EXCERPTS FROM THE LEGEND OF THE MICK (Part II) Mantle Encounters Death Threats

 

As promised, here's another anecdote taken from my soon-to-be released Mickey Mantle biography.

THE PRICE OF FAME

    Anyone who has lived in the public spotlight for an extended length of time would agree that there is a dark side to being famous. For Mantle, it was darker than most. In early September of 1953, the Yankees received an anonymous threat in a letter postmarked from Boston. It stated that if Mantle played at Fenway Park over Labor Day weekend, he would be shot. 

    Taking no chances, the Yankees contacted the authorities and the FBI became involved. With agents keeping a close watch over him, Mantle appeared in both games of the scheduled holiday doubleheader against the BoSox. In the opener, he blasted a two-run homer off of Mel Parnell. He later joked that he had never rounded the bases so quickly after a home run. 

    The 1953 incident was not the only one of its kind. In July of 1960, Mantle was opening mail in the visitor’s locker room at Cleveland Stadium when he stumbled upon an envelope postmarked from Tonawanda, New York, which is located just north of Buffalo. It contained a handwritten letter that read precisely as follows: “I had a son that was drafted with a bad leg and bad eyes he got killed but a rotten draft dodger that could run like you gets turned down. I have a gun with micrscopic [sic] lenses and I’m going to get you thru both your knees and its [sic] going to happen soon.” Again, the FBI became involved and nothing came of the ominous note. 

    Mantle dealt with other unpleasantries over the course of his career. A female stalker once threatened to kidnap his wife and one of his sons if he didn’t buy her a diamond ring. And in 1958, he was attacked twice. One of his assailants was a 13-year-old girl who slapped him in the face and pulled his hair as he was exiting a cab at the players’ entrance to Yankee Stadium. Earlier that season, he was poked in the eye and punched in the jaw by an unruly group of fans, one of whom stole the cap right off his head.

If you enjoyed this brief excerpt, you should consider picking up a copy of The Legend of the Mick: Stories and Reflections on Mickey Mantle, which is due to be released on March 1st, 2023 through The Lyons Press. 

MY LATEST BOOK RELEASE: THE LEGEND OF THE MICK: STORIES AND REFLECTIONS ON MICKEY MANTLE

I'm pleased to announce the impending arrival of my latest book, which is being released by The Lyons Press on March 1. It's called The Legend of the Mick: Stories and Reflections on Mickey Mantle. I designed it as a companion volume to Lore of the Bambino--the Babe Ruth biography I published last year. The main idea of both projects was to provide short, concise retellings of all the popular stories along with a bunch of lesser-known tales. The books can be read a little at a time for people who have busy schedules to keep. The brief chapters give readers closure. 

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting some excerpts from The Legend of the Mick. I'd like to start with one of my favorite topics: Baseball Cards. This particular snippet is slightly different from the one that appears in the actual book.  

THE CARDS THAT NOBODY WANTED

 

            The first baseball-themed picture cards appeared around the time of the American Civil War. Photos of ballplayers or teams were pasted on cardboard backing. Larger photos were known as “cabinet cards” since they were meant to be put on display while smaller pictures were referred to as “carte de visite”—a French phrase that translates roughly to “business card.” Serving purely as mementos, they were not commercially marketed.

            In the 1860s, a sporting goods company named Peck and Snyder began using baseball cards to promote their products. Pictures of teams appeared on the front side of the cards with the advertisements on the back. Known as “trade cards,” they remained a popular promotional tool for many years. 

            During the 1880s, baseball cards were mass produced and distributed nationally for the first time. The cards were inserted into packs of tobacco or cigarettes as a bonus feature (similar to the toy surprise inside a Cracker Jack box). They continued to be produced through the First World War and included some of the game’s most celebrated pioneers, such as Ty Cobb, Napoleon Lajoie, and Christy Mathewson. 

            In the 1930s, baseball cards became associated with bubble gum. Companies like Fleer, Goudey, and Bowman cornered the market until Topps arrived on the scene in 1951. The first Topps cards were actually components of a board game that never caught on. Looking to make their product more marketable, sales executive Sy Berger and graphic artist Woody Gelman came up with an attractive new design featuring brightly colored player portraits and facsimile autographs. Unfortunately, the 1952 football season was underway by the time the set was released and sales were sluggish. The unsold cards ended up in a Brooklyn warehouse, where they remained until 1960.

