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MANTLE BIOGRAPHY Mickey Charles Mantle was born on October 20, 1931 in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, but moved to Commerce just a few short years later. Named after Hall of Fame catcher Gordon "Mickey" Cochrane, Mickey was the oldest son of Elvin "Mutt" and Lovell Mantle. Mickey has three brothers: twins Ray & Roy and Butch, and a sister, Barbara. Mickey's father Mutt, a lead miner, was a big baseball fan and played semi-pro baseball himself. He passed his love of the game on to Mickey at an early age.As soon as Mickey was old enough to swing a bat and throw a ball, Mickey's father Mutt and grandfather Charlie pitched to him everyday after school in front of a leaning tin barn by their house at 319 S. Quincy in Commerce, OK. (This is where Mickey lived until he was 14. The home and barn are going through a complete restoration to honor Mickey and the Mantle family.) Mutt, a righty, and Charlie, a lefty, taught Mickey to switch-hit by alternating pitching to him so that Mickey could learn to hit from both sides of the plate. The tin barn acted as a backstop. Mickey also developed tremendous strength working at the lead mines during the summers. One job in particular, that of "screen ape," was responsible for Mickey's incredibly strong wrists, shoulders, arms and forearms. A "screen ape" smashed large rocks into small stones with a sledgehammer. There were two "screen apes," one of whom smashed rocks until he couldn't hold the hammer any longer, and then rested while the other took his turn. The strength Mickey developed from this work and other farm chores later helped him to hit some of the longest home runs in the history of the game.By the time he reached high school Mickey's ability was well beyond that of his contemporaries. He was a gifted athlete, playing not only baseball but also football and basketball. It was during practice for a high school football game that tragedy befell Mickey. He was accidentally kicked on the left shin, and the wound developed into the bone disease osteomyelitis. It became so serious doctors wanted to amputate Mickey's leg. Mickey's mother wouldn't hear of it, and Mutt drove Mickey 175 miles to the Crippled Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City. There Mickey was treated with a new wonder drug, receiving doses every three hours around the clock. Miraculously he responded, and Mickey's leg was saved. The drug: penicillin. Unfortunately, the injury was just the first among many that were to hinder Mickey for the rest of his life. However, this bout with osteomyelitis rendered Mickey unfit for military service for life, another issue that arose later in life.Once he'd recovered from his injury he quickly advanced past other players his age, and at sixteen played with a local semi-pro team, the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids. Although players usually were considered for the Whiz Kids only after turning age 18, Mickey easily fit in with the older players, becoming one of the best players in the area. Word of Mickey's ability, however, hadn't spread beyond northeastern Oklahoma. That was about to change... In 1948 Yankees' scout Tom Greenwade came to Baxter Springs to watch Mickey's teammate, third baseman Billy Johnson, in a Whiz Kids game. During the game Mickey hit two homers, one righty and one lefty, into a river well past the ballpark's fences. Greenwade wanted to sign Mickey on the spot but, upon finding out that he was only sixteen and still in high school, told him he would come back to sign him with the Yankees on his graduation day in 1949. Good to his word, Greenwade was there right on schedule, signing Mickey to a minor league contract with the Yankees Class D team in Independence, Kansas. Mickey signed for $400 to play the remainder of the season with an $1,100 signing bonus. It was one of the great steals in baseball history. Tom Greenwade was quoted in the press release announcing Mickey's signing as saying that Mickey was the best prospect he'd ever seen.After finishing the summer at Independence, where his team won the K-O-M (Kansas-Oklahoma-Missouri) Championship (the beginning of Mickey's incredible string of playing for championship teams), Mickey went on to play at the Yankees' Class C team in Joplin, Missouri. The following year, 1951, Mickey was invited to spring training with the Yankees in Arizona. Mickey had one of the great rookie springs in history. His speed was unbelievable