No showboating from the Mick was one of his best attributes. Many players, from this era, should watch how this great ballplayer conducted himself on the field.
more like limped around the bases, especially in 64. He was never the same after blowing out his knee in 51 and they did not have the ability to repair an ACL back then
Mantle was far from pure class. He even said himself that people should try not to be like him. I say this as somebody whose favorite player of all time is Mantle. He was our imperfect king
I was born and raised in the Bronx. Naturally I'm a huge Yankee and Mickey Mantle fan. Played a lot of ball growing up and Mickey was my baseball idol. I was fortunate enough to be at the stadium when the Yankees retired his number in June of 1969. I also met him in May of 1987 in Walden NY at a card show. I almost had the opportunity of bringing him to the card show but I missed the chance. I still was able to get him to autograph a baseball, a painting of The Mick by Robert Steven Simon and I took a polaroid photo of him as he signed my items. I was eight years old when I came home from school and watched him hit WS homerun #16. I fell in love with the Mick at that moment. And just think about this. He was a well known alcoholic who and I quote "What most people don't understand about the Mick is that he played his entire career on one leg". The quote was made by Hank Aaron when he was asked about Mickey when he died and what he thought of his career. The Mick tore his ACL in the 1951 WS. Just imagine what he might have done sober and without a torn ACL. As far as I'm concerned most of the players today like 99.9% of them could not carry The Micks jock!!!!!
An era of baseball that I sorely miss. Mantle, Mays, Aaron, Kaline, Killebrew, Robinson. They hit home runs, circled the bases with class, never disrespecting their opponents. Same goes for the NFL!!! Too many Divas, lacking sportsmanship and professionalism.
Here I am at the age of 76 and I am sending this video to my granddaughter so she can show my great-grandson who and what my baseball ⚾️ hero was all about. Never forgot his incredible power as a right-handed batter. Always a fan even as a boy from PA where most people just hated the Yankees. Those 60's teams were fantastic and Mickey was Marvel Comics superhero.
Let's not forget the number of World Series home runs Mickey hit (18). He performed on the big stage. That's **World Series** home runs, not the newer "Post Season" HR stat. The Mick was the best!
My dad took me to Yankee Stadium in the mid to late 50s to see the Mick. Batting righty, he lined a grand slam home run down the right field line. Needless to say, but what a thrill for a kid born in 1950. Mickey will always be my hero!
Truth be known, I was born in Chicago but grew up a Yankee fan because my mother and father were fans. I discovered that a lot of Americans became Yankee fans because of Mickey. He was the All-American hero to many people back then. I stopped following baseball around 2016 because I got sick and tired of the steroid controversy. The game will never be the same, but boy was it fun back then. Had a blast and happy to have met the many players back then in the 70's and 80's.
On the other hand, right field, at least in the Babes' day, was rather short, and lefties could pull a strong fly ball, just over the fence, at 300 feet.
WE'RE ON THE SAME PAGE, I'M 79 FROM JERSEY 10 MILES FROM NEW YOUR,,,,,,,,,HE WAS MY FAVORITE TOO......HE'S MY SECURITY QUESTION FOR MY BANK ACCOUNT.....WHO'S YOUR FAVIRITE BASEBALL PLAYER...........GUESS........
I read more detail about Micky. Amazing story . What injuries he had. ACL his whole career and played with that .His power was unbelievable. Helping the Yankees win 7 World Series . What a player he was. It’s a shame he played in so my pain. Maybe that contributed to his alcoholism
My father worked on the grounds crew at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City from 1960-63 and said "the Mick" was very easy going and always polite every time the Yankees came to town. Dad said he always had time to shoot the breeze with the guys and was never fat headed about anything.
im 76 now grew up watching mickey mantle and to this day nobody hit homeruns like mantle no one,,,and after all those years he still holds record for most homeruns hit in world series play.
You're absolutely right - Mickey Mantle home runs were distinctive - it was like you could almost feel the incredible power he hit with. Lots of great ballplayers, lots of great home run hitters, but nobody like the Mick. 😁
Thank you so much for putting this together! Growing up Mickey was my hero. I actually called his home run off of Barney Schultz in the '64 World Series. My mom looked at me and said, how did you know that he was going to hit a home run? My 13 year old answer to her was, he's Mickey Mantle.
Great video. Mickey was my boyhood idol too. Browing up in N. Jersey in the '50 and '60's, I saw Mantle, Mays and Snider. Three of the greatest centerfielders of all time. To me back then, baseball was life. We shared the same birthday, although Mick was a few years before me. I can remember when he struck out in the '60 series and crying like a baby! I recommend a great book he wrote call "All My Octobers". Details of his world series exploits. To this day, he had one of the best lines of all time. "If I knew I was going to live this long, I'dve taken better care of myself". To this day, I have pictures of Mick on the walls of a spare bedroom in my home!
