Mickey Mantle

Early years

Mantle was born on October 20, 1931, in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, the son of Lovell Thelma (née Richardson; previously Davis) (1904–1995) and Elvin Charles "Mutt" Mantle (1912–1952). He was of at least partial English ancestry; his great-grandfather George Mantle left Brierley Hill, a small town in England's Black Country, and immigrated to the United States in 1848.

Mantle had two older half-siblings, Ted and Anna Bae Davis, from his mother's first marriage, and four younger full siblings: twin brothers Ray and Roy, brother Larry, and sister Barbara. When he was four years old, Mantle's family moved to the nearby town of Commerce, Oklahoma, where his father worked in lead and zinc mines.

A semi-pro player himself, Mutt Mantle decided that his eldest son would be a baseball player before Mantle was even born. He named his eldest son after Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane and, very early on, began training Mickey to become a switch-hitter: Mantle later recalled batting left-handed against his father, who pitched to him right-handed, and batting right-handed against his grandfather, Charles Mantle, who pitched to him left-handed.

In addition to baseball, Mantle was an all-around athlete at Commerce High School, playing basketball and football. He excelled in football, playing the halfback position. After graduating, Mantle was offered a football scholarship by the University of Oklahoma but declined it at his father's behest. However, in his sophomore year, he sustained an injury during a practice football game which nearly ended his athletic career. He was kicked in the left shin and developed osteomyelitis, an infectious disease incurable just a few years earlier, in his left leg. Mantle's parents drove him overnight to Oklahoma City, where he was treated at a children's hospital with the newly available penicillin. The treatment successfully reduced the infection and saved his leg from amputation.

Later in life, Mantle confided in friends and family about how he suffered from sexual abuse as a child at the hands of his older half-sister Anna Bae, who often babysat her younger half-siblings when Mantle's parents were out, as well as by other adults, including Anna Bae's friends and older boys in the neighborhood. His wife Merlyn recalled later on that Mantle also had a sexual relationship with one of his high school teachers when he was still a minor. According to Merlyn, the teacher "seduced" him: "She just laid over him."

Professional baseball

Minor leagues (1948–1950)

Mantle began his professional baseball career in Kansas with the semi-professional Baxter Springs Whiz Kids. In 1948, Yankees scout Tom Greenwade came to Baxter Springs to watch Mantle's teammate, third baseman Willard "Billy" Johnson. During the game, Mantle hit three home runs. Greenwade returned in 1949, after Mantle's high school graduation, to sign Mantle to a minor league contract with the Yankees at $140 per month (equivalent to $1,900 in 2025), with a $1,500 signing bonus (equivalent to $20,300 in 2025).

Mantle was assigned to the Yankees' Class-D Independence Yankees of the Kansas–Oklahoma–Missouri League, where he played shortstop and hit .313. He hit his first professional home run on June 30, 1949, at Shulthis Stadium in Independence, Kansas. The ball went over the center field fence, which was 460 feet from home plate. In 1950, Mantle was promoted to the Class-C Joplin Miners of the Western Association, where he won the Western Association batting title with a .383 average. He hit 26 home runs and recorded 136 RBIs, but struggled defensively at shortstop.

In July 1950, after the start of the Korean War, Mantle was drafted for military service. The draft board rejected him as physically unqualified for military service due to the osteomyelitic condition of his left leg and gave him a 4-F deferment, the first of three times he was rejected for military service.

Major leagues (1951–1968)

Mantle was invited to the Yankees instructional camp before the 1951 season and proceeded to make a big impression during spring training. One famous incident was when he hit two home runs at Bovard Field against the USC Trojans baseball team, when the Yankees were on a thirteen-game spring training tour of the west coast. Both home runs, one from each side of the plate, reportedly traveled a distance of at least 500 feet. Impressed by the 19-year-old's power, Yankees manager Casey Stengel decided to promote Mantle to the majors as a right fielder instead of sending him to the minors; his salary for the 1951 season was $7,500. Mantle was assigned uniform No. 6, signifying the expectation from the Yankees front office that he would become the next Yankees star, following Babe Ruth (No. 3), Lou Gehrig (No. 4), and Joe DiMaggio (No. 5).