to Yankees' manager Casey Stengel. He was clocked at an incredible 2.9 seconds from home to first on a left-handed drag bunt (after his 1951 World Series injury he slowed to a still blazing 3.1 seconds), and could round the bases in and amazing 13 seconds! He pounded homers to places where a ball had rarely been seen hit before and, by the time the Yankees reached New York for their exhibition series with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Casey talked Yankees' owners Del Webb and Dan Topping, and General Manager George Weiss into bringing Mickey up to the Yankees for the season. It was the first time any player jumped from Class C directly to the Yankees.Except for a brief visit to the minor league team in Kansas City later that summer, Mickey never looked back. That fall the Yankees played the New York Giants in Mickey's first World Series. Yankees' center fielder Joe DiMaggio, in the last season of his career, was slowed by a nagging heel injury. Casey Stengel asked Mickey to help DiMaggio in center (Mickey was playing right-field) and on a pop fly by Willie Mays Mickey's spikes caught in a drain cover when he stopped suddenly to avoid a collision with Joe. Mickey went down as if he'd been shot, and was carried from the field on a stretcher. It was the first of what turned out to be many injuries he suffered throughout his playing career.One of the questions baseball scholars ponder is the great "What if?" What would Mickey have accomplished if he had been healthy during his career? A question that will never be answered, but the answer certainly would make a staggering difference in Mickey's lifetime stats. What if...? Even with his history of injuries, which was to haunt him throughout his career, few players have ever accomplished what Mickey accomplished. During his career with the Yankees Mickey played more games as a Yankee than any other player (2,401), won three Most Valuable Player awards ('56, '57 and '62), won baseball's Triple Crown in 1956 with a .353 batting average, 52 homers and 130 rbi (leading the major leagues in all three categories), and hit 536 career home runs, third highest when he retired and the most ever by a switch-hitter. Mickey appeared in 12 World Series during his first 14 years with the Yankees, winning seven World Championships. His 18 home runs, 42 runs, 40 rbi and 43 bases on balls are still World Series records.No one in the history of the game has hit the ball farther than Mickey Mantle. His 565-foot home run hit at Griffith Stadium in Washington on April 17, 1953 is the home run that coined the term "tape measure home run." It's listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest home run ever measured. Guinness also notes that Mickey's 643-foot homer hit at Detroit's Tiger Stadium on September 10, 1960 is the longest home run measured "mathematically after the fact." But neither of those home runs is Mickey's longest.In an exhibition game at the University of Southern California during his rookie spring training in 1951 Mickey walloped a 656-foot shot left-handed that left Bovard Field and crossed an adjacent football field. It may be the longest home run in history. It was also his second monster homer of the game. He also hit a ball right-handed that cleared the left-field wall and landed on top of a three-story house well over 500 feet away. As Mickey's teammate and close friend Billy Martin put it, "No man in the history of baseball had as much power as Mickey Mantle. No man. When you're talking about Mickey Mantle - it's an altogether different level. Separates the men from the boys."Mickey is one of the most popular players to ever play the game. After he retired from baseball on March 1, 1969 he may have become even more popular with fans. Everywhere he went his presence generated tremendous excitement, to the point that he rarely had any time to himself. He worked as a broadcaster for Sports Channel in New York for a number of years. His restaurant at 42 Central Park South, Mickey Mantle's, is one of the most popular eateries in New York. His baseball cards have become astonishingly valuable. Recently his rookie card sold in excess of $50,000. His autograph is one of the best known and most sought after in sports. He wrote several books about his life and experiences as a ballplayer, including his 1985 best-seller, The Mick. His autobiographical documentary film, Mickey Mantle: The American Dream Comes To Life®, was a BILLBOARD Magazine national best-seller two years in a