@@donhuber9131 Yes, Mickey noticed that his knuckleball was coming in flat when Barney was warming up. Mickey told Elston Howard in the on deck circle to go sit down. Elston thought he had lost his mind. Mickey hit the first pitch into the right field upper deck. It sounded like a cannon shot. Barney Schultz never looked. He just walked toward the St. Louis Cardinals dugout.
Ol' Mick back in the 50's stepping up there with no gloves, or elbow guards or shin guards, with his felt cap belting them out of the park off the best pitchers of the day.
To put Mantle’s greatness in perspective, at the time he retired, he was third on the all time home run list behind Ruth and Mays (who was still active through 1973). Aaron passed Mantle the following season. But, Mick put up those numbers in only 18 injury filled years and still managed his 9th and last grand slam and a 5 for 5 game in his final year. For everyone else’s stats, there were home runs, but there was not the greatness and the memories of a “Mickey Mantle Home Run.” No one else had that until Aaron Judge. And I think Mantle would have liked him.
Mick put up great numbers in 18 injury filled years that involved hard partying and drinking.. Imagine how well those numbers would have blossomed had he not been a hard drinking partier. Probably would have had well over 700 homers. .. and Aaron likely would have had 800 homers had he not had so many sleepless nights with the KKK constantly threatening him... He and Jackie Robinson's numbers would have had greater numbers with a good sleep every night!!
Regarding Mantle's final homer off Gibson. The closing frames of the video show Gibby walking off as though Johnny Keane had sent him to the showers. Gibson actually pitched a complete 7th game victory, although in truth the Yankees knocked the exhausted Gibson around in the final innings. This was the first series that I followed as a kid. One of Mantle's homers was back to back with Maris, very scary! Enjoyed watching our brilliant young outfielders, Brock, Flood and Shannon watch the home runs sail over the wall. If it looks like Mantle's home run off of ace reliever Barney Schultz was "slow pitch", it was because Schultz was a knuckleball specialist. He was usually quite effective. Usually...
Mickey always said he did not want to show up the pitcher. He hit his HRs with class and acted like he had been there before and was just helping his teammates. A role model for a different generation. Too bad we somehow lost that. Thanks for creating this fantastic video of baseball history.
He was my hero growing up in Havana an also 81 years old,used to to have his rookie card,but god knows what I did with it,nobody like him RIP,my all time hero.
This is fantastic. Mickey Mantle was my 1st favorite Yankee hero. I became a Yankee fan in 1960 and cried the day that the Pirates beat the Yankees in the World Series. The next year I followed the Yankees on my transistor radio following the Home run race between Mantle and Maris. I wanted Mickey to win. He would have if he didn’t get hurt. GO YANKEES!!
Thank you for posting! Every time I see Mickey Mantle the kid comes out in me. It brings a smile and a tear to my face as the memories return. In his prime Mickey was the greatest ballplayer I ever saw. I'm not embarrassed to say I got goosebumps watching this.
Great video he was my Idol growing up can only imagine how good he could have been if no injuries & no demons, so impresed by how many opposite field home runs he hit & how far he hit them, his last one against Gibson in 64 was very impressive!
Me too. One day in 1968 I was working after school at a place with his name sake Mantel Brook Farms in DeSoto ,Texas just south of Dallas. One day the boss drives up they get out of the car, and guess who was with him. At 17 I got to shake his hand and talk with him for a little while. Never forget that day.
Easily the best switch hitter all time. As a youngster I was a member of the Washington Senators Knothole Club, which gave me the opportunity to see every American League team play at Old Griffith Stadium. I joined it not to see the Senators but to see the M&M boys when they came to town. Mickey was bigger than life to me.
Thank you for the video! Mickey was my first sports idol and I can remember as a 10 year old hiding a transistor radio under my pillow so I could listen to the Yankee games and hear each and every one of his at bats. My Dad let me borrow the family station wagon so I could go to Cooperstown and see him inducted into the Hall of Fame. This post brings back so many wonderful childhood memories and as I can see by the other comments, I am not alone!
In 1958, my Dad took me to my first NY Yankees game. He bought me a packet of 5x7 photos of all the players. The next morning, I taped them on my wall above my bed. They stayed there my entire childhood, AND all the players stayed on the team. I feel bad for sports loving children of today. Their favorite players leave all the time. As a sick child, Mickey Mantle's travails with injury were HUGELY inspiring and beneficial to my young ego, fraught with my own difficulties with health. Trading Mickey Mantle would have been devastating. He was my hero. His photo hangs on my office wall of inspiration.
