He could drag a bunt, too, with runaway speed, and he played his role with a kind of all-American sense of destiny. Mickey Mantle, Great Yankee Slugger, Dies at 63, https://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/14/obituaries/mickey-mantle-great-yankee-slugger-dies-at-63.html. During this time, Mantle lived with his agent Greer Johnson. [10][15] Shulthis Stadium, the baseball stadium in Independence where Mantle played, had been the site of the first night game of organized baseball in 1930. Witnesses say it looked "like he had been shot." Not known Mickey Mantle Salary Detail. [45] Still, Mantle was known as the "fastest man to first base" and won the American League triple crown in 1956. He was the blond, muscled switch-hitter who joined the Yankees at 19 in 1951 as DiMaggio was winding down his Hall of Fame career. All combined, Mantle earned $1.12 million during his career. [79], In 1969, Mantle received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[80]. Adjusted for inflation, he earned approximately $9 million. Nobody gave a damn about Mickey Mantle for about five years.". It was originally purchased for $50,000 in 1991. And at the request of his son Danny and Pat Summerall, the former football player and current television broadcaster, he checked into the Betty Ford Center in 1994. In 1952, Mantle played his first complete World Series and became a hitting star for the team with an on-base percentage above .400 and a slugging percentage above .600. [14] In addition to his first love, baseball, Mantle was an all-around athlete at Commerce High School, playing basketball as well as football. He remembered what his doctor told him then: "Your liver is still working, but it has healed itself so many times that before long you're just going to have one big scab for a liver. "[47] Also displaying a sense of humor, he enjoyed playing practical jokes on his teammates. With 37 homers, he was now a home run hitter, not just an all-around player with tremendous power. Having reached that pinnacle in his 13th season, he never asked for another raise.[28]. He was survived by his wife, Merlyn (Johnson) Mantle, and three sons: David, Danny and Mickey Jr. His fourth son, Billy, had earlier died of Hodgkins disease. The first, he often was not. On August 13, 1995, two months after the liver transplant, Mickey Mantle was dead. The couple had four children together during the course of their marriage. Mickey Mantle Net Worth At Death. Does Mickey Mantle Dead or Alive? $10 Million. In the 1920's, they won six American League pennants and three World Series. He was 63 years old. He signed his first contract for $7,500 and his last for $100,000, which seemed princely enough at the time. Mantle was one of the best players and sluggers of all time, and is regarded by many as the greatest switch hitter in baseball history. The ball went over the center field fence, which was 460 feet from home plate. It also was perhaps his only "called shot", as he told on-deck hitter Elston Howard, "he might as well return to the dugout this game is over!" But he was also a part-time baseball player who had such a passion for the game that he named his son in honor of Mickey Cochrane, the great catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and player-manager for the Detroit Tigers. Mantles success individually helped contribute to a very successful run for the Yankees. He was a 20-time All-Star and seven-time World Series champion. Although his batting average was his lowest since his rookie year, his league-leading 40 home runs and 94 runs batted in, saw him come in a close second to Roger Maris's MVP award. [10] Mantle hit .313 for the Independence Yankees. Music! . He always talked about his love for the game. [44] Dr. Stephen Haas, medical director for the National Football League Players Association, has speculated that Mantle tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during the incident and played the rest of his career without having it properly treated since ACLs could not be repaired with the surgical techniques available in that era. He not only hit the ball, he hammered it. The doctor bluntly told Mantle that the damage to his system was so severe that "your next drink could be your last." He was carried off the field on a stretcher and watched the rest of the World Series on TV from a hospital bed. Roger Maris was born on September 10, 1934 in Hibbing, MN. He was the anchor of the team for 18 seasons, first in center field and later, when his knees couldn't take the stress anymore, at first base. He was separated from Merlyn, his wife of 43 years, although they remained friendly. [70], During Mantle's final days he made peace with his estranged wife Merlyn and repeated a request that he expressed decades earlier for Richardson to read a poem at his funeral. "I'm not gonna be cheated," he would say. [10], Mantle was called up to the Yankees after 40 games with Kansas City, this time wearing uniform #7. Maris did not follow suit, and many in the press viewed him as surly. Well, collectors find a value that goes beyond the edges of those baseball cards. [66] In eulogizing Mantle, sportscaster Bob Costas described him as "a fragile hero to whom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defied logic. He sought treatment for alcoholism in 1994 when he checked in to the Betty Ford Clinic. Mantle was named in honor of Mickey Cochrane, a Hall of Fame catcher in baseball. "When I graduated from high school in 1949, Greenwade showed up again. Mantle was able to hit for both average and power,[4] especially tape-measure home runs,[5] a term that was born when a play-by-play caller reacted to one of Mantle's 1953 home runs. Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular culture. Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball career with the New York Yankees as a center fielder, right fielder, and first baseman. Beginning in high school, he suffered both acute and chronic injuries to bones and cartilage in his legs. [52] In 1983, he worked at the Claridge Resort and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey as a greeter and community representative. [10] He was selected an "All-Star" for the first time and made the AL team, but did not play in the five-inning All-Star game that had Boston Red Sox Dom DiMaggio at center field. The low batting average caused his lifetime average to dip below .300, which caused him anguish the next year as he worked with a statistician to review all of his at-bats since 1951, hoping to find enough uncounted hits to elevate his average to .2995, but his lifetime average remained .298. Mickey Mantle Jr., who struggled with the expectations accompanying the son of a baseball icon and the travails that afflicted his family far from the public eye, died Wednesday at a hospital. [10] Later in his life, Mantle expressed relief that his father had not known Cochrane's true first name because he would have hated to be named Gordon. Mantle's top salary was $100,000, which he reached for the 1963 season. In his first complete World Series (1952), Mantle was the Yankees hitting star, with an on-base percentage above .400 and a slugging percentage above .600. Full body measurements, dress & shoe size will be updated soon. [66][67][68] In July, he had recovered enough to deliver a press conference at Baylor, and addressed fans that had looked to him as a role model. Mickey Mantle played his first game for the New York Yankees in 1951, replacing the legendary Joe DiMaggio in center field. A Mickey Mantle baseball card sold for a record-smashing $12.6 million Sunday, the highest price ever paid for a piece of sports memorabilia. [48] In 1972 he served as a part-time television commentator for the Montreal Expos. Mickey Mantle was one of the greatest players in MLB history for nearly two decades with the New York Yankees. His football playing nearly ended his athletic career. liver cancer In fact, if it weren't for the injuries that nagged him, he might've been able to contend for GOAT status. Mickey Charles Mantle Nickname: The Mick, The Commerce Comet Birth date: October 20, 1931 Death date: August 13, 1995 (age 63) Zodiac Sign: Libra Height: 5' 11" Relationship Status: Married Net Worth: $10 million Background Mickey Charles Mantle is widely regarded as baseball's greatest offensive threat at center field. Legendary New York Yankee who hit 536 career home runs, was named American League MVP three times, and led the AL in home runs 4 times and batting average once. One of the 1952 cards (Topps; #311; SGC MT 9.5) sold for $12.6 million in August 2022. Mantle finished with 54 home runs while leading the American league in runs scored and walks. After the 1966 season, Mantle was moved to first base, with Joe Pepitone taking his place in the outfield. Former New York Yankees star Mickey Mantle dies of liver cancer at the age of 63. Mantle became the highest-paid active player of his time. The record remained unbroken until 1998 and remained the American League (AL) record until Aaron Judge broke it in 2022. He was the storybook star with the storybook name, Mickey, or simply Mick, or Slick to Martin and Ford, who were also known as Slick to one another. Mantle appeared in 12 World Series including seven championships, and he holds World Series records for the most home runs (18), RBIs (40), extra-base hits (26), runs (42), walks (43), and total bases (123). On May 22, Mantle hit a line-drive home run off the third-tier facade at Yankee Stadium, the closest that any hitter had come to hitting a fair ball out of the park. [53], In 1992, Mantle wrote My Favorite Summer 1956 about his 1956 season.[54]. Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels. He spent his final two careers in the major leagues playing first base. Of his fear of dying early, he once said: "I'll never get a pension. A school in Manhattan was renamed for Mantle on June 4, 2002. He is the only player in history to hit 150 home runs from both sides of the plate. [46] Over the next decade, Mantle experienced increasing difficulty hitting from his left side. [citation needed], Joe DiMaggio retired from baseball following the 1951 World Series. The town respected Mantle's privacy, refusing either to talk about him to outsiders or to direct fans to his home. [16] Mantle hit his first professional home run on June 30, 1949, at Shulthis Stadium. Through all the adversity, he exhibited a quiet but shrewd wit that he often unfurled in a down-home Oklahoma drawl. Mantle was the starting center fielder in the second All-Star Game's lineup, getting a single and a walk in four at bats. He stayed in the minors for 40 games, returned to New York and closed his rookie season hitting .267 with 13 home runs in 96 games.