row: #3 in 1989 and #1 in 1990. It has won numerous awards and is widely considered the best sports portrayal ever made. Numerous publications called it, "The best baseball video ever made," including The NY Daily News, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Today Show, Larry King Live, The Roy Firestone Show, and many others. It is broadcast periodically on Public Television, generating high ratings, and has become a fan favorite across the country. There is an expanded edition of the program, called, The Lost Stories Special Edition, that includes a bonus hour of never-before-released Mickey stories that complement and complete the original program. The Official Licensed Mickey Mantle Catalog offers a variety of Mickey Mantle merchandise for fans and maintains the Official Licensed Mickey Mantle Website, which has thousands of visitors every month. Simply put, Mickey is one of the most beloved figures in history.In 1993 Mickey was admitted to the Betty Ford Center for alcohol rehabilitation. During his stay Mickey received more mail than anyone in the history of the center. Afterward he spread the message of the ills of drug and alcohol abuse to kids, appearing on a number of television programs to speak about his experiences.On June 8, 1995 Mickey received a liver transplant at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas. Sadly, during the transplant surgery it was discovered that Mickey had contracted inoperable cancer. Before he died he formed the Mickey Mantle Foundation to raise awareness of the importance of becoming an organ donor. It became the cause closest to his heart. Mickey died at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas on August 13, 1995. He was 63 years old.Mickey was survived by his wife Merlyn and three of his four sons: Mickey Jr., David and Danny. On March 12, 1994, the year before Mickey died, his third son, Billy, died of complications resulting from Hodgkin's Disease. Five years after his father's death, on Dec. 20, 2000, Mickey Jr. died of cancer. Mickey's other immediate family, his wife Merlyn and sons David and Danny, are all active in the Mickey Mantle Foundation promoting the importance of organ donations.The Mickey Mantle legend lives on through his foundation, his film, the memories he left, and in the hearts of his fans everywhere. I am proud to say he was my friend.Lewis Early
MICKEY MANTLES HALL OF FAME INDUCTION SPEECH............... "Thank you very much, Commissioner. I would really like to thank you for leaving out those strikeouts. He gave all those records, but he didn't say anything about all those strikeouts. I was the world champion in striking out and everything, I'm sure. I don't know for sure, but I'm almost positive I must have had that record in the World Series, too. I broke Babe Ruth's record for all-time strikeouts. He only had, like, 1,500 I think. I ended up with 1,710. So that's one that no one will ever break probably, because, if you strike out that much, you don't get to play very long. I just lucked out. "One of the reasons I'm in the Hall of Fame right now is not because of my speaking, so everybody be patient here. I know it's hot and I'll try to get through with what I gotta say real fast here. I was named after a Hall of Famer. I think this is the first time it's ever happened that a guy's ever come into the Hall of Fame that was named after one. Before I was born, my father lived and died for baseball and he named me after a Hall of Famer: Mickey Cochrane. I'm not sure if my dad knew it or not, but his real name was Gordon. I hope there's no Gordons here today, but I'm glad that he didn't name me Gordon."He had the foresight to realize that someday in baseball that left-handed hitters were going to hit against right-handed pitchers and right-handed hitters were going to hit against left-handed pitchers; and he taught me, he and his father, to switch-hit at a real young age, when I first started to learn how to play ball. And my dad always told me if I could hit both ways when I got ready to go to the major leagues, that I would have a better chance of playing. And believe it or not, the year that I came to the Yankees is when Casey started platooning everybody. So he did realize that that was going to happen someday, and it did. So I was lucky that they taught me how to switch-hit when I was young. "We lived in a little town called Commerce, Oklahoma, and my mother, who is here today – I'd like to introduce her right now... Mom. We didn't have a lot