Mickey Mantle was an amazing slugger during his era.  Today,  the great image of Mickey Mantle continues.  He holds the all time home run record of switch hitters.  Let’s talk about his legacy.  Because of his accomplishments,  he is my favorite baseball player of all time.

A childhood in Oklahoma

Mickey Mantle was born and raised in Oklahoma.  His dad, Mutt, named him after the Philadelphia Athletics catcher Gordon ”Mickey” Cochrane.  Mutt Mantle liked him.  The second Mickey Mantle was born, Mutt wanted him to play ball.  Later in his childhood,  Mickey would love the St. Louis Cardinals.  That’s right,  the Cardinals.  It was not until his baseball career that Mickey would like the Yankees.  He took baseball practice after school with his dad Mutt and his grandpa Charlie. They taught him how to be a switch hitter.  Charlie Mantle would soon get very sick and die of Hodgkin’s disease.  Although the disease didn’t take Mickey’s life, as it did for most of the men in the Mantle family,  it did take the life of Mutt Mantle and Mickey’s son,  Billy later on.  Hodgkin’s disease is very deadly.  Although he learned how to switch hit in his early years,  he would be scarred from the devastating loss of his grandfather.   Later in his playing childhood career,  a tragedy would strike him.  Baseball wasn’t the only sport he played.  He also played football and basketball.  One day while playing football,  he hurt his leg.  He decided to take it like a man and played through it.  What a young Mickey didn’t know was how serious this was.  When he woke up in the morning,  he found an unpleasant  surprise.  He had a huge, blue right knee!  His dad,  Mutt, took him to the hospital right away.  But they couldn’t do anything.  Then they went to another hospital.  They diagnosed him with osteomyelitis.  They tried adding some shots,  but that didn’t work.  So they went to another hospital.  They said there that they might have to cut off his leg so the disease wouldn’t spread.  But his mom, Lovell, defended her son and said no.  Later that night, the shots began to kick in.  A couple days later,  the Mantle family was up and going home.  That’s right.  His leg got better!  If he didn’t take those shots,  there might have been one less person in the Hall of Fame,  and today somebody wearing number seven on the Yankees.  Mickey Mantle’s childhood came with good things such as learning how to switch hit and play baseball, and bad things such as the devastating loss of his grandfather Charlie Mantle and the osteomyelitis infection.  But Mickey pulled through it and used them as examples to push harder in the future.

Minor leagues and Rookie  years.

Mickey Mantle made the team after attending the Yankees spring training camp.  He was so good as a minor leaguer that they decided to bring him up to the big leagues.  Mickey Mantle arrived at the Yankees locker room wearing the number 6. After a while,  Mickey Mantle was demoted ( sent back down to the minors)  because he was in a slump.  He would come back up shortly.  This time wearing his historic number 7.

      Battle of the Rookies

Mickey Mantle faced two challenges during his rookie season:  Willie Mays and injuries.  Later in his rookie season,  Mantle would go to his first World Series.  He would encounter another rookie that was on fire during the season, Willie Mays.  It was the battle of the rookies.  Two future Hall of Famers coming face to face in the world series.  He would try to make a play.  But all of a sudden,  the Yankee great Joe DiMaggio called him off.

When a Hall of Famer calls you off,  you  better stop.  Without thinking,  Mantle attempted to stop in his own speedy tracks.  In the process,  one of Mantle’s cleat spikes got caught in a drainage pipe used to get water off the field.  Within a second,  Mantle was there on the ground with an injured knee.  That would be a sad and disappointing end to Mickey’s rookie season.

Big League Pro

Once Mickey hit the big leagues,  it was the year of the switch hitter.  Although he was probably the worst injury prone in baseball history, meaning that he was injured all the time,  he still put up unbelievable numbers. ( He was injured every single season in fact!)  He led the American league in home runs four times.  He led the league in RBI  (Runs batted in) one time.  That one time was when Mickey Mantle got a triple crown.  That means he led the league in home runs, RBIs, and batting average in the same season.  One bad thing about Mantle was that he had an all or nothing swing.  That means his swing was so big that he either hit a homer or struck out.  The swing got him 536 home runs and 1,710 strikeouts.

The swing also got him the Washington Wallop.  It was a huge home run.  It traveled 565 feet! That home run started the tape measure home runs. But he doesn’t have to worry about the strikeout problem.  Future Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson broke the record Mantle set of K’s that no hitter looks forward to having.  Mickey Mantle’s great playing career earned him a place in both Monument Park at Yankee Stadium and the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

     A Life After Baseball

After a great career in baseball,  Mickey Mantle decided to retire from baseball in the 1968 season.  He would be missed by baseball fans everywhere, including today.  After he retired,  the Yankees held a Mickey Mantle Day at Yankee Stadium.  That day,  the Yankees retired his number and gave him a plaque in Monument Park.  Even though they switched stadiums, they still kept the plaque.  So now if you go to Yankee Stadium,  you can still see the plaque today.  He also received a plaque in Cooperstown after he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Mickey Mantle also attended the Yankees Old Timers’ Day.  That’s when all of the old greats come and play five innings of non-competitive baseball.

A Devastating Loss in America

In August of 1995,  all the Yankee fans had something to frown about.  Switch hitting slugger,  Mickey Mantle,  died due to liver disease.  After he retired,  he developed a very bad habit.  He had a drinking problem.

His family helped him admit it.  He killed his original liver at first.  A nice organ donation gave him another liver.  You can guess what happened to that one.  Yep.  He killed that one , too. He made a famous speech to America.  After the speech,  the number of liver donations went up quickly.  Mickey Mantle encouraged people to donate organs!  After the speech,  he said something to the kids that were there and the kids that were watching the television.

”Kids. If you want a role model,  here’s a role model.”  He said pointing towards himself. ”Kids, don’t be like me.”  That was one of Mantle’s last wise quotes before he died.

Epilogue

Before Mantle died,  he wanted Americans to know one thing. ”Don’t drink too much or you will end up like me.” Mickey Mantle has had a huge impact of Americans of all kinds, but mostly on baseball fans,  kids, and heavy drinkers.  Today,  people keep the memory of Mickey Mantle alive.  If you go to a Yankee game,  there’s about 25 people you see wearing something of Mickey Mantle.  But there is probably still at least 50 fans that you don’t see, but are still wearing Mantle stuff.

Mickey Mantle will be remembered as a baseball player,  a role model,  and most importantly, a hero.

Bibliography

Try the Sports Heroes and Legends series!  It is an action packed biography series with chapters.  In the middle,  there are rare and unique photos.  I used the series to help me complete two research reports.  You should start reading them today!  Available in libraries and wherever books are sold.

Marlin, John. Mickey Mantle. New York:

Barnes and Noble Publishing Company, 2004. Print.