1. When and where was Mickey Mantle born?
Mickey was born on October 20, 1931 in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, located about 35 miles southwest of the town of Commerce.

2. What can you tell us about Mickey's family?
Mickey was the oldest son of Elvin "Mutt" and Lovell Mantle. He had three brothers: twin brothers Ray and Roy and brother Butch, the youngest, as well as a sister, Barbara. He married hometown sweetheart Merlyn Johnson on December 23, 1951 and had four sons: Mickey Jr., David, Billy and Danny.

3. How did Mickey learn to hit so well?
Mickey's dad "Mutt" Mantle was a great baseball fan. He shared his love of the game with Mickey. Every day after Mickey came home from school and Mutt returned from working in the lead mines, he and Mickey's grandfather Charlie would pitch to Mickey. Mickey batted left-handed against Mutt, who was right-handed, and right-handed against Grandpa Charlie, who was a lefty. From an early age Mickey showed tremendous natural talent and great power from both sides of the plate. It is said that Mutt foresaw the platooning that later became common in baseball, and that by teaching Mickey to switch-hit he insured that Mickey would play more in later years.

4. I know Mickey had problems with his legs. How did he originally injure them?
While playing high school football Mickey was accidentally kicked in the leg. The wound developed into the bone disease osteomyelitis, and almost cost Mickey his leg. Mickey's mother refused to let doctors remove his leg and transferred him to the crippled children's hospital in Oklahoma City, where he received a brand-new wonder drug, penicillin. It saved his leg, but Mickey was plagued with leg problems for the remainder of his life.

5. How did the Yankees discover Mickey?
When Mickey was in high school he played baseball with a team called the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids. Yankees' scout Tom Greenwade was sent to see a teammate of Mickey's named Billy Johnson. In that game Mickey hit two long home runs into a river that ran behind the ballpark's outfield fence. Greenwade was so impressed he wanted to sign Mickey with the Yankees on the spot. Upon finding out that Mickey was still in high school, he told Mickey that he would come back and sign him right after he graduated from high school, which is exactly what he did.

6. What was Mickey's first season with the Yankees?
Mickey's first season with the Yankees was 1951. After a terrific spring training in Arizona (the Yankees, who regularly trained in Florida, traded spring training camps with the NY Giants), Casey Stengel talked owners Del Webb and Dan Topping, and General Manager George Weiss, into signing Mantle. He even convinced them to pay Mantle a $7,500 salary, $2,500 above the minimum.

7. When was Mickey's first major league game?
Mickey's first major league game was scheduled to be against the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium on April 14, 1951. However, the games were rained out and the Yankees returned to New York where they opened at Yankee Stadium on April 17, 1951 against the Boston Red Sox.

8. What was Mickey's original uniform number with the Yankees?
When Mickey first came up with the Yankees he was given uniform number six. In photos from the first part of the 1951 season he can be seen wearing number six. In July of that year, after a particularly horrendous slump, Casey Stengel sent Mickey down to the Yankees Triple A minor league team in Kansas City to regain his batting swing. In August Mickey was brought back up and was given his famous number seven, which had become vacant while he was away. Seven remained his number for the remainder of his career.

9. What was the longest ball Mickey ever hit?
Mickey's longest measured home run (measured when he hit it) was hit on April 17, 1953 at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC. It is his best-known homer and the home run that coined the term "tape measure home run." The pitcher was Chuck Stobbs. It traveled 565 feet and was measured by Yankees' PR Director Red Patterson, who used a measuring tape to determine the exact distance. This was the only ball ever hit that cleared the left-field bleachers at Griffith Stadium in a regular season game in its 32 year history. However, several other Mickey homers probably went farther. Other notable Mantle homers include:

1. Detroit, 9/10/60 - Mantle unloaded a tremendous homer over the right-field roof through a light tower (which it may have grazed) and out of the park. The pitcher was Paul Foytack. Years later researcher Paul Susman, Ph.D. found eyewitnesses who confirmed exactly where the ball landed on the fly. Dr. Susman then measured the distance, which turned out to be an astonishing 643 feet! This was almost certainly the longest home run Mickey hit in a regular season game that could actually be measured to the spot it landed, and probably the longest homer anyone ever hit in a regular season game that could be measured to the actual landing point. This homer is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest homer ever "measured trigonometrically."
2. Detroit, 6/18/56 - Mantle walloped a tremendous homer over the right-field roof between the light standard and the end of the upper deck. It was all the more impressive because it was hit into a stiff wind. Again, the pitcher was Paul Foytack. (This was actually the first out-of-the-park homer Mantle hit off Foytack.) Two days later Mickey hit two homers into the upper deck bleachers in centerfield - something no player had ever done even once - both landing high above the 400 foot sign in the left-centerfield bleachers.
3. Detroit, 9/17/58 - Catapulted high over the right-field roof at Tiger Stadium (then called Briggs Stadium), it cleared Trumbull Avenue and struck the second story of a building on the far side of the avenue. This ball traveled well over 500 feet. The pitcher was Jim Bunning.
4. Baltimore, 8/10/57 - Mickey launched the first ball to clear the hedge in centerfield, over 460 feet from home plate. The ball continued to travel well past the hedge to an estimated length of 540 feet. The pitcher was Ray Moore.
5. Brooklyn, 10/3/56 - In the first game of the World Series vs. Brooklyn Mickey pumped a two-run homer over the right-field screen at Ebbets Field, past Bedford Avenue and into a parking lot, where it caused about $500 in damage when souvenir hunters scrambled over the cars in search of the trophy. Distance was over 500 feet, and the pitcher was Sal Maglie, who is better known as the losing pitcher in Don Larsen's Perfect Game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series on 10/8/56.
6. Yankee Stadium, 6/21/55 - Mickey crushed the first ball to ever carry into the black seats in the centerfield bleachers at Yankee Stadium, 486 feet. The pitcher was Alex Kellner of the Kansas City Athletics.
7. Yankee Stadium, 5/30/56 - Mickey belted his first shot to hit the façade in right-field. While no ball ever went out of Yankee Stadium during a game, this one missed by only 18 inches or less. The pitcher was Pedro Ramos. It is believed that Mickey twice jacked balls out of Yankee Stadium in right-field during batting practice and once even cleared the left-field seats in batting practice. If true, these were among the most epic shots in the history of the game.
8. Yankee Stadium, 5/22/63 - "The hardest ball I ever hit was at Yankee Stadium in 1963." - Mickey Mantle. Mickey pulverized a ball that rocketed through the night toward the upper reaches of Yankee Stadium. Yogi Berra, thinking the ball was going out of the park, cried out, "This is it!" Players from both teams jumped off their benches to watch history be made. But the ball struck the right-field façade just inches from the top. Mickey hit it with so much force that after slamming into the cement façade it ricocheted all the way back to the infield on the fly. The pitcher was Bill Fischer of the Kansas City A's. Mathematicians have calculated that, had the ball not struck the façade, it would have traveled at least 620 feet. This distance assumes the ball was at its apex when it hit the façade, and eyewitnesses are in unanimous agreement that the ball was still rising. Therefore, 620 feet is the low end distance estimate. A computer projection calculated the distance (had the ball not been obstructed by the façade) to be an astronomical 734 feet!
9. Bovard Field, University of Southern California, 3/26/51 - In an exhibition game during a pre-season barnstorm tour of the west coast, Mickey blasted two long homers in the same game, one righty (it went out of the park, across a street and landed on the roof of a three-story house several houses down the street, a distance over 600 feet) and one lefty. The left-handed homer is a legendary shot that may well be the longest homer ever hit anywhere by anyone. It cleared the right-centerfield wall, crossed an adjacent football field, and landed 656 feet from home plate on the fly. This home run is well documented with two eye-witnesses (the USC center fielder, Tom Riach, and legendary USC Coach Rod Dedeaux). Both walked out (separately) after the game and pointed to the spot the ball landed. The two spots they pointed to were only a few feet apart. There is a photo of this home run (and many others) in the film, Mickey Mantle: The American Dream Comes To Life^®, as well as the film's companion volume with the same name, and in the 1998, 1999 and 2000 This Day in Mickey Mantle History^® Photo Calendar - Fact Books. Mickey hit many more legendary home runs, with shots that went out of ballparks in Pittsburgh, Washington, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City, Boston and others. Mickey also hit the first home run in the Houston Astrodome, in an exhibition game on 4/9/65.

© Copyright 1998 - Lewis Early - All Rights Reserved

Do you have questions or comments about our web site?
Click Here to send us an e-mail message.