The Classic Mantle by Buzz Bissinger

Author:Buzz Bissinger [Bissinger, Buzz]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Sports & Recreation, Baseball, history, Biography & Autobiography, Sports, Photography, Subjects & Themes
ISBN: 9781613124178
Google: 2Dwu8AAMKWEC
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2012-10-15T23:40:29.105520+00:00

Rounding third base for home, World Series versus the Dodgers, 1956

In an article in the New York Times on June 1, 1958, Gay Talese noted that Mantle was more popular away than he was at home. The previous Friday, in a doubleheader with the Senators, wrote Talese, “A girl of thirteen jumped at Mantle as he got out of the cab. She punched him, began to pull his short, blond hair, and slapped him. He swatted her off and bulldozed his way toward the Stadium’s player-entrance.”

The incident was an extreme, but as Talese noted, it was not unusual for teenagers to squirt ink on Mantle’s clothing if he did not sign autographs. The day Talese surveyed the Stadium, one fan said of Mantle from the bleachers during batting practice, “Look, here comes the All-American Out.” Another screamed, “Mantle, you couldn’t play on the Bushwicks [a semipro team that had played in Queens].” You had to hand it to Mantle haters: They were sharp and cunning in their cruelty. Some fans believed he was stuck-up when he still was what he always had been—a reticent kid from Oklahoma comfortable only with his teammates. Others resented the amount of money he was making. Others had never forgiven him for being classified as 4-F by the army, convinced he had gotten favorable treatment despite three exhaustive medical examinations. “Maybe it’s because we expect too much from Mantle,” thirty-seven-year-old Mike Rich, from Bayonne, New Jersey, told Talese. “He’s been getting booed since he came to the Stadium. He got too much publicity when he first came out here.”

Hank Bauer, Tom Sturdivant, and Mickey Mantle after World Series Game 4, 1956

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