NOTE From The Sports Time Traveler
My great friend of 40+ years, Mark, is a big Yankees fan.
Right now, Mark is at home recovering from a serious car accident sustained when another car ran a red light and crashed into him.
Mark, get well soon. This one is for you!
Now, I take you and Mark back to 1966 to experience a few Yankees games.
WASHINGTON D.C. - July 4, 1966
An American hero was in town yesterday. His name is Mickey Mantle.
This is the Mick’s 16th season serving as the Yankees’ heir apparent to Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.
Mantle has carried the mantle for the great players before him as well as anyone could have hoped.
Under Mantle’s guidance, the Yankees won 12 pennants in 14 years from 1951 - 1964.
But last year, in 1965, the Yankees dynasty collapsed. For the first time in 40 years, they failed to finish above .500.
A large part of the sudden drop off was due Mickey Mantle’s demise. In one year, he went from one of the top hitters in baseball to a marginal contributor. His .255 batting average was nearly 50 points lower than in 1964. Home run production dropped from 35 to 19. And his RBIs were more than halved from 111 to just 46.
In early 1966, there was talk that Mickey Mantle, at age 34, was finished.
Then, last week in Fenway Park on June 28th, Mantle hit 2 homers in a game for the first time since 1964.
The next day, in each of his first 2 trips to the plate, Mantle took 1 swing and homered. Combined with his 2nd home run of the previous game, which had come in his last trip to the plate, Mickey Mantle had hit home runs in 3 consecutive plate appearances.
In the 4th inning of the June 29th game, Mantle came to the plate again, this time with the chance to tie the major league record of 4 home runs in 4 consecutive plate appearances. He was facing Red Sox pitcher Dick Stigman.
Mickey described the at bat to Jim Ogle of the Jersey Journal, “Stigman has never started me off with a fastball, so I was looking for a curve. He came over with my pitch… a fast ball right down the middle, but I was so surprised that I couldn’t even swing the bat. I had a feeling that I had blown the chance… I sure wish I could have swung at that first pitch.”
After that, Stigman pitched curves to Mantle. With the count at 1 and 1, Stigman threw another curve. Mickey swung and punched the ball into right field for a single.
Asked by Ogle, why he swung at an outside curve, Mantle said, “I didn’t want him to get two strikes on me.”
Mantle knew the significance of the situation and followed up with this, “Don’t think I didn’t have that fourth homer on my mind. I wanted it so bad I could taste it.”
Still, Mickey had hit 3 home runs in 3 plate appearances.
And here’s something that none of the sportswriters in 1966 captured. For the first time in his illustrious career, Mickey Mantle hit 4 home runs across 2 consecutive days on June 28 - 29, 1966.
A Ghost of Greatness
Dick Young of the New York Daily News was so moved by Mantle’s 4 homers in 2 days that he started his June 30th article with this:
Cliff Keane of the Boston Globe was similarly stunned by Mantle’s powerful production in the prior 2 games. He penned this headline:
June 30
In the final game of the series in Boston, Mantle hit long fly balls for outs in his first 2 trips to the plate.
After that, the Red Sox wanted nothing to do with pitching to Mantle anymore. They walked him the next 3 straight times.
The AP article on the game featured this headline that appeared in the Bridgewater, NJ Courier News:
On to Washington
The Yankees traveled here to Washington for a game on July 1st against the Senators. In the top of the 1st inning, when Mantle came to bat, he was greeted with, “thunderous applause,” according to Ross White in the Washington Daily News. Mantle responded to the unusually warm reception from a visiting crowd by giving them something to cheer about. White reported, “there was a standing ovation when Mantle smoothly belted a home run to centerfield.”
He went 3 for 3, and drew another walk, reaching base in all 4 trips to the plate, and the Yankees beat the Senators 8 - 6.
July 2
The next day, Mantle grounded into a double play in the 1st inning. In the top of the 3rd, he drove a ball to the warning track in centerfield before it was caught by Senator’s center fielder Don Lock, who incidentally went 5 for 5 in the game, the only time he did that in his career.
Mickey came up for the 3rd time in the 6th inning. This time, he hit another shot to deep center field. But this one was even longer. Dick Young estimated it went 450 feet. It was a home run. The 6th for Mantle in 5 days.
Mantle came up one more time in the top of the 9th and blasted another homer to deep right field. That made it 7 HRs in 5 days. And his 3rd 2-homer game in those 5 days. Again, another first for Mantle in his long career.
Dick Young was once again moved to write a stirring piece about Mickey in the July 3rd New York Daily News:
July 3
Yesterday, the Yankees were still in D.C., where the temperatures hit 100 degrees. They were facing the Senators’ starter Pete Richert. Richert was one of the top starters in the American League in 1965, earning his first of two consecutive All-Star selections, winning 15 games and pitching to a 2.60 ERA.
Mantle stepped in against Richert with 2 out in the top of the 1st inning. On the 1st pitch, Mickey blasted it over the right field fence.
A Monumental Moment for Mantle
With the home run, Mantle had for the 2nd time inside of a week, crushed 3 home runs in 3 consecutive at bats.
And he had now hit 8 homers in 6 games over 6 days.
And no one in the American League has ever done that before!
In addition, Mickey Mantle had just hit his 3rd consecutive home run in 3 plate appearances for the 2nd time in just 5 days!
Special Note From The Sports Time Traveler
I just had to take you back to the present time to let you know that Mickey Mantle remains the only player in major league baseball history to hit 3 consecutive homers in 3 plate appearances TWICE inside of a week.
Now back to 1966.
The homer in the 1st inning turned out to be the only time Mantle reached base yesterday. But it did help the Yankees win the game 6 - 5.
With the 1st inning homer, Mantle had finished a stretch of 25 plate appearances in which he had reached base an incredible 16 times. He raised his batting average in just a week from .250 to .286.
It is arguably the best batting exhibition of Mantle’s storied career.
Joseph Durso in the New York Times began his article in today’s paper with this:
And Dick Young wrote this in the New York Daily News:
POSTSCRIPT
On July 4th, Mantle did not hit any more home runs.
But perhaps his magical run motivated Yankees’ rookie pitcher Fritz Peterson.
In the 2nd game of a doubleheader, Peterson started and retired the first 22 batters before allowing a single.
Peterson finished the game, and recorded his 2nd consecutive shutout, this one a 2-hitter.
It is noteworthy because Fritz Peterson became the only rookie in a 103 year period from 1922 to 2005, to retire the first 22 batters in a game.
With the doubleheader split on July 4, 1966, the Yankees record stood at 34 - 41. They were in 7th place in the 10 team American League. And they were 18 games behind the league leading Baltimore Orioles. Mickey’s resurgence had been fun but it did not portend to be the beginning of a new dynasty.
The Sports Time Traveler will continue following baseball in the 1966 season.
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