of money or anything. She used to make my uniforms and we would buy the cleats or get 'em off of somebody else's shoes or somethin' and then we would take 'em and have 'em put onto a pair of my street shoes that were getting old. So that's how we started out. We lived in Commerce till I can remember I was about in high school, then we moved out to a farm. We had 160-acre farm out in White Bird, Oklahoma, I remember. I had three brothers, but one of them was too little. My mom used to have to make the twins come out and play ball with me. We dozed a little ballpark out in the pasture and I think that I probably burnt my twins out on baseball. I think by the time the twins got old enough to play ball they were tired of it, because I used to make 'em shag flies for me and play all day, which I'm sorry of because they could have been great ballplayers."My dad really is probably the most influential thing that ever happened to me in my life. He loved baseball, I loved it and, like I say, he named me after a baseball player. He worked in the mines, and when he came home at night, why, he would come out and, after we milked the cows, we would go ahead and play ball till dark. I don't know how he kept doing it."I think the first real baseball uniform – and I'm sure it is – the most proud I ever was was when I went to Baxter Springs in Kansas and I played on the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids. We had – that was the first time – I'll never forget the guy, his name was Barney Burnett, gave me a uniform and it had a BW on the cap there and it said Whiz Kids on the back. I really thought I was somethin' when I got that uniform. It was the first one my mom hadn't made for me. It was really somethin'."There is a man and a woman here that were really nice to me all through the years, Mr. and Mrs. Harold Youngman. I don't know if all of you have ever heard about any of my business endeavors or not, but some of 'em weren't too good. Probably the worst thing I ever did was movin' away from Mr. Youngman. We went and moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1957, but Mr. Youngman built a Holiday Inn in Joplin, Missouri, and called it Mickey Mantle's Holiday Inn. And we were doin' pretty good there, and Mr. Youngman said, 'You know, you're half of this thing, so why don't you do something for it.' So we had real good chicken there and I made up a slogan. Merlyn doesn't want me to tell this, but I'm going to tell it anyway. I made up the slogan for our chicken and I said, 'To get a better piece of chicken, you'd have to be a rooster.' And I don't know if that's what closed up our Holiday Inn or not, but we didn't do too good after that. No, actually, it was really a good deal."Also, in Baxter Springs, the ballpark is right by the highway, and Tom Greenwade, the Yankee scout, was coming by there one day. He saw this ball game goin' on and I was playing in it and he stopped to watch the game. I'm making this kind of fast; it's gettin' a little hot. And I hit three home runs that day and Greenwade, the Yankee scout, stopped and talked to me. He was actually on his way to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, to sign another shortstop. I was playing shortstop at that time, and I hit three home runs that day. A couple of them went in the river – one right-handed and one left-handed – and he stopped and he said, 'You're not out of high school yet, so I really can't talk to you yet, but I'll be back when you get out of high school.'"In 1949, Tom Greenwade came back to Commerce the night that I was supposed to go to my commencement exercises. He asked the principal of the school if I could go play ball. The Whiz Kids had a game that night. He took me. I hit another home run or two that night, so he signed me and I went to Independence, Kansas, Class D League, and started playing for the Yankees. I was very fortunate to play for Harry Craft. He had a great ball club there. We have one man here in the audience today who I played with in the minors, Carl Lombardi. He was on those teams, so he knows we had two of the greatest teams in minor league baseball at that time, or any time probably, and I was very fortunate to have played with those two teams."I was lucky when I got out. I played at Joplin. The next year, I cam to the Yankees. And I was lucky to play with Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto – who came up with me – and I appreciate it. He's been a great friend all the way through for me. Lots of times I've