Table of Content
Because of these comparatively low numbers , he took a salary cut of 10,000 dollars, down to 60,000 dollars. 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.
Fanovich, with the bases loaded behind him, fired a thigh-high fastball right down the middle. Mickey clobbered it, sending it high over the roof of the second deck in left-center-field. The ball cleared the roof by a good 25 feet, went over Somerset Street outside, and was never seen again. It was one of the longest home runs in Philadelphia history. By 1965, the Yankees were not the dynasty Yankees of old, finishing in sixth place. Mantle, meanwhile, was slowed by injuries that year, batting .255 with 19 home runs and 46 RBIs.
Hit Right-handed)
In the Detroit series, September 16th and 17th, and he hit a couple of long balls that almost made it out. Life magazine, then one of the premiere news and lifestyle sources of its day, runs a featured cover story on the Mantle and Maris race to upend Ruth’s record. Mantle got off to a strong start in April, hitting seven round trippers.
(No estimate has been made of the distance of that Mantle homer, which may well end up in the top ten if ever calculated.) It was the year Mickey won baseball's Triple Crown, challenging Babe Ruth's home run record in the process. He ended up with 52, one of the few players to hit over 50 homers in a season. The Yankees traveled next to Baltimore, Babe Ruth’s hometown to play the Orioles. There, Maris had some rough at bats in the first game of a doubleheader on September 19th. The second game was the 154th game of the season, in which he could equal or exceed Ruth. But there would be no Roger Maris home runs in that game either.
Joe DiMaggio makes his big league debut, recording three hits in the Yankees’ win
But behind the scenes, there was a high-stakes drama in play as well, and it was taking a toll on both hitters, especially Maris. Still, Maris always took time to talk with the press – multiple times a day in some cases as the race heated up with reporters camped out at his locker – often subject to repeated and inane questioning. While the harsh treatment he received from fans and press did bother and upset him, it also helped steel him in his quest for the record. Numerous Yankee baseball fans, as well, did not want to see Ruth’s record upended. "1 more" is all they need, say the boys, but it was not to be, as the Pirates pulled off one of the most exciting World Series finishes in baseball history.
During the stretch, he battled flu-like symptoms, prompting broadcaster Mel Allen to make an appointment for him with Dr. Max Jacobson on the team’s off day on Sept. 25. They appeared in a pair of movies (“Safe at Home” and “That Touch of Mink”). They were a daily presence, alongside Ruth, in countless newspapers across the country, listing their respective home run totals on that date. Bothered by injuries for most of his career, Mantle retired after 18 seasons with the Yankees at the age of 36.
feet (7/6/53,
Using geometric calculations, it would have ended up across Trumbull Avenue, approximately 650 feet from the plate. In 2006, Mantle was featured on a United States postage stamp, one of a series of four including fellow baseball legends Mel Ott, Roy Campanella, and Hank Greenberg. 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 occasionally attended the local Methodist church, and sometimes ate Sunday dinner with members of the congregation.
Mantle received one of Dr. Jacobson’s shots, ostensibly to knock out the virus, but the needle had hit Mantle’s hip bone, causing an abscess on his side that would later have to be lanced and drained. By September 28th, Mantle was taken to the hospital where he was treated for an infected hip, as doctors excised and packed the abscess. Mantle was effectively knocked out of the home run race, hospitalized for the final week of the season. Like Maris, Mantle had played running back as a high school football player, but baseball was his passion, instilled by his father who had worked with him as a young boy, insisting he become a switch hitter.
feet (4/28/53,
Inside the magazine, a several-page story featured Mantle and Maris in separate photos, each swinging mightily for the fences. On August 11, Mantle hit his 44 and Maris his 42 in Washington, D.C. Game against the Senators, as the Yankees had won nine in a row. The Yankee win streak ended the next day, as they lost to the Senators, but Maris hit his 43rd. By August 13th, with Maris homering twice and Mantle once during a doubleheader with the Senators, the Yankee duo were then tied at 45 home runs a piece and still ahead of Ruth’s pace. Maris was then having a bit of a hitless stretch over some 19 at-bats in six games.
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. In 1965 Roger Maris was out with an injury for all but 46 games, though he rebounded somewhat in 1966, playing 119 games hitting 13 homers. Maris, in addition to a painful hand injury and declining production, had his age-old troubles with the press and Yankee fans who thought him a slacker when he didn’t produce. That December, Maris was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals, becoming a part-time right fielder there, hitting 14 homers with 100 RBI over two seasons. However, in the 1967 World Series, he hit .385 with seven RBIs for the Cardinals in their victory over the Boston Red Sox in seven games. Maris hit his 275th and final regular season home run on September 5, 1968.
The sports pages throughout the nation were full of “home run battle” reporting. Television, too, was enjoying the “home run fever,” with more viewers tuning in. Mickey Mantle, a switch-hitter, showing his power from the right side of the plate, capable of 'distant shot' home runs of 500 feet or more. The Mantle-Maris cover photo was taken by photographer Philippe Halsman, while the ghostly background photo of Ruth from earlier times had been taken by William Greene.
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, many of the traditionalists were relieved. In the 1960 season, he hit what is still believed to be the longest home run in history.
With the Yankees behind 1-0 Mickey laid into a Ramos fastball and got it all. The ball took off in a high drive toward right-field that looked like it might have a chance to become the first ball to go completely out of Yankee Stadium. It soared above the stadium roof but a stiff breeze cut at it and brought it down against the right-field façade, about 18 inches from clearing the roof.
By the time Roger Maris arrived in 1960, Mantle’s heroics had already put him on the covers of Time, Life, and Sports Illustrated magazines, and often in the headlines of the New York sports pages. In 1956, Mantle posted a .353 batting average, slammed 52 homers, and drove in 130 runs, winning the Triple Crown, a rare baseball achievement. At that time, in fact, he was only the twelfth player in baseball history to have won it. And to date, Mantle is the last Triple Crown winner to have led all of Major League Baseball in all three Triple Crown categories. Bovard Field at the University of Southern California is a small baseball diamond with a football field adjacent to right-field and right-center-field.
No comments:
Post a Comment