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N0KFQ > TODAY 13.08.16 16:27l 67 Lines 3180 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 4363_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Aug 13
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<HG8LXL<N0KFQ
Sent: 160813/1521Z 4363@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.12
1995
Yankee legend dies
Former New York Yankees star Mickey Mantle dies of liver cancer
at the age of 63. While "The Mick" patrolled center field and
batted clean-up between 1951 and 1968, the Yankees won 12
American League pennants and seven World Series championships.
Mantle was born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, on October 20, 1931. He
grew up in nearby Commerce, and played baseball and football as a
youth. With the help of his father, Mutt, and grandfather,
Charlie, Mantle developed into a switch-hitter. Mutt pitched to
Mantle right-handed and Charlie pitched to him left-handed every
day after school. With the family's tin barn as a backstop,
Mantle perfected his swing, which his father helped model so it
would be identical from either side of the plate. Mantle had
natural speed and athleticism and gained strength working summers
with his father in Oklahoma's lead mines. "The Commerce Comet"
eventually won a scholarship to play football for the University
of Oklahoma. However, baseball was Mantle's first love, so when
the New York Yankees came calling, Mantle moved to the big city.
Mantle made his debut for the Yankees in 1951 at age 19, playing
right field alongside aging center fielder Joe DiMaggio. That
year, in Game 2 of the World Series, Willie Mays of the New York
Giants hit a pop fly to short center, and Mantle sprinted toward
the ball. DiMaggio called him off, and while slowing down,
Mantle's right shoe caught the rubber cover of a sprinkler head.
"There was a sound like a tire blowing out, and my right knee
collapsed," Mantle remembered in his memoir, All My Octobers.
Mantle returned the next season, but by then his blazing speed
had begun to deteriorate, and he ran the bases with a limp for
the rest of his career.
Still, Mantle dominated the American League for more than a
decade. In 1956, he won the Triple Crown, leading his league in
batting average, home runs and runs batted in. His output was so
great that he led both leagues in 1956, hitting .353 with 52 home
runs and 130 runs batted in. He was also voted American League
MVP that year, and again in 1957 and 1962. After years of
brilliance, Mantle's career began to decline by 1967, and he was
forced to move to first base. The next season would be his last.
Mantle was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 in his
first year of eligibility.
Mantle's father and son both died in their 30s, the result of
Hodgkin's disease. Mantle was sure the same fate would befall
him, and joked he would have taken better care of himself if he
knew he would live. In 1994, after years of alcoholism, Mantle
was diagnosed with liver cancer, and urged his fans to take care
of their health, saying "Don't be like me." Although he received
a liver transplant, by then the cancer had spread to his lungs,
and he died at just after 2 a.m. on August 13, 1995, at the
Baylor University Cancer Center in Dallas.
At the time of his death Mantle held many of the records for
World Series play, including most home runs (18), most RBIs (40)
and most runs (42).
73 - K.O., n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
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