After a brief slump, Mantle was sent down to the Yankees' top farm team, the Kansas City Blues. His struggles at the plate continued. Out of frustration, he called his father and told him: "I don't think I can play baseball anymore." Mutt Mantle drove up to Kansas City that day. When he arrived, he started packing his son's clothes and, according to Mantle, said: "I thought I raised a man. I see I raised a coward instead. You can come back to Oklahoma and work the mines with me." After his father's rebuke, Mantle gradually broke out of his slump and went on to hit .361 with 11 home runs and 50 RBIs during his stay in Kansas City.

Mantle was called up to the Yankees after 40 games with Kansas City, this time wearing uniform No. 7. He hit .267 with 13 home runs and 65 RBI in 96 games as the Yankees reached the World Series against the New York Giants. In the second game of the 1951 World Series, Giants rookie Willie Mays hit a fly ball to right-center field. Mantle, playing right field, raced for the ball together with center fielder DiMaggio. At the last moment, the latter called for the ball. In attempting to stay out of DiMaggio's way, Mantle's spikes got caught over an exposed drain pipe. His knee twisted awkwardly and he fell instantly, his right knee injured severely. Mantle had to be carried off the field on a stretcher. This was the first of numerous injuries that were to plague his eighteen-year career with the Yankees. He was to play the rest of his career with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).

Accompanying his son to the hospital after the game, Mantle's father collapsed onto the sidewalk while trying to help his son into a taxi. The two were given hospital beds in the same room and watched the remainder of the World Series together. Mutt Mantle was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease; he died a few months later at the age of 40, on May 7, 1952. Mantle, at the time away with the Yankees, was informed by manager Stengel of his father's death and was inconsolable.

Career statistics

In his career, Mantle batted .298 with an on-base percentage of .421 and an on-base plus slugging percentage of .977. "Falling under .300 was the biggest disappointment of my career," Mantle said. He accumulated 2,415 hits, including 536 home runs, 344 doubles, and 72 triples. While Mantle led the league in strikeouts five times, holding the all-time record at the time of his retirement, he was also adept at drawing walks. He led the majors in walks five times and finished with at least 100 walks in a season ten times. As an outfielder, he recorded a career fielding percentage of .982.

Mantle was selected as an All-Star every season during his 18-year career except for 1951 and 1966. He was a seven-time World Series champion with the Yankees, playing in twelve overall. In the World Series, he hit .257 over 65 games and holds the all-time World Series records for home runs (18), runs scored (42), and RBIs (40).

Player profile

Hitting

Mantle is considered to be one of the greatest switch hitters in baseball history, hitting both for average and for power from both sides of the plate. In particular, he was known for his power, hitting some of the longest home runs in Major League history. On September 10, 1960, he hit a ball left-handed that cleared the right-field roof at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. Based on where the ball was found, it was estimated years later by historian Mark Gallagher to have traveled 643 feet (196 m).

Another Mantle home run, hit right-handed off Chuck Stobbs at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., on April 17, 1953, was measured by Yankees traveling secretary Red Patterson (hence the term tape-measure home run) to have traveled 565 feet (172 m). Deducting for bounces, there is no doubt that each of the above home runs landed well over 500 feet (152 m) from home plate.

Twice in his career Mantle hit a home run off the third-deck facade at Yankee Stadium, nearly becoming the only player to hit a fair ball out of the stadium during a game. On May 22, 1963, against Kansas City's Bill Fischer, Mantle hit a home run against the 110-foot (34 m) high facade, before the ball caromed back onto the playing field. It was later estimated that the ball could have traveled 504 feet (154 m) had it not been blocked by the ornate and distinctive facade. On August 12, 1964, he hit one whose distance was undoubted: a center-field drive that cleared the 22-foot (6.7 m) batter's eye screen, some 75 feet beyond the 461-foot (141 m) marker at Yankee Stadium.

Although Mantle was a feared power hitter from either side of the plate and hit more home runs batting left-handed than right, he was a better hitter overall right-handed: roughly 25% of his total at-bats were from the right side, producing a batting average of .330 as opposed to .281 when batting from the left side. His 372 (left) to 164 (right) home run disparity was due to Mantle having batted left-handed much more often, as a large majority of pitchers are right-handed. In spite of short foul pole dimensions of 296 feet (90 m) to left and 301 feet (92 m) to right in the original Yankee Stadium, Mantle gained no advantage there as his stroke both left and right-handed drove balls to power alleys of 344–407 feet (right center) and 402–457 feet (left center) from the plate. Overall, he hit slightly more home runs away (270) than home (266).