            Though Berger made numerous attempts to sell the surplus cards over the years, he eventually gave up. Since they were taking up a significant amount of space in the Topps warehouse, he arranged for the cards to be loaded onto a barge and dumped into the Atlantic Ocean. Roughly 500 cases of vintage memorabilia ended up in the watery depths (or so the story goes).

            Mantle’s 1952 Topps card was not the first one issued with his likeness (Bowman beat Topps to the punch in 1951), but it was destined to become one of the most valuable collectibles of the post-war era. As a massive wave of nostalgia transformed the sports card industry into a multi-million dollar enterprise, Mantle became the most sought-after personality in the business. The value of his baseball cards began to skyrocket. In 1978, his debut Topps card was valued at around $600. By 1989, it was up to $40,000 (depending on the condition).

            Mantle was baffled by his own popularity. He told his son, Danny, multiple times that he wished he had a real job and was ashamed of the fact that peddling autographs was all he knew how to do. “He hated the whole card show deal,” Mantle’s wife, Merlyn, asserted. “He felt like a whore because they hired him out.” Expressing his contempt, Mantle was known to make obscene inscriptions on baseballs from time to time. “Fuck Yogi,” “Tough Shit, Asshole,” and “Have a Ball, Cocksucker!” are just a few of the charming sentiments he left behind for posterity. On an interesting side note, the balls with vulgar messages actually carry more value than the ones bearing standard autographs.

            In keeping with the old expression, “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” Mantle’s 1952 Topps card has continued to appreciate over the years. Even in poor condition, it has been known to sell in the $30,000 dollar range. In January of 2021, actor and entrepreneur Rob Gough shelled out $5.2 million for a mint copy, officially making it the most valuable card in history. At the time, only six mint copies were known to exist. But in 2022, another mint card unexpectedly surfaced, selling at auction for $12.6 million--a new industry record.       

  

Who Were Baseball's Home Run Hitters Before Babe Ruth?

 

Although home runs were far less common in the majors prior to the arrival of Babe Ruth, there were a handful of players who gained some acclaim for their slugging ability. The most prominent ones are as follows:  

           

NED WILLIAMSON

An infielder who spent most of his career with the Chicago White Stockings (later known as the Cubs), Williamson might have been totally forgotten if not for his performance in 1884. In those days, the White Stockings played their home games in Lakefront Park, where the dimensions in right and left field were quite shallow (around 200 feet). During the 1883 season, balls hit over the right field fence were counted as doubles. A ground-rule change the following year prompted a dramatic power surge as Williamson clubbed 27 home runs—a new single-season record. Three other Chicago players gathered at least 21 homers that year, which was an unprecedented event. After the White Stockings moved to West Side Park in 1885, Williamson’s home run output dwindled significantly along with the rest of his teammates.  

 

ROGER CONNOR

 Unlike Williamson, Connor actually had some legitimate power. A big man for the era at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds, Connor was the first man to hit a ball completely out of the Polo Grounds in New York. When he retired after the 1897 season, he had amassed 138 lifetime homers—a major league record. Unfortunately, statistics were not diligently kept in those days and Connor’s notable achievement was not recognized until long after the fact. It’s important to note that major league rules were a lot different in Connor’s day. During a portion of his career, one side of the bat could be flat, batters could call for low or high pitches, and foul tips were not counted as strikes. The pitcher’s mound was only 50 feet from home plate. 

 

FRANK “WILDFIRE” SCHULTE

Schulte spent a majority of his playing days with the Cubs. A daring base runner, he stole home 22 times during his career. In 1911, he proved he had some pop in his bat as well, cracking 21 homers—a short-lived 20th century record. Schulte, who was incredibly superstitious, would sometimes wander the streets looking for hair pins, which he believed brought him good luck at the plate. He used extremely heavy bats with thin handles, breaking up to 50 of them per season—very unusual for the time.  

 

FRANK “HOME RUN” BAKER

Baker led the American League in home runs every year from 1911-1914 and probably would have won the 1916 home run crown had he not missed more than 50 games. The two homers he hit in the 1911 World Series earned him his famous nickname. He played in six Fall Classics altogether—four with the A’s and two with the Yankees. A clutch performer, he retired with a .363 postseason batting average. In later years, he claimed that the deep dimensions of Shibe Park in Philadelphia robbed him of dozens of home runs. By his own report, he hit the right field wall 38 times in 1913 (likely an exaggeration).

