1963 Profile: Mickey Mantle

1963 AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STAR

"Neither tape nor aches could prevent Mickey Mantle from gaining the Most Valuable Award for the third time. The Spavinaw (OK) switcher was the second-best hitter (.321) and rapped 30 circuits to go to 404 in the lifetime tables. Experts claim he would be the greatest of all if blessed with freedom from physical ailments.
Mantle  joined Yankees in 1951, has bettered .300 in eight seasons and has hit .309 lifetime."

-Don Schiffer, 1963 Major League Baseball Handbook

"No man has won more Most Valuable Player Awards than Yankee star Mickey Mantle. Last summer, despite physical handicaps, Mickey captured his third MVP. He is one of the most honored men in baseball history.
Today he ranks seventh on the all-time home run list with 404 at the start of the season. He needs just one more homer to equal Babe Ruth's still standing World Series record of 15. One of the game's more dynamic figures, Mantle is a versatile player on the field. A great outfielder and brilliant switch-hitter, Mantle also is a fine base runner. He stole nine bases last year without being tossed out. For his career, he has swiped 133 bases and been thrown out only 30 times, a remarkable .816 average.
Mantle was the last player to win the Triple Crown. He is a past Hickock Belt winner and won the Sporting News designation as Player of the Year 1956. For 12 seasons Mickey Mantle has been a truly great Yankee, in the tradition of his predecessor, Joe DiMaggio. Mickey, too, is a team man as 10 American League pennants since he joined the club would testify."

-The New York Yankees Official 1963 Yearbook

Signed by Yankee organization, June 13, 1949.
One of eight to hit grand slam home run in World Series game, thereby tying record for most RBIs, one inning (4), October 4, 1953.
Hit three home runs in one game, May 13, 1955.
Led American League in home runs (37), 1955.
Led majors in slugging percentage (.611), 1955.
Led American League in home runs (52), 1956.
Led majors in slugging percentage (.705), 1956.
Last player to win Triple Crown, 1956.
Winner of Hickok Belt as Top Professional Athlete, 1956.
Most Valuable Player in American League, 1956.
Named Major League Player of the Year by The Sporting News, 1956.
Most Valuable Player in American League, 1957.
Led American League in home runs (42), 1958.
One of four to twice hit two home runs in one World Series game, October 2, 1958 and October 6, 1960.
Led American League in home runs (40), 1960.
Shares World Series record for most hits in one game (4), October 8, 1960.
Shares World Series record for most runs scored, seven-game World Series (8), 1960.
Led majors in slugging percentage (.687), 1961.
Tied major league record by hitting four home runs in four consecutive at-bats, July 4-6, 1962.
Led majors in slugging percentage (.605), 1962.
Most Valuable Player in American League, 1962.
Needs one more World Series home run to equal Babe Ruth's all-time record (15).
Has hit homers righty and lefty in the same game nine times, a major league record.
Ranks seventh on all-time home run list (404).

-1963 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"Mickey Mantle is being paid $100,000 by the Yankees this year. If he again leads them to the American League flag, he'll be cheap at the price.
A very crippled Mr. Mantle paced the Bombers to the 1962 pennant while appearing in only 123 games. When he was in the lineup, the Bombers were at their best. Without Mickey, the Yankees were, well, just not quite the same ball club. That's why he was voted the American League's Most Valuable award for the third time in his spectacular career.
Compared to other seasons, 1962 wasn't one of his best statistically. He made only 121 hits, hit 30 homers and knocked in 89 runs.
But he was the clutch man when the going got rough.
To wit:
On May 17, he scored the winning run in the ninth against the Boston Red Sox on a walk, stolen base, wild throw and sacrifice. The next night, against the Minnesota Twins, his leg buckled under him, tearing a thigh muscle and sidelining him for a month.
On June 16, in his first time up since the injury, he hit a three-run pinch-homer against the Cleveland Indians.
He tied a major league mark by hitting four homers in four consecutive times at bat on July 4 and 6.
On July 20, his two-run round-tripper and a pair of singles downed the Washington Senators, 3-2.
On August 19, he batted in seven runs against the A's, one of his hits being a grand slam.
On August 28, his two-run homer nipped the Tribe.
After being out a week with a strained rib muscle, he belted the 400th homer of his career on September 10 to beat the Tigers.
On September 12, his three-run home run downed the Indians, 5-2.
On September 18, his two boundary blasts accounted for five RBI in a 7-1 triumph over the Nats.
For the curious, the switch-hitting slugger batted .325 left-handed (83-for-255 with 26 HR) and .311 righty (38-for-122 with four HR).
On May 6, 1962, Mickey switch-hit two homers in a contest against Washington, the ninth time he has performed that feat, which is a major league record.
Mantle also stole nine bases in nine attempts. Since he joined the Bombers in 1951, Mantle has stolen 133 bases in 163 attempts for a neat .816 percentage.
Among the highlights of Mantle's career have been:
Most Valuable Player, AL 1956-57-62; seventh in all-time home run derby with 404 at the beginning of the 1963 campaign; last player to win the Triple Crown (BA, HR, RBI titles) in 1956; won the Hickock Belt as Top Pro Athlete of 1956; Sporting News Major League Player of the Year, 1956; American League home run king, 1955-56-58-60; hit three homers in one game, May 13, 1955; hit grand slam in the World Series twice; made four hits in one Series game in 1960; hit two HR in a Series game twice and has 14 Series homers, one short of Babe Ruth's all-time mark."

