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And in 1956, he won whatвЂ™s called baseballвЂ™s triple crown: He finished the season with the leagueвЂ™s best batting average (.353), most home runs (52), and most runs batted in (130). He was picked as the American League MVP three times (1956, 1957, 1962). He played in more games as a Yankee than any other player (2,401), including Lou Gehrig. Mantle had an incredible career before he retired in 1969.

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During his career, his team won the American League pennant and went on to the World Series twelve times, winning it seven times. He went to the World Series that rookie year and came home with a championship. In 1951, he was invited to the YankeesвЂ™ spring training camp, and he was so good that he jumped straight from class C to the Yankees-the first time that had ever happened in the organizationвЂ™s history. The next year, he was sent to play for the class C team in Joplin, Missouri. That summer, Mickey Mantle played class D ball in the Yankees organization. And he did: Mantle signed with the Yankees on graduation day in 1949. Greenwade promised to come back when the kid graduated. Greenwade said Mantle was the best prospect heвЂ™d ever seen and was ready to sign him on the spot-until he discovered that he was only sixteen and still in high school. Mantle hit two long home runs that day-one right-handed, one left-handed. In 1948, a scout for the Yankees, Tom Greenwade, went to Oklahoma to see MantleвЂ™s tea mmate, third baseman Billy Johnson, play. And since his father was right-handed and his grandfather a lefty, the boy learned to hit from both sides of the plate.Д«y age sixteen, Mantle was playing semipro ball. They would pitch balls to him after work every day.

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His father, a former semi- pro ballplayer, and his grandfather began teaching him to hit when he was four years old. MantleвЂ™s prowess on the baseball field was legendary. Growing up in Ohio, I was a Cincinnati Reds fan, but I saw and heard a lot about Mantle-especially in 1961 when the Reds finally made it to the World Series but lost to the Yankees four games to one. The player IвЂ™m describing is, of course, Mickey Mantle of the New York Yankees.

And he could smack the ball out of the park with equal ease from either side of the plate. Many believe he hit the longest ball in baseball history in a 1951 exhibition game at USC (656 feet).

The Guinness Book of World Records credits him with the longest home run ever measured, at 643 feet. ItвЂ™s said that there were home run hitters, and then there was this man-in a league of his own. Working with a partner, one man would smash rocks until he couldnвЂ™t hold the sledgehammer any longer, then the other would take a turn. The job was to smash large rocks with a sledgehammer. People speculate that he got his strength from working as a вЂњscreen apeвЂќ during the summers at the lead mine near Commerce, Oklahoma. And he could run the bases in an incredible 13 seconds.1Д«ut his speed was nothing compared to the power of his hitting. He was clocked making it to first base in 2.9 seconds on a left-handed drag bunt. Creamer called him the вЂњnew Ruth.вЂќ When he began his baseball career, he was probably the fastest man in the game. In the June 18, 1956, edition of Sports Illustrated, writer Robert W. He may have been the most naturally gifted baseball player of all time.

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