1961 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR
"The Switcher is one of the game's mightiest, in the field, on the bases, at the plate. Mantle hit .275 in 1960 but came on strong in the last two months and led the American League in homers (40) and runs scored (119). He led '60 Series sluggers with .400 and also hit three homers, two in one game (one batting lefty, the other hitting righty).
Born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, Mantle was a great school athlete and one of the most highly publicized youngsters to start a big-league career in 1951. He has hit better than .300 lifetime, with 1956 his big year when he was named most valuable in the league for taking the Triple Crown (batting, homers, runs batted in)."
-Don Schiffer, The Major League Baseball Handbook 1961
1960
May 17: Hits two-run homer in loss to Indians.
May 28: Ends 0-for-20 slump with home run in win over Nats.
May 29: Hits home run and two singles in 6-4 win over Nats.
June 1: Spoils Hal Brown's no-hitter with home run against Orioles, who win, 4-1.
June 8: Hits two home runs for three RBIs in win over Chisox.
June 9: Beats Chisox with two-run homer.
June 10: Beats Indians, 4-3, with home run in 8th.
June 17: Hits home run and double in 4-2 win over Chisox.
June 21: Hits two-run home run in 6-0 win over Tigers.
July 2: Named to American League All-Star team.
July 3: Hits three-run homer in 6-2 win over Tigers.
July 15: Hits three-run homer in 8-4 loss to Tigers.
July 18: Hits three-run homer and single in rout of Indians.
July 26: Beats Indians with two-run homer.
August 6: Gets four hits in 16-4 rout of A's.
August 13: Beats Nats, 1-0, with sacrifice fly in 7th.
August 14: Draws reprimand from Stengel for 'failure to hustle' against Nats.
August 15: Hits two two-run homers to beat Orioles, 4-3.
August 28: Four RBIs on home run and single in win over Tigers.
August 31: Beats A's, 1-0, with RBI triple in 6th.
September 10: Beats Tigers, 5-1, with three-run homer.
September 11: Beats Indians, 3-2, with home run in 11th.
September 20: Hits home run in 2-1 win over Nats.
September 24: Beats Red Sox, 6-5, with home run in 10th.
September 28: Takes home run lead with Nos. 39 and 40 in 6-3 win over Nats.
Comment: "After a slow start, Mantle led the Yankees' pennant drive. He seems to have lost the knack of hitting for average but recaptured the home run (his fourth) and scoring (his fifth) crowns. Avoiding injury remains his chief problem."
-Joe Sheehan, Dell Sports Magazine Baseball, April 1961
"At 29, Mickey Mantle should be reaching his peak as a baseball star. He has had some tremendous years as a Yankee. Four times, the switch-hitting speedster has led the league in homers, including 1960. All told, Mickey has hit .320 in slightly less than 10 seasons and has hit 14 World Series home runs, more than any player other than Babe Ruth who had 15. Twice, Mantle won the MVP award (1956,'57); he was named winner of the Hickok Belt as the top pro athlete of 1956 and was named Player of the Year by the Sporting News in 1956.
With all these marks, Mickey hopes to assume club leadership this year, on the field, in the dugout and at bat. If he succeeds, it should be a big year for Mickey Mantle and for the Yankees."
-The New York Yankees Official 1961 Yearbook
"Mickey Mantle dove back into first base safely on a much discussed ninth-inning play in the final game [of the World Series]. With Gil McDougald on third and Mantle on first, Yogi Berra smashed a two-hop drive inside the bag and first baseman Rocky Nelson stepped on first, then made a swipe at Mantle after discovering that Mickey had not gone to second. Mantle was safe as McDougald came in with the tying run."
-The New York Yankees Official 1961 Yearbook
Mickey Charles Mantle (OF) #7
Born October 20, 1931, in Spavinaw, OK, resides in Dallas, Texas. Height: 6-0, weight: 198. Bats left and right, throws right.
Married and father of four boys, Mickey (8), David (4), Billy (3) and Daniel (1).
