, Mantle hit three home runs. Music! When he arrived, he started packing his son's clothes and, according to Mantle's memory, said "I thought I raised a man. Mickey Jr. later died of liver cancer on December 20, 2000, at age 47. During the movie, Mickey Mantle is seen in the Yankees dugout with Roger Maris and Yogi Berra, sitting next to Day and Grant as Day shouts her dissatisfaction with the umpire, Art Passarella. His father died of Hodgkin's disease at age 40 in 1952, and his grandfather also died young of the same disease. Mantle was born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, on October 20, 1931. 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. He was … It’s a song so closely associated with the King of Rock and Roll, in fact, that many may mistakenly assume that it was a Presley original. He won the MVP Award three times, came in second three times, and came within nine votes of winning five times. MLB held two All-Star Games from 1959 through 1962. Mantle’s penchant for drink led to debilitating alcoholism as he grew older, and he died of liver cancer on August 13, 1995, at age 63. Later in Mantle finished with 54 home runs while leading the American league in runs scored and walks. October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995. He checked into the Betty Ford Clinic on January 7, 1994, after being told by a doctor that his liver was so badly damaged from almost 40 years of drinking that it "looked like a doorstop." Mantle returned to the hospital shortly thereafter where it was found that his cancer had spread throughout his body. Mantle's parents drove him at midnight to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, where he was treated at the children's hospital with the newly available penicillin, which reduced the infection and saved his leg from amputation. Years of alcohol abuse finally caught up to the Mick. The … [10] As a teenager, Mantle rooted for the St. Louis Cardinals. Favorite Answer. ", Major League Baseball batters who have won the, Major leagues, New York Yankees (1951–1968), Song and film appearances, depictions, and references. His jersey and No. Mantle was not entirely discreet about them, and when he went to his retirement ceremony in 1969, he brought his mistress along with his wife. Mickey Mantle was born on October 20, 1931, in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, the son of Lovell (née Richardson) Mantle (1904–1995) and Elven Charles “Mutt” Mantle. Micky Mantle died August 13 1995. [88], In 2017, Bleachers' album Gone Now included the song "Dream of Mickey Mantle". After years of brilliance, Mantle’s career began to decline by 1967, and he was forced to move to first base. [63], Mantle died on August 13, 1995, at Baylor University Medical Center with his wife at his side, five months after his mother had died at age 91. [71] When Yankee Stadium was reopened in 1976 following its renovation, the plaques and monuments were moved to a newly created Monument Park behind the left-center field fence,[71] which has since been replaced by a new Monument Park at the current Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009. The problem worsened after his father’s demise in 1952, as he was extremely attached to his father. (Another story says, he was badly injured playing touch football , at home , in the late summer of that year). [citation needed], "He's the greatest prospect I've seen in my time, and I go back quite a ways. [7] He was an All-Star for 16 seasons, playing in 16 of the 20 All-Star Games that were played during his career. [10], Mantle was assigned to the Yankees' Class-D Independence Yankees of the Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League,[15] where he played shortstop. Mantle would return to the ballpark on various special occasions and “Old Timers” games in the 1970s and 1980s. A school in Manhattan was renamed for Mantle on June 4, 2002. ]photodanny turner[see caption above. During the 1957 World Series, Milwaukee Braves second baseman Red Schoendienst fell on Mantle's left shoulder in a collision at second base. [75] Topps un-retired the #7 in 2006 to use exclusively for cards of Mantle in the current year's design. During the final years of his life, Mantle purchased a condominium on Lake Oconee near Greensboro, Georgia, near Greer Johnson's home, and frequently stayed there for months at a time. He also had an excellent .984 fielding percentage when playing center field. [citation needed], Mantle appeared in the 1958 film Damn Yankees as himself in an uncredited role. Madden, Bill. "I'm not gonna be cheated", he would say. Eventually, the two sides reached a settlement, ensuring the sale of some of Mickey Mantle's belongings for approximately $500,000. In 2019, the #7 card was issued to Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres. The Daily News reported it as a 502-foot homer. [58] He said that he was telling the same old stories, and realizing how many of them involved himself and others being drunk, including at least one drunk-driving accident, he decided they were not funny any more. (2012). Mantle's original plaque, along with DiMaggio's, are now on display at the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, with the DiMaggio plaque still hung higher than Mantle's. Oklahoma Heritage Society: Oklahoma Hall of Fame. In 2006, Mantle was featured on a United States postage stamp,[78] one of a series of four including fellow baseball legends Mel Ott, Roy Campanella, and Hank Greenberg. He was of at least partial English ancestry; his great-grandfather, George Mantle, left Brierley Hill, in England's Black Country, in 1848. Most of you know that Mickey Mantle died in August from deadly cancer that spread throughout his body. [10] During a slump, Mantle called his father to tell him he wanted to quit baseball. Mantle's monument now stands at the current Monument Park. 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. I told him Mickey Mantle was a better Centerfielder He was quite dis-Mayed. [citation needed] He outlived all the men in his family by several years. Mantle had natural speed and athleticism and gained strength working summers with his father in Oklahoma’s lead mines. He returned to the center field position on September 2. [a] He was an American League (AL) Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times and a Gold Glove winner once. Mantle returned the next season, but by then his blazing speed had begun to deteriorate, and he ran the bases with a limp for the rest of his career. The town respected Mantle's privacy, refusing either to talk about him to outsiders or to direct fans to his home. 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. Mantle had high hopes that 1953 would be a breakout year but his momentum was stopped by an injury. Mantle's off-field behavior is the subject of the book The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood, written in 2010 by sports journalist Jane Leavy. On January 16, 1961, Mantle became the highest-paid player in baseball by signing a $75,000 (equivalent to $640,000 in 2019) contract. G.O. "I was devastated, and that's when I started drinking," he said. [68], On Mickey Mantle Day at Yankee Stadium, June 8, 1969, Mantle's Number 7 was retired and he was a given a bronze plaque to be hung on the center field wall near the monuments to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Miller Huggins. Mantle had another "off year", Mickey Mantle knew 2 things. [86], The 2001 film 61*, directed by Yankee fan Billy Crystal, chronicled Mantle and Roger Maris chasing Babe Ruth's 1927 single season home run record in 1961.