The New DiMaggio
While doing research for an upcoming video (which hopefully will be done by Wednesday), I started digging in a bit to see what people were saying about Mickey Mantle when he first came up in early 1951.
The thing is that Mantle was an absolute star player before he even played an inning of Major League Baseball. And the funny thing is that people have forgotten entirely about it.
For example, check out this praise from a newspaper in rural Kansas back in August 1950:
That’s right. Casey Stengel - yes, THAT Casey Stengel - said that Mickey Mantle was the greatest baseball prospect he had ever seen.
Mantle was born in late October 1931, which meant that he was 18 years old at the time.
When Mantle was given a 4-F classification by the draft board in December 1950, it was huge news in sports sections all around the country:
I’m not sure I can picture Mickey playing shortstop, but perhaps it could have happened. And Mantle did have swelling issues with his ankle in his early years; in fact, this is why he gave up playing football according to his SABR biography.
Anyway, Mantle was also a pretty big deal in spring training 1951:
I suppose this goes to show you that the truly great players don’t just come from nowhere.
Mantle did play a little bit of shortstop. After making 55 (!) errors at short in 1950, the Yankees thought that he would have a better career in the outfield. Phil Rizzuto reportedly said, "When I heard about this kid, Mantle, coming up from the minors, a shortstop, who could hit the ball to the moon from both sides of the plate, and run like a jack-rabbit - I had my bags packed! I knew I was gone! Then I saw him play shortstop! And I unpacked my bags!"
(I tried to paste a picture of him playing short from 1954 but I guess you can't add pictures to a post.)
Wow, but I guess that is a sign of the times if people are forgetting core parts of a player like Mickey Mantle’s story. Mantle retired before I was born, but even when I was growing up, his story was still very well known. From his father pushing him, the enormous expectations place on him. Mantle often told the story where he almost quit baseball his rookie year. Also, the whole Yankee succession thing.
The newspaper articles are fun and do give an interesting snapshot. But with stuff from that era or earlier, especially sports pages, we have to keep the sensational nature of the writing in mind too. They are fun to read though. But they have limits as historical evidence
Anyone who has forgotten Mantle's story, off the top of my head here are some Mantle books worth looking into
Mickey Mantle: America's Prodigal Son by Tony Castro
The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood by Jane Leavy
and by Mantle himself
The Mick by Mickey Mantle.