-The New York Yankees Official 1961 Yearbook
"The veteran Yankee centerfielder, and it seems like only yesterday that he was a rookie, added the American League home run title to his growing list of laurels last season. In ten seasons with the Bronx Bombers, the switch-hitting slugger has had 320 home runs and won four homer crowns. His 94 runs batted in during the 1960 campaign upped his lifetime total to 935. And, his major league lifetime average is a solid .307.
The 29-year-old veteran made the jump from the sandlots to the majors in two seasons. Originally a shortstop, Mickey broke in with Independence in 1949 and batted .313. His .383 average (with 136 RBIs and 26 homers) earned him a trip to the Yankees' training camp in 1951. His long and frequent circuit clouts made him one of the most heralded rookies ever to grace the major league scene and he was the Yankees' starting right fielder that Spring.
A 40-game midseason visit to Kansas City of the American Association in '51 helped snap a slump. He batted .361 for the Blues during this stretch and was quickly recalled to the Yankees where he has been ever since. Mickey replaced the great Joe DiMaggio in centerfield in 1952 and has been the team's middle gardner ever since.
His greatest season was 1956 when he took the Triple Crown, batting .353, slamming 52 homers and driving in 130 runs. He was chosen the AL's Most Valuable Player, named Player of the Year by the Sporting News and won the Hickok Belt as top athlete of the year.
Mantle repeated as MVP in 1957. He won the slugging title in both 1955 and 1956 and has led the league in runs scored on five occasions. Of his 1,537 big league hits, 605 have been for extra bases.
The six-foot, 200-pounder climaxed the 1960 season with a .400 mark in the World Series. He connected for three home runs and now has 14 in post season competition, one less than Babe Ruth's record.
In eight fall classics, Mantle has driven in 31 runs and owns a .281 batting mark. He has been named to the American League's all-star team eight times and has a .300 average in interleague play.
Born in Spavinaw, Oklahoma, Mickey now lives in Dallas, Texas with his wife and four sons. He has several outside business interests including a motel and boat company.
Manager Ralph Houk hopes to reduce the star's strikeout total this season. A fine bunter, especially from the left side of the plate, Mickey often gets on with a two-strike bunt.
In addition to his other assets, Mickey is a fine base runner. He pilfered 14 bases in 17 attempts last season.
Mickey's late father and grandfather taught him to be a switch hitter as a youngster. He was a fine all-around athlete and might have been a fine football prospect had he not been afflicted with osteomyelitis.
With Mantle setting the pace, the Bombers' job of keeping the American League title should not be too difficult."
-New York Yankees 1961 Yearbook (Jay Publishing Co.)
Ralph Kiner, now a broadcaster of White Sox games and a home-run hitter of standout proportions, calling Mickey Mantle "the greatest potential hitter in the game": "There's no comparison between Mantle and, say, Willie Mays. Mays may stay with him as a fielder, but not as a batsman. Mickey is in a class by himself and he still is the best bet to break Babe Ruth's record (60 homers in a single season) if that is to be done in the present."
-Baseball Digest, June 1961
"You're Mickey Mantle, who'll keep going. Your father taught you your trade in Commerce, Oklahoma. You practice it in New York. You still regard yourself on a holiday in the big town. Nobody else does. You're one of the national symbols of New York, a Metropolitan Okie.
Until this season you stood for the Yankees, just as Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio did before you. Their fame was a kind of incandescent privacy. After they played one game in Yankee Stadium, New York became their home town. They stood alone in their time. But this year you have a partner. You're part of the team of M and M.
You hit your 53rd home run yesterday. That's one more than you've ever struck in a whole season. The importance of it was diminished because Maris has 56. But, anyone who understands your pride, who has glimpsed your raging obstinacy, can't count you out. You're one of the greatest competitors in all the Summers of baseball.
You provoke ceaseless arguments among the people in your game. Everyone agrees you hit the ball further than anyone in your generation. That goes for all of them, from DiMaggio to Ralph Kiner. Only Ruth, dead before you were a Yankee, hit for compatible distance. But they complain you strike out too much.