 

GAVVY CRAVATH

Cravath was the first true slugger of the modern era. “Some players steal bases with hook slides and speed. I steal bases with my bat,” he once said. From 1912-1919, he finished among the top three in homers every year, leading the NL six times. His 24 blasts for the Phillies in 1915 were the most by a 20th century player until Babe Ruth hit 29 four seasons later. Cravath played a majority of his games in Philadelphia’s oddly-proportioned Baker Bowl, which had a 280-foot foul line in right field. A 40-foot wall and 20-foot screen made things a bit more challenging, but the park remained a hitter’s paradise until it closed for good in 1938.    

Explore this topic further along with many others in my latest book, Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories, available this April through The Lyons Press.     

Worst Baseball Movie of All Time

 

    The film based on Ruth’s 1948 autobiography, The Babe Ruth Story, was an unmitigated disaster. To begin with, William Bendix was miscast as the Babe. In order to make him look like the former Yankee hero, makeup artists dyed his hair and gave him a prosthetic nose. Attempts to coach him on the finer points of Ruth’s swing were fruitless. John McCarten of New Yorker magazine wrote, “[Bendix] handles a bat as if it were as hard to manipulate as a barrel stave. Even with a putty nose, Mr. Bendix resembles Mr. Ruth not at all and he certainly does the hitter an injustice by representing him as a kind of Neanderthal fellow.” Physical disparities between the actor and baseball icon were the least of director Roy Del Ruth’s problems. The script was an absolute mess. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times observed, “[the film] has much more the tone of low-grade fiction than it has of a biography.” He was spot-on with that remark. Historical inaccuracies are rampant throughout the film—some more preposterous than others.

            --In one scene, the Babe’s second wife, Claire, warns him that he is tipping his pitches by sticking out his tongue. While it’s true that Ruth arrived in the majors with the bad habit of curling his tongue when he delivered curve balls, he had not yet met Claire during his time with the Red Sox. Another major oversight—Ruth’s first wife, Helen, is never mentioned in the film.

            --During the “called shot” sequence, Claire shouts at the Babe, “Don’t forget Johnny!” in reference to Johnny Sylvester—the boy Ruth famously promised a home run to. But the homer Ruth is said to have hit for Sylvester happened during the 1926 World Series against the Cardinals, not the ’32 Fall Classic vs. the Cubs.

            --In two of the film’s most ludicrous scenes, Ruth orders a glass of milk in a bar and heals a crippled boy by waving at him. In another laughable clip, the Babe hits a dog with a foul ball, severely wounding it. When he sees a little boy crying next to the fallen animal, he scoops it up and hurries out of the stadium in search of medical attention. Accompanied by the crying boy, he ends up at a local hospital, where a physician performs a successful operation, saving the dog’s life.

            Bendix himself once referred to the movie as the worst he ever made and said that he was embarrassed by the audience’s reaction at the premiere in Los Angeles. In particular, he alluded to a scene early in the film when the Babe is discovered by a scout while playing at St. Mary’s. The kids in the scene are all actual teenagers, but Bendix (at thirty-eight years of age) was forced by the director to appear wearing makeup. The final cut is unintentionally funny and, according to Bendix, L.A. moviegoers laughed when they saw it.

This topic is covered in depth along with many others in Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories, available in April through the Lyons Press. 

 

Babe Ruth's Greatest Hits

 

                 Not only did Ruth hit home runs in great numbers, but he hit them over vast distances. His ability to propel baseballs into the great beyond earned him dozens of colorful nicknames over the years, such as “The Mammoth of Maul,” “The Big Bam,” and the “Behemoth of Bust.” Some of Ruth’s longest homers are listed below:

--In 1917, Ruth became the first player to hit a ball into the centerfield bleachers at Fenway Park. The dimensions of the stadium were changed in later years, but in the early 1900s, the distance was well over 500 feet.

--During spring training in 1919, the Babe hit a long blast in an exhibition game at Plant Field in Tampa, Florida. It landed on the railing of a horse racing track that circled the stadium. Estimates of the drive vary from 540-612 feet.

--During the 1919 regular season, Ruth reportedly slammed a pitch over the right field roof at the Polo Grounds. Joe Jackson, playing for Cleveland, was said to have hit the top of the roof in a 1913 game. But Ruth’s shot allegedly cleared the roof on the fly.