Despite being known for power hitting, Mantle was also regarded as one of the best bunters for base hits. He is in 10th place in number of bases-empty bunt singles, with 80 in only 148 at-bats. He was also known for his remarkable ability to avoid grounding into double plays: for every 100 at-bats, Mantle grounded into 1.40 double plays, one of the lowest marks in history. In both 1953 and 1961, he hit into only two double plays over the course of 1,186 plate appearances.

Fielding

Though not a flashy fielder, Mantle was an overall solid center fielder, especially considering he did not play the position until after he had reached the Major Leagues. Manager Casey Stengel, unimpressed with him at shortstop, moved him to the outfield before his rookie year. Over time, Mantle developed one of the strongest outfield arms to compensate for weak points in his fielding. His outfield throws discouraged runners from taking an extra base. Possessed of good range in center field, his defensive skill was considered 'the less spectacular equal of his offensive genius'. Although he considered himself a better hitter than fielder, Mantle felt his running catch during Don Larsen's perfect game was the best play of his career. He later referred to it as "probably the only good catch I ever made. I wasn't that good of a fielder."

Injuries

Mantle's career was plagued with injuries. Beginning in high school, he suffered both acute and chronic injuries to bones and cartilage in his legs. By the end of his career simply swinging a bat caused him to fall to one knee in pain. Baseball scholars often ponder "what if" had Mantle not been injured but able to enjoy a healthy career.

In particular, the torn cartilage Mantle sustained to his right knee during the 1951 World Series was a very serious injury. Witnesses say it looked "like he had been shot." Dr. Stephen Haas, former medical director for the National Football League Players Association, has speculated that Mantle injured his ACL during that incident and played the rest of his career without having it properly treated, since an ACL could not be repaired with the surgical techniques available in that era. Surgery performed in 1953 removed torn cartilage to prevent further erosion to the joint but also left his knee unstable. In order to minimize the effect of that, Yankee trainers would later wrap up his knees tightly with athletic tape. After the injury, teammates noted a change in Mantle's gait and a loss of speed as a result. Despite his bad knee, Mantle was still known as the "fastest man to first base", once reportedly being recorded reaching first base in 3.1 seconds. However, he was forbidden by Yankee managers from base stealing over the worry that his "delicate" knees would break down faster.

Further, the shoulder injury Mantle suffered during the 1957 World Series, while not affecting his numbers, led to increasing difficulty in hitting from the left side over the next decade.

Later years

After retiring from baseball, Mantle briefly served as a part-time color commentator for NBC on Game of the Week. In 1969, he was the color commentator for the All-Star Game. He also served as a pre-game analyst for the 1969 and 1970 World Series. He was one of four color commentators used by the Expos during the 1972 season.

During the 1970 season, Mantle briefly returned to the Yankees as their first base and hitting coach for a few weeks. He quickly came to dislike the job and left the post at the end of the season. It was his last official appearance in a Major League uniform.

In 1973, at the Old-Timers Game at Yankee Stadium, Mantle, batting right-handed, faced his old teammate Whitey Ford. He hit a long home run over the 402-foot sign by the bullpen, his last at Yankee Stadium.

Although he was among the best-paid players of the pre-free-agency era, Mantle was a poor businessman and did not invest well and struggled financially for a while. Amongst his failed business ventures was his chain of Mickey Mantle's Country Cookin' restaurants in the early 1970s.

His financial situation improved after the sports memorabilia industry boomed in the 1980s. Mantle was a prized guest at baseball-card shows, and was paid considerable sums for his appearances and autographs. At the same time, he always insisted that the promoters of baseball-card shows include one of the lesser-known Yankees of his era, such as Bill Skowron or Hank Bauer, so that they could also earn money for their appearances.

In 1976, the Mantles were amongst the honorary guests invited to the White House when French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing came on a state visit to celebrate the American Bicentennial.