Great clips. Some of Mickey's homers were massive clouts 😲 To perform as well as he did with the innumerable injuries that plagued him practically his entire career is a testament to his resilience and sheer willpower. RIP 🙏
Thanks for this. It was great. Born in 1954 the Mick was my idol. Remember the 3 homers he hit in 64 series especially the first pitch one off Barney Schultz
This is a record that is overlooked in "unbreakable records" conversations. No team dominates the baseball landscape the way the Yankees did for so long, and with the way the league has evolved, this record is likely permanent.
Great video. Well done and thanks for posting. The years of Mantle & Maris playing together bring back great memories from my childhood. Both retired after the 68 season. I find it interesting that there was a 3 year gap between home run number 14 and number 15 for Mantle. I was not aware that he did not have a home run in the 61 or 62 World Series. I know he was injured towards the end of the 61 season but I don’t recall what his status was for the 62 World Series.
Loved watching the videos it took me back to my Grandfather and Father watching baseball games together in mid 50s and 60s into the 70s lots of good memories. It was interesting to see the 50s videos every one dressed up to go to the game.
The Mick was my boyhood hero; he waved to me in Cleveland in 1963. I didn't realize until this video that his fifteenth to tie Babe Ruth's record was off Koufax, and his 18th and final World Series homer was off Gibson. In the first one, he ran the bases like he was legging out a triple. The guy was all class.
Amazing clips here. TY for posting these. I attended Mickey Mantle Day June 8, 1969. It was Father's Day. Doubleheader vs Chicago White Sox. Pepitone HR wins game 1 3-1. Yankees swept. MM ceremony between games. Ran on the field after the 2nd game. Doesn't get any better for a 12 YO.
Thanks for the work in putting that together. I was 2 months old when Mickey hit his 1st World Series homer. I turned 8 in the summer of 1960 and by then was a Yankee fan, just in time to Hear them lose to the Pirates in game 7. I had a very cool 3rd grade teacher who was a baseball fan and would allow the class to listen to the World Series games at low volume on the radio I only got to see him play once at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1965 where in a July double header, he belted one over the left field wall in the 2nd game. Downing had started that game, but got knocked out pretty early and Yanks lost. But I got to see my guy homer so not all was lost. Besides. Stottlemyre had shut Cleveland out the 1st game which made it a good day. Thanks again for the video.
Also my dad took me to Yankee Stadium as much as possible as a 9 year old boy. I remember the year 1961 when the MM Boys were chasing the Babe homerun record of 60 homeruns in a season. I witnessed in the stadium that day in a doubleheader the MM boys Mantle and Maris hitting home runs. It was a memory of a lifetime and a tribute to a great father too who took me ther.
Same here, from Waterbury Connecticut..watched the Yanks on WPIX channel 11 in New York..The M and M boys, 1961, I was 10..The 1960 World Series against Pittsburg still haunts me!!😅
18 HR in World Series. Amazing feat. He was before I was old enough. I was only 6 years old. I did not get into sports until 1969. Do not remember at least until 1969 Mantle was such power hitter. Hitting a HR dead center atEbbets field field . My goodness . 436 was dead center
Thanks for your time & effort in compiling this about Mantle. All his home runs were no doubters. No showboating around the bases, either. Good sportsmanship, unlike today's players.
Barry Bonds and Rickey Henderson are examples of non - team players . Neither Barry or Rickey would last a month in the NL in the 1960s as Gibson , Drysdale , Marichal , Bunning and Maloney would constantly knock them down after they saw their rotten attitude .@breadandcircuses8127
When 'The Mick' hit 'em, they STAYED hit!! I'm old enough to have seen Mantle back in the day, and BOY! was he something special. I remember Mickey stating that he put his head down and rounded the bases without showing any 'jubilation', because he figured the pitcher felt bad enough as it was after giving up a home run.
Thanks for refreshing my memory! Ken Boyer also hit a grand slam in '64. It may have changed the outcome of the series. I think Boyer's was off of Al Downing. Both Boyer brothers played third base for their respective teams, which was also memorable!@@tonycsmith5655
@@donhuber9131 That was game 4 in NY. Al Downing was starting because Whitey Ford was injured in game One. Clete Boyer hit a homer in game 7, but the Yanks came up short. Even tho the Yankees lost it was a great World Series. A lot better than the 63 Series. Lol
I became a Yankee fan in 3rd grade when The Mick was banging them in 1952. I lived in the NYC suburbs. Almost every postseason the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants were in the series and at it each throats. It was a great time for baseball and a great place to be living.
Thank you, I love this Video. Mickey Mantle was my childhood hero. Koufax and Gibson didn't give up too many World Series Homers. Mickey could hit anybody.