teased Whitey about how I could have played five more years if it hadn't been for him, but, believe me, when Ralph Houk used to say that I was the leader of the Yankees, he was just kiddin' everybody. Our real leader was Whitey Ford all the time. I'm sure that everybody will tell you that."Casey Stengel's here in the Hall of Fame already and, outside of my dad, I would say that probably Casey is the man who is most responsible for me standing right here today. The first thing he did was to take me off of shortstop and get me out in the outfield where I wouldn't have to handle so many balls. "At this time I'd like to introduce my family. I introduced my mother. Merlyn, my wife, we've been married 22 years. That's a record where I come from. Mickey, my oldest boy, David, Billy and Danny. That's my family that I've been with for so long."I listened to Mr. Terry make a talk last night just for the Hall of Famers, and he said that he hoped we would come back, and I just hope that Whitey and I can live up to the expectation and what these here guys stand for. I'm sure we're going to try to. I just would – before I leave – would like to thank everybody for coming up here. It's been a great day for all of us and I appreciate it very much."Mickey Mantle, August 12, 1974
Mickey Manltes top 10 farthest homeruns hit.. 1. 734 ft. – 5/22/63, vs. Kansas City, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Bill Fischer2. 660 ft. – 3/26/51, vs. USC, at Bovard Field, USC, Pitcher: Unknown3. 650 ft. – 6/11/53, vs. Detroit, at Briggs Stadium, Pitcher: Art Houteman4. 643 ft. – 9/10/60, vs. Detroit, at Tiger Stadium, Pitcher: Paul Foytack5. 630 ft. – 9/13/53, vs. Detroit, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Billy Hoeft6. 620 ft. – 5/30/56, vs. Washington, at Yankee Stadium, Pitcher: Pedro Ramos7. 565 ft. – 4/17/53, vs. Washington, at Griffith Stadium, Pitcher: Chuck Stobbs8. 550 ft. – 6/05/55, vs. Chi. White Sox, at Comiskey Park, Pitcher: Billy Pierce9. 535 ft. – 7/06/53, vs. Philadelphia A's, at Connie Mack Stadium, Pitcher: Frank Fanovich10. 530 ft. – 4/24/53, vs. St. Louis Browns, at Busch Stadium, Pitcher: Bob Cain
20 Mickey Mantle Quotes.... 1. "I guess you could say I'm what this country is all about." Mickey Mantle2. "All I had was natural ability." Mickey Mantle3. "It was all I lived for, to play baseball." Mickey Mantle4, "The only thing I can do is play baseball. I have to play ball. It's the only thing I know." Mickey Mantle5. "I always loved the game, but when my legs weren't hurting it was a lot easier to love." Mickey Mantle6. "I'll play baseball for the Army or fight for it, whatever they want me to do." Mickey in 1951 during the controversy of whether he should be drafted by the Army7. "He's the best prospect I've ever seen." Branch Rickey on Mickey in 19518. "I never saw a player who had greater promise." Casey Stengel on Mickey9. "That boy Mantle is a good one." Ty Cobb10. "Mantle had more ability than any player I ever had on that club." Casey Stengel11. "You're going to be a great player, kid." Jackie Robinson to Mickey Mantle after the 1952 World Series12. "He can run, steal bases, throw, hit for average, and hit with power like I've never seen. Just don't put him at shortstop." Minor league manager Harry Craft on Mickey13. "His fielding leaves you wondering. Then he steps up to hit and all doubts start to fade." New York Post writer Arch Murray on Mickey in spring training 195114. "There isn't any more that I can teach him." Yankee great Tommy Henrich on Mickey in spring training in 195115. "That kid can hit balls over buildings." Casey Stengel on Mickey in 195116. "If that guy were healthy he'd hit 80 home runs." Carl Yastrzemski on Mickey Mantle17. "I'd give the Yankees a quarter of a million dollars for him, and bury him in thousand dollar bills as a signing bonus." White Sox G. M. Frank Lane on Mickey in 195118. "It's what you're worth." Yankees' G. M. George Weiss to Mickey after offering him a $17,000 pay cut for the 1958 season - Mickey batted 12 points higher than in 1956 but hadn't won the Batting Title or the Triple Crown like he did in 195619. "I'd say Mantle is the greatest player in either league." St. Louis Brown's Manager Marty Marion20. "Let's see - uh, yes. There's one thing he can't do very well. He can't throw left-handed. When he goes in for that we'll have the perfect ballplayer" St. Louis Brown's Manager Marty Marion when asked if Mickey had a weakness
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