You know this. But you're a swinger. That's your style. But they demand perfection from you. They refuse to be tolerant with your defects. They compare you with Willie Mays. He can do more and he knows how to dramatize his skills.
Showmanship Not For You
Calculated showmanship disgusts you. That's for hot dogs. You don't put it on for the people. Most stars do. But you don't act like a star. You consider yourself a ballplayer. That's what your old man intended you to be. That's why he named you Mickey for Mickey Cochrane.
It was ironic when Casey Stengel pulled you out of a game because you turned toward the dugout and didn't run out a ground ball. You're paid for what you do. Your old man worked harder in the mines for less money. But you gave to Stengel more than he could ask.
You can get down to first base faster than anyone in the league. Often every step is an act of agony. Your leg bothers you constantly. Pitchers seldom throw at your head. They move you back by throwing at your legs. Your stance is often unnatural. You arrange your feet to minimize the pain.
Sometimes, crippled and hurting, you force yourself through a slump. The buffs denounce you because they think you're stalling. But you take it and don't protest. There's nothing in the contract about alibis. The official scorers don't put them in the box score, either.
Once, a couple of years ago, a friend visited you at your hotel and advised you to explain the circumstances of your temporary ineffectuality. He told you you owe it to yourself to define the handicaps under which you played. You never did, you explain, and you never will. And you tried to conceal the dragging foot when you trotted out to centerfield, the boos escorting you to your position like accompanying music.
You Had To Bunt
The first time up in the second game of the last series with Detroit you tore a muscle in your arm. But you realized they had to have you for defensive reasons. This was the series that demolished the Tigers as serious contenders. You bunted the next time up. The people heckled you. Some thought you had given up in the home run tournament. But you told your friend, Whitey Ford, you would have bunted if the bases were filled. You couldn't swing the bat.
The doctor said you couldn't play for five days. Ralph Houk, your manager, expressed his gratitude. The next night you informed him you would play. You hit two home runs. They packed your arm with ice between innings. The multitude awarded you with their applause. You understand they would have ridiculed you if you had struck out. Taking it is part of being a ballplayer. The enemies are in the stand as well as on the pitcher's mound.
Among your own, you're witty in a country way. But you are careful with language when the reporters come around. You'd rather play ball than talk about it. DiMaggio was that way, too. But his aloofness was described as graceful and majestic. City people think country people are hostile if they don't talk much.
You would like to be accepted as a ballplayer. But the excitement you provoke also makes you a personality. Other players fling their hats or kick their helmets in rage. But they consider this a violation of the protocol of stardom when you do it. You're a star but you're one of the few people who doubt it.
Maybe you won't hit more home runs than Maris. The odds are against it. But you will do the best you can. No man can do more. But no matter what happens, you're part of the legend of your sport forever. You're Mantle, one of the glittering people."
-Jimmy Cannon, New York Journal-American (September 11, 1961)
"Twenty-nine-year-old Mickey Mantle is reaching his peak as a baseball star. He has completed one of his best seasons, his 11th as a Yankee. He led the league in scoring for the sixth time in 1961. Eighth in the all-time home run parade, he had hit 320 home runs in nine seasons before 1961. He is only one homer short of Babe Ruth's World Series record of 15.
He and Roger Maris during the 1961 season formed the greatest one-two batting punch in the history of baseball. The pair broke Ruth and Gehrig's two-man home run record.
The six-foot, 198-pound Mantle has had some tremendous years as a Yankee. Four times the switch-hitting speedster (throws right) has led the league in home runs. Twice Mantle won the Most Valuable Player award in the American League (1956 and 1957); he won the Triple Crown in 1956; he was named winner of the Hickok Belt as the top pro athlete of 1956, and was named Player of the Year by THE SPORTING NEWS in 1956.
Mantle broke into pro ball as a shortstop and soon switched to outfielding. He has been in eight World Series and on the All-Star team in eight different seasons.
The Mantles have four sons and make Dallas, Texas, their home in the off-season."
-1961 World Series Official Souvenir Program
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