Facts, Trivia, Memories and More about Mickey Mantle

Notes

"Earlier in the '51 campaign, with [Cliff] Mapes the proud owner of number 7, Mantle was assigned number 6." - Yankees Scorebook& Souvenir Program (1990, "Retired Numbers: A Tribute to Yankee Greats", Bill Schulman.)

Trivia

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used

Memories

Gordon from Greer, SC wrote: "The Yankees used to stop for a game in Meadowbrook Park in Greenville, SC after Spring Training on their way up North. When I was a kid my Uncle Jeff took me on the train from Greer to Greenville one year to see the Yankees and the Yankees were on that train. I loved Mickey and got to see him up close when he got off the train. I didn't get to meet him personally but I never forgot seeing him that day up close."

Randall from Tempe wrote: "I was four or so years old, say 1954. I walked into the living room, and my dad was watching TV. "What's that?" I asked. "Baseball." "Who's that?" "Mickey Mantle." "Mickey Mouse?!" "No, that's Mickey Mantle." I became a Yankee fan that day, because I thought that guy had something to do with Mickey Mouse. When I was ten or eleven, and playing Little League, I read The Mickey Mantle Story as told to Dick Schaap. Seemed like half the book was about Mick's knee operations. Mickey must have had the worst knees in the history of the game, but played on them for years. What a guy."

Joe G. from North Bergen, NJ wrote: "Loved him as a kid.  My friends and I always wanted to "be" mantle when playing any ball game on my block in the Bronx on 169th St. and Shakespeare Ave. with my friends, Mike, Jerry, Fritz, Anthony, James, David and Steve. I was born in 1956, the year Mick won the Triple Crown & MVP. I went the to see the Yanks play and I cried when he left the game. What a class act as a player, BEST BASEBALL PLAYER EVER IN MY EYES!"

Martin F. from Port Hueneme, CA wrote: "My First Intro to the Mick: April, 1956, I'm in the LC field Bleachers at an empty Yankee Stadium on a rainy weekday with my 8 year old friend Ray (I'm 7.) Mick gets up right handed. Ray says, "there he is." "Who," I ask. "Mickey Mantle...he hits homeruns." I say, "Oh, ok." First pitch: Mick hits a towering flyball over the auxilliary scorebord and into the bleachers next to the Yankee bullpen in RF. I remember watching him run the bases with his head down in the empty stadium and I'm thinking "Yep...he did what he was supposed to do." Then I found myself on my feet, yelling and clapping wildly, and like all of you, I never did stop. "He hits homeruns"...and runs faster than EVERYBODY. Long live the Mick."