Mickey mantle biography 1957
Home / Athletes & Sports Figures / Mickey mantle biography 1957
Mantle was a 20-time All-Star, showcasing his consistent excellence and dominance throughout his career. Within a week the swelling in Mickey’s ankle dissipated, and he was soon back in sports. The Yankees won their fourth straight pennant and beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in another memorable World Series. In 1993, at the urging of football player and close friend Pat Summerall, Mantle checked into the Betty Ford clinic in Los Angeles to seek treatment.
After several failed business ventures, Mantle finally had a winner. He received a $1,100 signing bonus and a salary of $400 for the rest of the season. He grew lonely and despondent, believing that his career was over before it had a chance to begin.
He reached out to his father, hoping for support, telling Mutt over the phone that he couldn’t play anymore and wanted to go home.
On December 23 he married Merlyn Johnson in Commerce. During a football practice he was kicked in the lower leg by a teammate. However, Mantle’s determination to play through pain and continue contributing to his team endeared him to fans and teammates alike.
Beyond his statistics, Mickey Mantle’s impact on baseball and popular culture is profound.
He was tied with Jimmie Foxx for fourth place in career home runs with 534 when he faced Denny McLain at Tiger Stadium on September 19, 1968. This belief haunted Mantle throughout his life, and was among the many pressures that led to much of his self-destructive behavior.
But not all was doom and gloom for Mickey.
Within hours his ankle had swollen to three times its normal size, and he developed a 104-degree fever. Despite battling injuries throughout his career, Mantle’s achievements on the field and his lasting impact on the game have cemented his legacy as a baseball legend.
Mantle’s career statistics reflect his extraordinary talent and productivity.
That year, he also earned his first of three AL Most Valuable Player Awards, with others coming in 1957 and 1962. By late August, after playing 40 games for Kansas City, Mantle was batting .361 with 11 home runs and 60 RBIs, and was recalled by the Yankees. At just 21 years old, Mantle had already become a key element of a historic team that captured a fifth consecutive American League pennant.
Perhaps not. One day late in that 1948 season, a New York Yankees scout named Tom Greenwade came to Baxter Springs to evaluate one of Mantle’s teammates, a third baseman named Billy Johnson.
But his focus quickly turned to the 16-year-old shortstop, who hit two long home runs, one right-handed and one left-handed.
But the 1965 season was not kind to Mantle. Mantle homered twice, and the Dodgers Jackie Robinson gave him much of the credit for the Yankees’ victory.
In those days before instant replay, electronic measuring devices, and landmark distances carved into outfield concourses, no player’s home runs generated more stories, controversy, myth, and legend than those hit by Mickey Mantle.
What the elder Mantle didn’t know at the time was that Cochrane’s actual first name was Gordon, and Mickey was just a nickname.