162. "I don't hit the ball when I need to and I can't steal second when I need to. I can't go from first to third or score from second on base hits. And I just think it's time that I quit trying."
Mickey Mantle

163. "Here lies Mickey Mantle. Banned from baseball."
Words on Mickey's tombstone in a recurring nightmare he had before Peter Ueberroth reinstated Mickey to baseball

164. "The biggest thrill I ever had was in 1969, when they held Mickey Mantle day at Yankee Stadium."
Mickey Mantle

165. "Ladies and gentlemen, the great number seven, Mickey Mantle."
Mel Allen on Mickey Mantle Day at Yankee Stadium, June 8, 1969

166. "I've often wondered how a man who knew he was going to die could stand here and say he was the luckiest man on the face of the earth, but now I guess I know how he felt."
Mickey Mantle at Mickey Mantle Day, June 8, 1969, on Lou Gehrig

167. "I don't know why, but for some reason I seem to be more popular now than when I was playing."
Mickey, several years after retiring

168. "I used to limp around my neighborhood imitating him. I did my Bar Mitzvah with an Oklahoma drawl."
Actor/Comedian Billy Crystal, on idolizing Mickey as a boy

169. "It's right here."
Broadcaster Bob Costas, pulling out his wallet when asked to show the Mickey Mantle baseball card he always carries with him

170. "The phrasing didn't work as well."
Paul Simon to Mickey when asked why he used Joe DiMaggio in his song "Mrs. Robinson" instead of Mickey

171. "It was easier than explaining DiMaggio's use as a metaphor."
Paul Simon, on why he told Mickey he used Joe DiMaggio in his song Mrs. Robinson because of the phrasing instead of the real reason, that DiMaggio the icon was being used metaphorically

172. "Would you sign this?"
Mickey's response when an interviewer asked him what question his fans asked him the most

173. "Hey, that's Mickey Mantle! Hey Mick, would you sign this for me?"
Baseball fan to Mickey as he was wheeled off an airplane on a stretcher with an oxygen mask and I.V. line hooked up to him after an apparent heart attack, later found to be a stress attack

174. "As far as he knew, I was dying."
Mickey about the fan who asked for the autograph when he was wheeled off the plane

175. "If I were playing today I'd do what Joe DiMaggio said. I'd go knock on the door at Yankee Stadium and when George Steinbrenner answered I'd say, 'Howdy, pardner.'"
Mickey Mantle

176. "Before you go, would you sign that case of balls for me?"
Mickey Mantle, on what God asked him to do after God told him he couldn't stay in heaven in a dream Mickey had

177. "When I first came to Yankee Stadium I used to feel like the ghosts of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were walking around in there."
Mickey Mantle

178. "After they remodeled Yankee Stadium I didn't feel that the ghosts were there anymore. It just wasn't the same."
Mickey Mantle

179. "There only have been two people on this earth that I was nervous around: Chet Atkins and Mickey Mantle. It's because of the respect I have for them."
Charley Pride

180. "It occurs to me as we're all sitting here thinking of Mickey, he's probably somewhere getting an earful from Casey Stengel, and no doubt quite confused by now."
Bob Costas in his eulogy for Mickey