--On July 18, 1921, the Babe went deep against Bert Cole of the Tigers at Navin Field in Detroit. By some accounts, the ball hit a parked car on Plum Street some 600 feet away then bounced/rolled another 250 feet. Some sources consider this to be the longest verifiable home run in major league history.

-- On July 31, 1921, the Babe launched a drive over the right-centerfield roof at the Polo Grounds. The blast, surrendered by Ray Caldwell of the Indians, was believed to be around 560 feet.

--During a 1926 barnstorming stop at Artillery Park in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, the Babe challenged a local pitcher to throw him his best fastball. Ruth blasted the pitch out of the stadium and beyond an adjacent a running track. Estimates of the distance vary from 600-650 feet. 

--In a 1929 exhibition game at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, Ruth hit a ball over the centerfield wall. It sailed past a watchtower and traveled around 620 feet. Prior to then, no ball had ever exited the stadium by way of centerfield.

--In a 1934 spring training game at St. Petersburg, the Babe drilled an offering from Huck Betts of the Braves out of Waterfront Park and onto the second story porch of the West Coast Inn, where players were staying. That shot is believed to have carried at least 610 feet—probably even further.

--The last homer of Ruth’s career was a memorable one. It came off of Guy Bush of the Pirates at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. It hit a house on Bouquet Street roughly 540 feet away. Some sources claim the blast was closer to 600 feet.

 

            During the 1950s and ‘60s, Mickey Mantle assumed the title of baseball’s most powerful long-distance slugger. During his 18-year career, “The Mick” hit at least 10 home runs that were estimated to have traveled in excess of 500 feet. This included a colossal drive that hit the façade at old Yankee Stadium and bounced back onto the field.  The façade was located 370 feet from home plate and over a hundred feet above the field. Mathematical estimates placed Mantle’s epic blast at around 734 feet (though the measurement is hypothetical).    

 Explore this topic further along with many others in my latest book, Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories, available in April through The Lyons Press.

Ruth and Gehrig at Odds

     Many fans of historical Yankee baseball are under the impression that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were close friends. They weren’t. Especially after the 1932 campaign. Ruth’s public image as a mentor to Gehrig was manufactured to a great extent by the Babe’s personal agent, Christy Walsh. If Walsh hadn’t brought them together, it’s doubtful the two would have forged a bond beyond the confines of the ballfield. They were polar opposites. Gehrig was humble, reserved, and respectful of authority figures. Ruth was none of those things.

            The disparity between the two men was readily apparent whenever they got together for a round of bridge. Ruth always drank during the games while Gehrig—an extremely cautious player—preferred to remain sober. The Babe invariably made outrageous bids, knowing that it drove Gehrig crazy. Many of the sessions ended with Gehrig abruptly throwing his cards on the table in frustration and asking Ruth to tally up the final score. Yet, in spite of their differences, Ruth and Gehrig maintained a friendly relationship (for awhile anyway), fishing together during the offseason and interacting regularly with one another’s families.

            At some point during the 1932 season, a major disagreement occurred. Ruth had always liked Gehrig’s mother, Christina, and the meals she prepared. He sometimes brought his daughter, Dorothy, along with him when he visited her home. But after the death of his first wife, Helen, the Babe was not as warmly received. When Dorothy showed up at the Gehrig home one day looking somewhat disheveled, Christina commented that Ruth’s stepdaughter, Julia, often appeared in public wearing fancy clothing while Dorothy was forced to wear hand-me-downs.  When the slugger’s second wife, Claire, heard about the remark, she issued a direct order to the Babe: “Tell Lou to muzzle his mother.” Ruth was none too happy himself and, during a clubhouse confrontation, he bluntly told Gehrig that his mother “should mind her own goddamn business.” Gehrig—a Mama’s boy since early childhood—was highly offended by the remark. The two men argued bitterly and had to be separated by teammates. It was the end of their friendship. Though they posed for group photos and traveled together with the team, they stopped speaking. Gehrig even refused to shake Ruth’s hand after his home runs.

            Hostility between the two men was rekindled in 1937, when Ruth made some disparaging remarks to reporters. By then, the Babe had retired as a player while Gehrig was padding his “Iron Man” record. Gehrig’s streak of consecutive games stood at 1,808 at the end of the ’36 campaign. Offering his unabashed opinion to reporters, Ruth commented, “I think Lou’s making one of the biggest mistakes a ballplayer can make by keeping up that ‘Iron Man’ stuff. He’s already cut three years off his baseball life with it. He ought to learn how to sit on the bench and rest because the Yankees aren’t going to pay off on how many games in a row he’s played.” Ruth’s words really got under Gehrig’s skin. The Yankee first baseman told writers that he felt fine and knew how much his body could handle. He assured them that he would bench himself if he became a detriment to the club.

