Willie Mays covered more ground in center field. Hank Aaron cranked more homers. Ted Williams hit for a higher average and struck out less. Stan Musial had a sweeter swing and Roberto Clemente a better arm.
But none of them belonged to America like The Mick.
While the nation slept, Mickey Mantle died early yesterday morning in a Dallas hospital. He was 63. Gifted with more power and speed than any ballplayer of his generation, Mantle's body in recent months was ravaged by self-inflicted liver disease and cancer.
And so another in the Yankees' procession of legends is gone and those gray New York road uniforms will look particularly bland and sad when the Yanks play the Red Sox tonight in Fenway Park.
Baby boomers grew up watching Mickey Mantle play baseball. He was part of a Gotham City where all men wore hats and the stylish women smoked cigarettes. It was the 1950s New York of Toots Shor's, "The Honeymooners" and Ed Sullivan. People ate red meat and drank brown liquor. It was the golden age of New York hardball and the beginning of baseball on television. This is why Mantle was such a star.
Commenting on rock 'n' roll, John Lennon said, "Before Elvis, there was nothing." For many Americans, the same could be said of major league baseball: "Before The Mick, there was nothing."
It was Mantle's good fortune to be the best player on the best team at a time when the big-league game was introduced to young people in Dubuque, Duluth and Groton, Mass. When black-and-white Philcos finally brought major-league baseball to small-town America, it seemed that the Yankees were the only team in either league. And Mantle was the star of stars. We loved Lucy, and we loved Mickey Mantle.
The Yankees were in the World Series 12 times in 14 Octobers between 1951 and 1964. The original Mr. October (he was born Oct. 20, 1931), Mantle swatted 18 World Series homers. Ted Williams says: "I think that's the single record that can never be broken."
He seemed to be something out of a cartoon. He was blond, strong, fast and he could hit the ball a mile from either side of the plate. He was an "aw shucks" kid from Oklahoma, raised to be a big-league ballplayer and nothing else. Even his name sounded like it had been invented by baseball bard John R. Tunis. Mickey Mantle. What else could he have been but center fielder for the New York Yankees?
