This Day In New York Yankees History 8/13: RIP Mickey Mantle
Orlando Hernandez came to the New York Yankees after defecting from his native country of Cuba and had an immediate impact on the Bronx Bombers. Hernandez burst onto the scene in 1998 and set a new Yankees rookie record on this day in 1998 when he struck out his 13th batter of the game. Hernandez broke a 30 year old Yankee rookie record when he struck out Mark McLemore to end the eight inning of a 2-0 victory of the Texas Rangers. Hernandez passed Stan Bahnsen's record of 12 strikeouts as a rookie in his 1968 Rookie of the Year season for the American League.
It is also interesting that Hernandez would only reach the 13 K mark one more time in his career.
Also on this day in 1995 the day turned somber as Mickey Mantle passed away at age 63. Mantle lost his battle with liver cancer and passed away at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas with his wife Merlyn at his side.
The Cleveland Indians were in town on this day in 1995 and their lead off hitter that year was Kenny Lofton. Lofton wore the #7 jersey so the entire pregame at Yankee Stadium the Yankees scoreboard ironically displayed "At Bat: 7."
I attended Mickey Mantle's funeral in Dallas and I can still remember the great sadness of the day, and watching the Yankees legends including owner George Steinbrenner. A very surreal and somber day...
People think of Mickey being a nice guy that drank way too much and had an even temperament! Wrong! He had a very quick temper at times! He was one of...if not the most injured player of all time. Think of it, could you play to the level he did with a partially torn ACL from 1954 til the day he gave it up? Even with that debilitating injury, he was the fastest player in the big time for many years. I watched him run the bases after an HR looking like a Duck...flapping his wings. In this day and age, they say the players of his day never had to face the BP of today and the guys like "MO" and Chapman etc. I say the players don't have to worry about being knocked down or hit by a guy like Sal "The Barber", or face Gibson if you tried to lean across the plate. They always said, "The Plate is mine and the batter's box is Yours"! Look up some of the old games and see if the players leaned over the plate like they do and have in the last 25 years or so...they didn't, not more than once! The players of the last many years like David Ortiz, Frank Thomas, Bonds, Manny Ramires and our own Derek Jeter would have been out of baseball long before their time from injuries...in the batter's box.
"Hammering" Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and "A-Rod" are the best of the best players I have ever seen in my 70 (of 80) years watching the game of Baseball!
I attended Mickey Mantle's funeral in Dallas and I can still remember the great sadness of the day, and watching the Yankees legends including owner George Steinbrenner. A very surreal and somber day...
ReplyDeletePeople think of Mickey being a nice guy that drank way too much and had an even temperament!
ReplyDeleteWrong! He had a very quick temper at times!
He was one of...if not the most injured player of all time. Think of it, could you play to the level he did with a partially torn ACL from 1954 til the day he gave it up? Even with that debilitating injury, he was the fastest player in the big time for many years. I watched him run the bases after an HR looking like a Duck...flapping his wings. In this day and age, they say the players of his day never had to face the BP of today and the guys like "MO" and Chapman etc. I say the players don't have to worry about being knocked down or hit by a guy like Sal "The Barber", or face Gibson if you tried to lean across the plate. They always said, "The Plate is mine and the batter's box is Yours"! Look up some of the old games and see if the players leaned over the plate like they do and have in the last 25 years or so...they didn't, not more than once!
The players of the last many years like David Ortiz, Frank Thomas, Bonds, Manny Ramires and our own Derek Jeter would have been out of baseball long before their time from injuries...in the batter's box.
"Hammering" Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and "A-Rod" are the best of the best players I have ever seen in my 70 (of 80) years watching the game of Baseball!