I remember once being 11 or 12 years and on a Saturday afternoon I was lucky to watch a Yankees baseball game on TV at home in OKlahoma. It’s my recollection that Mickey batting Left got two strikes. He stepped out of the batters box took a breath stepped back in and knocked the ball over the wall. Fast-forward three days later and I’m in the same situation as Mickey in a YMCA (Early 1960’s.) baseball league game. I stepped out of the box, took a deep breath, stepped back in. And knock a home run. Thanks for the memories.
The players today are in much better shape and care for their bodies better. Not sure if anyone was stronger than Mantle tho. Mantle did a lot of 12oz curls and was still better than most everyone today. Even with a torn up knee from that damn sprinkler, he played and ran like the wind. If he didn’t drink and the doctors then had today’s tech to fix his knee, there would probably be some unbreakable records. He was Mike Trout with Aaron Judge power and early Bonds speed and Tony Gwynn contact.
@breadandcircuses8127 He blamed some of those strike-outs on his being hung over!...and many powerful hitters try hard to swing for the fences. My favorite homer dude, Jimmy Wynn, has said that his dad raised him to take hard swings, every time!...it hurt his batting average, but helped his reputation as being the Toy Cannon he was called!
Mike Literas summed it well for me... Mike Trout is today's Mickey Mantle, but Mike takes care of himself and you never read of him having any bad vices. Too bad Mike Trout doesn't play for either LA, SF, St Louis or New York! He would have been in several WS by now.
He basically sprinted around the bases because he didn’t want TV o humiliate the pitcher. Back in the good old days when respect for the opposition was expected
@breadandcircuses8127It was just a manifestation of the society of the day, which condoned certain "macho" behaviors, even in sports. It was not right, of course.
Old school baseball - hit the ball a country mile, run the bases, shake hands with your teammates, head to the dugout. No bat flips, no standing at the plate to "admire" what he did, no histrionics.
True! Old School Baseball Fans--Dressing up to go to a ball game, taking pride in ones appearance, suits and dresses. Nobody looking like the castoffs of a circus freak show like today.
This reminds me of the good old days : no tattoos, no kneeling for the national anthem, no fans throwing garbage onto the field, and no screening with metal detectors in order to prevent a deranged psychopath from entering the stadium with a weapon or a bomb. Ahhh...the good old days. I love Mickey Mantle. He was wonderful.
Loved watching this. I started watching Mick in '52, when I was 7. Loved watching opposite field shots on the roof. In this day and age with the tiny parks and the lack of dominant pitching, and current medical science, who knows what kind of numbers he would have put up.
Thanks for posting this. I just finished David Halberstam's "October 1964". A great read, and Mickey's last hurrah. A banged up Mantle hit the final 3 of his record 18 WS Hr's that series.
I can remember putting his cards, even rookie cards, on my bicycle spokes to make it sound cool. I wished I had known then how valuable that they would come to be. Crazy when I think about it today. Your bicycle was junk if you had anyone but Micky on at least one wheel.
I grew up listening to this. I never enjoyed or had the opportunity to watch them. But I spent many hours listening to the broadcasts while working on the farm. We didn't get the television broadcasts. But I could hide my transistor radio and listen during school. Thank you for revival of the memories.
Thank you for putting this together. Big fan of Mantle though I never saw him play; crazy as it sounds I think he's underrated as far as all-time greats go. There was seemingly nothing he couldn't do on a baseball diamond. Also never saw all 18 of these in one place, nice job, subscribed.
I’m 74 now, and I remember seeing Mantle, Maris, and the rest at a game in 1963 against the Minnesota Twins at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota. Mantle was the best player I ever saw .
I was in Angel Stadium in 1967 or 1968, way way way up near the top of the Right Field stands and saw Mickey hit an HR. It rose I would guess 20 feet above where I was sitting with my dad and brother. Man, did he have power!!!
He was playing at the highest level in spite of the knee injuries, then Red Schoendienst fell on his shoulder in the 1957 World Series. That impacted the rest of his career. Doctors were amazed at his ability to withstand pain.
P@@chazq6242 I had never heard that, but it makes sense. After 1957 his left side hitting dropped off a lot. Of course, those were the majority of his at bats. Have you ever heard that Jackie Robinson came over after losing the 1952 Series to congratulate the Yanks? Mickey said Jackie told him he made the difference. For the shy Oklahoma boy it was a thrill, so he said.
That one in the '60 World Series in Pittsburgh. He hit it to the opposite field, over the 436 ft mark, and out of Forbes Field. Wow! Even though I'd been watching the World Series with my grandfather since '61, the homerun off Barney Shultz was the only one I'd actually witnessed. I guess since the World Series was played in the daytime back then and I was in school. The only time I saw Mantle play in person was in '68. My friend and I made our way down to the box seats behind home plate around the 7th inning, just in time to see Mantle come up to pinch hit, and he lined a double to right center field.
