Mantle, Mickey

in full Mickey Charles Mantle

born Oct. 20, 1931, Spavinaw, Okla., U.S.

died Aug. 13, 1995, Dallas, Texas

U.S. baseball player.

Mantle joined the New York Yankees in 1951 and became a powerful switch-hitting outfielder and first baseman. Between 1954 and 1961 "the Mick" led the American League four times in home runs, six times in runs, and once in RBIs, the latter occurring in the year (1956) that he won the triple crown for home runs, RBI, and batting average (.353). In 1961 he hit 54 home runs, finishing second in the home-run race behind his teammate Roger Maris, who broke Babe Ruth's season record that same year. Mantle had to play with his legs heavily taped for much of his career because of injuries to his ankles and knees. He retired in 1968 with a lifetime total of 536 home runs.

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▪ 1996

      U.S. professional baseball player (b. Oct. 20, 1931, Spavinaw, Okla.—d. Aug. 13, 1995, Dallas, Texas), displayed tremendous power as a switch-hitting centre fielder for the New York Yankees (1951-68), slugging both right- and left-handed a career total of 536 home runs. Mantle was a cultural icon in the postwar U.S., leading the Yankees to 12 World Series and leading the American League repeatedly in home runs, runs scored, and runs batted in. Mantle was reared in Commerce, Okla.; his father, a zinc miner and semiprofessional baseball player, taught him how to bat from both sides of the plate at an early age. After two years in the minor leagues, he made his major league debut in 1951, eventually succeeding the great Joe DiMaggio as the Yankee centrefielder. Mantle was noted for his strength, speed, and durability. During 18 seasons he batted 8,102 times in 2,401 games despite constant battles with knee injuries and the aftereffects of osteomyelitis, a bone disease contracted as a teenager—ailments that three times led to his exemption from military service. His rifle-shot home runs, among the longest in the game, inspired the adoption of a new recording method, the tape-measure home run, an estimate of the distance of the ball's flight. In 1956 he captured the coveted triple crown with a league-leading .352 batting average, 52 home runs, and 130 runs batted in. In 1961, when teammate Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's season home-run record with 61 homers, Mantle hit a personal best of 54 before an abscessed hip brought his season to a premature end. (He did break Ruth's record for lifetime strikeouts, however, with 1,710.) After his last season in 1968, the Yankees retired his uniform number, 7, in 1969, and he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. Diagnosed as having cirrhosis of the liver in 1994, he publicly acknowledged his longtime problem of alcoholism and sought treatment. His condition worsened the following year and, despite a high-profile and controversial liver transplant, he succumbed to cancer shortly thereafter.

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▪ American athlete

in full  Mickey Charles Mantle  

born Oct. 20, 1931, Spavinaw, Okla., U.S.

died Aug. 13, 1995, Dallas, Texas

      professional American League baseball player for the New York Yankees (1951–68), who was a powerful switch-hitter (right- and left-handed) and who hit 536 home runs.

      Mantle began playing baseball as a Little League shortstop and at Commerce (Okla.) High School. A football injury sustained in 1946 led to osteomyelitis, a bone-tissue infection, which required five operations before the disease was controlled.

      Mantle played as an outfielder on Yankee farm clubs (1949–50) and joined the Yankees in 1951. He played with them mainly as an outfielder until he went to first base in 1967. He played much of his career heavily taped because of his earlier bone disease. He led the league in home runs for four seasons (1955–56, 1958, and 1960), and in 1961, when his teammate Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's season home run record, Mantle hit a season high of 54. He led the league six times in runs scored (1954, 1956–58, 1960–61) and in runs batted in (RBIs) in 1956, the year he won the league triple crown for home runs, RBIs, and batting average (.353). In the 1980s his career 536 home runs placed him sixth among home-run hitters. He played in 12 World Series (1951–53, 1955–58, 1960–64), hitting a record 18 home runs in them. He was voted the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1956, 1957, and 1962.

      After his retirement as a player Mantle coached for the Yankees and sold life insurance. In 1983 the baseball commissioner barred him from any connection with professional baseball because he had taken a public-relations position with an Atlantic City (N.J.) gambling casino. The ban was lifted in 1985. Mantle was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974.

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