            That day arrived in 1939, when Gehrig was afflicted with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—a progressive neurological disorder that can lead to paralysis and premature death. The feud between Ruth and Gehrig continued until the day of Gehrig’s famous “Luckiest Man” speech, when “The Iron Horse” finally accepted a public gesture of affection from the Babe. 

 Explore this topic further in my latest book release, Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories, available in April through The Lyons Press.

CURSE OF THE BAMBINO (And a Dozen Other Players)

 

            Most people with a basic knowledge of the game have heard about the Babe Ruth Curse. For anyone new to the topic, the thumbnail version is as follows: After the Babe was sold to the Yankees before the 1920 campaign, the Red Sox failed to win another World Series for the remainder of the twentieth century. They had some great teams and marquee players. They had their fair share of opportunities, capturing four pennants between 1946 and 1986. But something always happened on the road to baseball’s most coveted title. When conventional wisdom failed to properly explain the second-longest dry spell in major league history (behind the long-suffering Chicago Cubs), sportswriters began to consider the supernatural.

            The initial idea of a curse was proposed by New York Times sportswriter George Vecsey after Boston’s heart-breaking loss to the Mets in 1986. The Sox had been on the verge of clinching the Series before a routine grounder went through the legs of sure-handed first baseman Bill Buckner in the tenth inning of Game 6. Vecsey’s alleged curse gained momentum in 1990, when Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy published his seminal work, The Curse of the Bambino. From that point on, the concept became firmly embedded in popular culture.

            In 2004, the Red Sox finally ended their long championship drought with a World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals. They have added three more titles since then, making them the most successful franchise of the 21st century (to date). Though no one talks much about “The Curse” anymore, it’s interesting to note that Ruth was not the only player generously donated to the Yankees by former Red Sox owner Harry Frazee. In fact, Frazee’s frivolous trades kept the New Yorkers in contention for many years.   

            Before assuming a controlling interest in the BoSox, Frazee made a fortune in the performing arts. He opened a Chicago theater in 1907 and followed with the construction of a New York City venue a few years later. He also gained control of Boston’s Arlington Theater, producing a string of hit musicals. In 1916, he expanded his interests to the world of baseball. His ill-advised transactions transformed the Red Sox from champions to non-contenders. Beginning in 1920, the team finished in fifth place or lower for 14 consecutive seasons. And by the end of the 20th century, the Yankees had won 25 championships to Boston’s five.

            Though the infamous “Curse” will forever be associated with Ruth, the following player transactions helped the Yankees capture six pennants during the 1920s:

December of 1918

Frazee traded pitchers Ernie Shore and Dutch Leonard to the Yankees along with outfielder Duffy Lewis. Leonard was sold to the Tigers and Shore saw limited action, but Lewis had two excellent seasons in New York.

July of 1919

Frazee sent pitcher Carl Mays to the Yankees to complete an earlier deal. Mays won 80 games for New York over portions of five seasons.

December of 1919

Babe Ruth was sold to the Yankees for a record $100,000. His lifetime home run record stood for nearly 40 years.

December of 1920

Frazee dealt pitcher Waite Hoyt and catcher Wally Schang to the Yankees. Hoyt forged a Hall of Fame career in New York while Schang established himself as one of the top offensive catchers in the American League.

December of 1921

Shortstop Everett Scott became a Yankee along with pitchers Joe Bush and Sam Jones. Scott was named captain of the Yankees in 1922. Jones averaged 13 wins per year over 5 seasons and Bush posted a 62-38 record during his three-year stint in the Bronx.

July of 1922

Frazee parted ways with infielder Joe Dugan. Dugan served as the Yankees’ primary third baseman for the better part of seven seasons. He was a clutch performer in World Series play.

January of 1923

Pitcher Herb Pennock was traded from Boston to New York. He won no fewer than 16 games in six consecutive seasons and ended up in the Hall of Fame.   

A more detailed version of this story appears in my latest book, Lore of the Bambino: 100 Great Babe Ruth Stories, available through The Lyons Press.