In 1983, Mantle accepted a position at the Claridge Resort and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a greeter and community representative. His job mostly involved representing the Claridge in golf tournaments and at other charity events. As a result, however, he was suspended from baseball by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who had taken a strong stance against gambling and viewed it as grounds for placement on the "permanently ineligible" list. Kuhn had already suspended Willie Mays, who had taken a position similar to Mantle's at Claridge. The commissioner warned Mantle before he accepted the position that he would be placed on the list if he took the job. Despite the warning, he accepted the position because he felt the rule was "stupid." He and Mays were both reinstated on March 18, 1985, by Kuhn's successor Peter Ueberroth.

Personal life

On December 23, 1951, Mantle married Merlyn Johnson (1932–2009) in Picher, Oklahoma. The couple had four sons together: Mickey Jr. (1953–2000), David (born 1955), Billy (1957–1994; named for Billy Martin, Mantle's Yankee teammate and best friend), and Danny (born 1960).

In his autobiography, Mantle said that he had married Merlyn not out of love but because he was told to by his father who was, at the time, terminally ill. While Mantle's drinking became public knowledge during his lifetime, the press kept quiet about his marital infidelity and philandering. He was indiscreet about them: at his retirement ceremony in 1969, he brought his mistress along with his wife. In 1980, Mantle separated from his wife, and while the two lived apart for the rest of Mantle's life, they never filed for divorce. During his final days, the two made peace and Merlyn was at his bedside when he died.

During the last decade of his life, Mantle lived with his agent and live-in aide Greer Johnson. After Mantle's death, his family pursued a federal lawsuit against Johnson to prohibit her from auctioning many of Mantle's personal items, including a lock of hair, a neck brace, and expired credit cards. A settlement was reached allowing for the sale of some of Mantle's belongings for approximately $500,000.

At that time, Mantle purchased a condominium on Lake Oconee near Greensboro, Georgia, which was near Johnson's home, and stayed there for months at a time. He occasionally attended the local Methodist church, and sometimes ate Sunday dinner with members of the congregation. He was well liked by the citizens of Greensboro, who respected Mantle's privacy, refusing either to talk about him to outsiders or to direct fans to his home. In one interview, Mantle stated that the people of Greensboro had "gone out of their way to make me feel welcome, and I've found something there I haven't enjoyed since I was a kid."

Mantle was the uncle of actor, musician, and reality television personality Kelly Mantle.

Alcoholism

According to Mantle's childhood friend Nick Ferguson, Mantle's father often took them both out and bought beer for his son while Mantle was still underaged. Additionally, alcoholism ran in his mother's family and a number of Mantle's maternal relatives died from it.

Mantle's own trouble with alcohol was aggravated by his lifestyle. Before he sought treatment for alcoholism, he admitted that his hard living had hurt both his playing and his family. His rationale was that the men in his family had supposedly all died young, so he expected to die young as well; his father and uncle both died of Hodgkin's lymphoma while still in their forties and he presumed he would too. At the time, Mantle did not know that most of the men in his family had inhaled lead and zinc dust while working in the mines, which can cause Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Like Mantle, his wife and three of their sons also became alcoholics. Merlyn, Mickey Jr., and David all completed treatment for alcoholism and pleaded with Mantle to do the same. After being examined by a doctor, he was told that his liver was so badly damaged from almost 40 years of drinking that "your next drink could be your last." In response, Mantle checked into the Betty Ford Clinic on January 7, 1994. Also helping Mantle decide to enter the clinic was his friend the sportscaster Pat Summerall, by then a recovering alcoholic, who had recently been treated there.

Shortly after Mantle had completed treatment, his son Billy died in police custody on March 12, 1994, at age 36, after years of substance abuse. Despite the fears of those who knew him that this tragedy would send Mantle back to drinking, he remained sober for the remainder of his life. Later on, Mickey Jr. himself suffered from cancer, and died on December 20, 2000, at age 47.

In a 1994 Sports Illustrated cover story, Mantle spoke with remorse about his drinking. He said that he was telling the same old stories: realizing how many of them involved being drunk, including at least one drunk-driving crash, he decided they were not funny anymore. He admitted that he had often been cruel and hurtful to family, friends, and fans because of his alcoholism, and sought to make amends. Mantle became a born-again Christian when former teammate Bobby Richardson, a Baptist minister, shared his faith with him.

