Mickey Mantle: Idol of a Generation

Name: Mickey Charles Mantle

Date of Birth: October 20, 1931

Place of Birth: Spavinaw, Oklahoma

Grew Up In: Commerce, Oklahoma (about 46 miles to the northeast of Spavinaw, 93 miles northeast of Tulsa; the closest big-league city now is Kansas City, 164 miles to the north; then, it was St. Louis, 310 miles to the northeast)

Nationality: English

Position: Center field

Batted: Switch-hitter

Threw: Righthanded

Nickname(s): The Mick, Muscles, the Commerce Comet, Slick (a nickname he and Whitey Ford called each other)

Family: Father Elvin, known as Mutt, worked in the lead and zinc mines of northeastern Oklahoma, as did most of his relatives; it was inhaling the dust from those mines that killed the Mantle men by their early 40s, not any "curse" Mickey could think of. His mother, the former Lovell Richardson, was a housewife. He had 2 brothers, also scholastic athletes.

He married Merlyn Johnson, and had four children: Mickey Jr., Billy, Danny and David. Billy was named for Yankee teammate and close friend Billy Martin, whose real name was Alfred. But then, Mutt had named his son after a Baseball Hall-of-Famer, Mickey Cochrane. (Just as Willie Mays was born Willie, not William, Mantle's real first name was Mickey, not Michael.) Cochrane's real first name was Gordon, and Mickey always said he was glad he wasn't named Gordon Mantle. (Which sounds like the name of a lawyer to me.)

Mutt died of Hodgkin's disease in 1952, at the beginning of Mickey's 2nd season. Billy also died of Hodgkin's, in 1994, shortly after Mickey got out of rehab; while so many people were afraid it would restart his drinking, just as his father's death was its original accelerant, he stayed sober. Lovell died in 1995, a few weeks before Mickey's transplant. Mickey Jr. died in 2000. Merlyn died in 2010. At this writing, Danny and David are still alive, and the official caretakers of Mickey's image. They were consultants on the film 61*, which included a scene of David and his then 4-year-old son Will, watching Thomas Jane as Mickey hit one out. David stood in for Mickey at the last game at the old Yankee Stadium, wearing his Number 7 uniform and walking out to center field.

Before He Was a Yankee: Starred in football and basketball at Commerce High School, but the school didn't have a baseball team, so he played on amateur squads in that region where Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas all come together. (The nearest real city was Joplin, Missouri.)

Acquired By Yankees: Yankee scout Tom Greenwade stalked Mickey until graduation in 1949, and then offered Mickey a $1,500 signing bonus -- about $15,000 in today's money.

(Around the same time, the Pittsburgh Pirates offered St. John's University star Mario Cuomo a $2,000 bonus. Cuomo got beaned and went into law and politics, while Mickey's many injuries never included a serious beaning. He liked to joke about how the Yankees got more value for him than the Pirates got for the future Governor and father of another future Governor.)

Mickey spent the rest of the 1949 season and all of 1950 in the minor leagues, before his prodigious home runs in spring training led to his going north with the team. He made his Yankee debut on April 17, 1951, at Yankee Stadium, against the Boston Red Sox. His first at-bat was a groundout off Bill Wight, but he went 1-for-4 with an RBI single, and Jackie Jensen hit a home run, backing the shutout pitching of Vic Raschi, as the Yankees won 5-1.

Uniform Number(s) as a Yankee: Was originally given 6. The progression seemed natural: Babe Ruth wore 3, Lou Gehrig wore 4, Joe DiMaggio wears 5, and Mickey is supposed to replace Joe, so he gets 6. It seemed to fit, as Mickey's baseball hero was Stan Musial of the St. Louis Cardinals, and Stan the Man wore 6.

But Mickey struggled at first, and was sent down to the minors. His slump continuing with the Triple-A Kansas City Blues, he called his father in Oklahoma, telling him he wanted to quit baseball. Mutt wasn't having it: He drove up, and reamed Mickey out: "You can come work in the mines like me. I thought I raised a man. You ain't nothin' but a coward." The tough love shocked Mickey into begging his father for another chance, and he took it, hitting so well that he got called back up to the Yankees.

By this point, Cliff Mapes -- by a twist of fate, also the last Yankee to wear 3 before it was retired for Ruth -- had been traded, making 7 available. Mickey was given 7, and the rest is history. Until 42 was universally retired for Jackie Robinson, no other baseball player was more identified with a single uniform number than Mickey was with 7.

Yankee Achievements Include: 536 home runs, including 266 at Yankee Stadium, making him the ballpark's all-time leader. He was only the 6th member of the 500 Home Run Club, and was 3rd on the all-time home run list when he retired, trailing only Ruth and Mays. (Hank Aaron soon surpassed him.) While several players have surpassed him -- most recently, Albert Pujols -- he remains the all-time leader among switch-hitters.