-1963 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook

"In the spring of 1951, New York Yankee scout Bill Essick was asked about a very promising 19-year-old rookie named Mickey Mantle. 'This is the kind of kid a scout dreams of,' said the scout who had signed Tony Lazzeri, Lefty Gomez, Frank Crosetti and Joe DiMaggio. 'If you come up with one like this in your lifetime, you're lucky.'
In the fall of 1951, after center fielder DiMaggio retired, Yankee manager Casey Stengel named Mantle the probable successor. 'I could never begin to fill the shoes of Joe DiMaggio,' said Mantle, humbly but hopefully. 'All I can do is my best, and I'll sure give that. It's a great break for me.'
The change also worked out well for New York. The Yankees, who had won ten pennants in thirteen years with DiMaggio, won nine pennants in eleven years with Mantle. DiMaggio won the American League's Most Valuable Player award three times; Mantle, after losing to teammate Roger Maris by four points in 1960 and three points in 1961, finally won his third MVP award in 1962- by a landslide over teammate Bobby Richardson.
'It really was a big surprise,' said Mantle who, in 123 games, hit .321 [.486 OBP, .605 SA, 1.091 OPS] with 30 home runs and 89 runs batted in. 'I thought Bobby would win. I'm happy to receive the award, and I'd like to be the first (major leaguer ever) to win it four times.'
He will be, if last season is any criterion. The blond, 6-foot, 200-pound muscleman, who in previous seasons had missed games because of a tonsillectomy, a cyst, an abscess, and injuries to his right knee, right thigh, right shoulder and right index finger, tore a muscle in his upper right thigh on May 18. The Yankees split their next 30 games and tumbled to fourth place. Mantle, called B and G (for Blood and Guts) by some teammates, limped back into the starting lineup on June 22. Ten days later, the Yankees were back in first place."

-Bill Wise, 1963 Official Baseball Almanac

"Mickey Charles Mantle, the No. 1 star of the American League, has the position of honor in the all-star batting order, fourth [Sports All-Stars 1963 Baseball all-star batting order]. The Yankees' ace, three times Most Valuable Player, twice runner-up, stroked 30 homers, drove in 89 runs, won his fourth slugging title and rose from tenth to seventh on the all-time home run list. He and Stan Musial are the only active players who have topped the 400-homer mark. (Eddie Mathews has 399).
Mantle came up to the Yankees in 1951 as Joe DiMaggio was fading from the picture. Desperate for a new box office hero, the club ordered a full head of steam on promotion and publicity about the 19-year-old Oklahoma country boy. Some of the cacophony sounded almost as silly as it did raucous. 'DiMaggio? Mickey will be greater,' was the incredible assertion. 'The kid can do everything.'
Red were the faces of the front office tub-thumpers when the youth was sent down to Kansas City for further seasoning. 'See,' said the scoffers, 'now they'll have to go find someone else.'
But Mantle was back the next year and gained No. 3 honors in the Most Valuable Player balloting. His showing in the MVP competition placed him far beyond any other player once Yogi Berra, the Yankees' senior citizen, dropped out of the running.
Just as ballplayers rate the MVP award as a true measure of a player's value, they rate the Yankees as just another ball club without Mickey.
'They [the Yankees] might be able to make it without someone else; they can't do it without Mantle,' is the word around the A.L.
Hurt attempting to beat out a game-ending roller against the Twins on May 18, Mickey missed 28 games with a combination of a pulled groin muscle and an injured knee. During that time the Yankees lost exactly half their games, a non-pennant pace.
The New Yorkers finally won the flag in the last week of the season after surprising opposition from the Twins and the Angels. They won with a .593 rate. (The year before, crushing a Detroit bid, they racked up a .673 percentage.) Without Mantle, they played at a .500 pace- with him they were .625. Even if his career record wasn't there for all to see, 1962's statistics would prove his value.
In the last decade, the Yankees have been pretty much made over. Only three survivors of the 1951 club- Mantle, Berra and Whitey Ford- played in last year's Series. (Whitey was in the Army in '51, but he had been a member of the championship 1950 club.)
The fat part of Mickey's career is behind him. With friends, he discusses how much more time he has left in the majors. Four years, three years?
There are two Yankee immortals ahead of the Mick among the all-time hitters, Ruth and Gehrig, both lefty swingers. Mickey is the only switch-hitter who has come this far.
Like Musial and one or two others, Mickey is ticketed for certain Hall of Fame distinction when his playing days are over. Unlike Musial and the others, he has overcome a series of injuries and ailments which would have floored a player less determined. The Yankees list eight major medical crises in his life just before the 1961 World Series. They've thrown out the countless 'pulls, twists and aches' as inconsequential, just as Mickey has.
One of these seasons some bright, eager-eyed youth is going to step into center field for the Yankees, pound his glove in anticipation, and embark on a star career, just as Mantle did in 1951. When that time comes, Mantle's memory will diminish, as it must. But it will fade slowly."

-Harold Rosenthal, Sports All-Stars 1963 Baseball