Illness and death

Early in 1995, doctors discovered that Mantle's liver had been severely damaged by both alcohol-induced cirrhosis and hepatitis C, and that he had an inoperable liver cancer known as undifferentiated hepatocellular carcinoma, necessitating a liver transplant. He received the transplant at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas on June 8, 1995. Mantle's popularity led to controversy over this transplant. Some felt that his fame had permitted him to receive a donor liver in just one day, bypassing patients who had been waiting much longer. His doctors insisted that the transplant was based solely on medical criteria, but acknowledged that the very short wait created the appearance of favoritism.

In July, Mantle had recovered enough to deliver a press conference at Baylor, and addressed fans that had looked to him as a role model: "This is a role model: Don't be like me." He also established the Mickey Mantle Foundation to raise awareness for organ donations. He returned to the hospital in late July, and the cancer was found to have spread throughout his body. Doctors observed that it was among the most aggressive cancers that they had ever treated, and felt that the immunosuppressive drugs administered to Mantle for his liver transplant had helped the cancer spread so quickly.

Mantle died at 2:10 a.m. on August 13, 1995, at Baylor University Medical Center with his wife Merlyn and son David at his side, five months after his mother had died at age 91. He was 63 years old. The Yankees played the Indians that day and honored him with a tribute. The team played the rest of the season with black mourning bands topped by a number 7 on their left sleeves.

Mantle's funeral was held in Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas, with around 1,500 people attending. Bobby Richardson led the funeral service while six other former teammates served as honorary pallbearers: Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Bill Skowron, Hank Bauer, Johnny Blanchard and Bobby Murcer.

Eddie Layton played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on the Hammond organ because Mickey had once told him that it was his favorite song. Roy Clark sang and played "Yesterday, When I Was Young". Bob Costas eulogized Mantle, describing him as "a fragile hero to whom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defied logic". He continued:

Legacy

Mantle was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1964. In 1969, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

On Mickey Mantle Day at Yankee Stadium, June 8, 1969, Mantle's number 7 was retired and he was presented with a bronze plaque to be hung on the center field wall near the monuments to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Miller Huggins. The plaque was officially presented to Mantle by Joe DiMaggio. Mantle gave a similar plaque to DiMaggio, telling the crowd: "Joe DiMaggio's deserves to be higher." As per Mantle's request, DiMaggio's plaque was hung one inch higher than Mantle's. When Yankee Stadium was renovated and reopened in 1976, the plaques and monuments were moved to a newly created Monument Park behind the left-center field fence.

On August 25, 1996, Mantle's Monument Park plaque was replaced with a monument bearing the words "A great teammate" and keeping a phrase that had been included on the original plaque: "A magnificent Yankee who left a legacy of unequaled courage." Since the opening of the current Yankee Stadium in 2009, Mantle's monument has stood at the current Monument Park.

In 1974, his first year of eligibility, Mantle was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame alongside his former teammate Whitey Ford.

In 1998, The Sporting News placed Mantle at 17th on its list of baseball's 100 greatest players. That same year, he was one of 30 players selected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. In 1999, ESPN's SportsCentury television program ranked Mantle at 37th on its list of Top 50 athletes of the 20th century. In 2020, The Athletic ranked Mantle at number 11 on its "Baseball 100" list, compiled by sportswriter Joe Posnanski.

A school for children with disabilities in Manhattan was renamed for Mantle on June 4, 2002.

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.

Cultural portrayals

Mantle portrayed himself a number of times on screen. He appeared as himself in the 1958 film Damn Yankees in an uncredited role. He and Roger Maris starred as themselves in the 1962 film Safe at Home!, and also appeared, along with Yogi Berra, in a scene in the film That Touch of Mink (1962), sitting next to Doris Day and Cary Grant. Mantle appeared in Paul Simon's 1988 music video for "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard."

In 2001, Mantle was portrayed by Thomas Jane in 61*, directed by actor and comedian Billy Crystal. The film chronicled Mantle's and Maris's (played by Barry Pepper) 1961 chase of Ruth's single-season home-run record. Mantle's son Danny and grandson Will appeared briefly as a father and son watching Mantle hit a home run.

Mantle has been referenced in a number of songs. The most notable song is "I Love Mickey" by Teresa Brewer which came out in 1956; Mantle also took part in the recording, in a speaking role. Another well-known song is "Talkin' Baseball" by Terry Cashman, released in 1981; the song refers heavily to the three New York City center fielders of the 1950s: Willie Mays, Mantle, and Duke Snider.