His home runs were every bit as long as Ruth's: Mickey hit, or may have hit, the longest home runs ever at the original Yankee Stadium, Comiskey Park in Chicago, Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Sportsman's Park in St. Louis, Shibe Park (a.k.a. Connie Mack Stadium) in Philadelphia, and, most notably, Griffith Stadium in Washington, a drive that was unofficially measured at 565 feet. (Every account of that 1953 drive says that the ball glanced off an auxiliary scoreboard before continuing into a backyard. The distance shouldn't be measured from home plate to where the ball stops, but from the plate to where it first hits something. That was still a 460-foot shot.) Yankee publicity director Red Patterson's desire to measure Mickey's drives gave rise to the term "tape measure home run."

Four times, he hit the frieze (a.k.a. "the facade") on the roof at old Yankee Stadium. Twice lefthanded, to right field, within a month, in May 1956; once righthanded, to left field, in 1957; and again lefthanded, to right field, a walkoff home run against the Kansas City Athletics on May 22, 1963, supposedly six inches from the top. This was the closest any player ever came to hitting a fair ball out of The Stadium.

(Frank Howard is also sometimes credited with hitting the facade in left field, although this is unproven. The story that Negro Leaguer Josh Gibson hit a fair ball completely out of the old Yankee Stadium has been researched. Accounts from black-owned, -operated and -targeted newspapers, such as New York's Amsterdam News, the sources most likely to say that it happened, if it did, show that Gibson played in Yankee Stadium many times, and hit some long home runs, but they never reported that he hit one all the way out. That's not conclusive, but it is telling that the sources most likely to say that it happened at the time didn't say so.)

Mickey led the American League in home runs four times. Only once did he lead it in batting average or runs batted in, but in that year, 1956, he led in all three, winning the Triple Crown. Indeed, he led both Leagues in all three of those categories, and he is still the last man to do that. He was named AL Most Valuable Player in 1956, 1957 and 1962.

He was named to the All-Star Team 20 times -- despite playing in only 18 seasons. From 1958 to 1962, there were two All-Star Games each season. Mickey reached the All-Star Game every season from 1952 to 1965, and again in 1967 and '68, so he made it in 16 of his 18 seasons. The Gold Glove Award only started in 1957, and he won it only once, in 1962. Nevertheless, he was regarded as a very good center fielder, including making a catch of a Gil Hodges drive that saved Don Larsen's perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series -- a game in which Mickey also homered.

He hit 18 home runs in World Series play. While other players have hit as many, or more, in postseason play, it remains a record just for the Series. His 16th, which broke Ruth's record, was what we would now call a walkoff home run, in Game 3 of the 1964 World Series against the Cardinals, his boyhood team.

Because of the rapid growth of television in the 1950s, and the Yankees' frequent appearances on national broadcasts, including the 12 World Series -- 7 of them won by the Yankees -- during Mickey's career, he became baseball's first television superstar, and thus the most popular player among the Baby Boom generation, even if, by his own admission, he wasn't as good as Mays or Aaron.

He played in 2,401 games as a Yankee, a club record until surpassed by Derek Jeter in 2011. He frequently said, "I played in more games as a Yankee than anybody. Nobody knows that." He did all of these things despite countless injuries, particularly to his knees, and despite his constant off-field carousing, including prodigious drinking and womanizing. (The womanizing was mostly kept quiet during his lifetime, but stories of his drunken behavior simply couldn't be stopped.)

Highest Salary: $100,000, first received in 1963. About $780,000 in today's money. In a 1991 interview, he said, "They couldn't pay me, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ted Williams, Stan Musial today."

Something you should know about him, if you don’t already: Mickey had a nephew, Kelly Mantle, who has become a renowned drag queen and recording artist. 

Left Yankees: After being switched to left field in 1965, and then first base in 1967, as spring training dawned on March 1, 1969, he decided, "The young kids are just gettin' too fast for me," and confirmed what everyone had believed all through 1968: He was retiring.

His last game was on September 28, 1968, at Fenway Park. He popped up to short against Jim Lonborg in his first at-bat, and was then replaced in the field by Andy Kosco. The Yankees bailed Mel Stottlemyre out of a 3-0 jam, and beat the Boston Red Sox 4-3, Lindy McDaniel the winning pitcher over Lonborg.

After He Was a Yankee: Became a Yankee coach and a broadcaster, but held neither post for long. Lost a lot of money with bad investments, including in Mickey Mantle's Country Cookin' Restaurants and a temporary-placement agency he and Joe Namath put their names on, Mantle Men and Namath Girls. (Nice name. It was 1969.) But he missed playing terribly. Depression kicked in, and his drinking accelerated again.

The 1950s nostalgia wave that began in the early 1970s, and the baseball memorabilia craze, kicked in, and he ended up making more money every year being a retired baseball legend than he did when he was an active player. He made commercials for everything from Brylcreem (which was the first time I ever saw him on TV) to beer. With Mays, he did commercials for butter and for USA Today. While he maintained friendships with Mays, Aaron, Williams and Musial, stayed friends with Ford and Martin, and became friends with later Yankee star Reggie Jackson, his relationship with his predecessor in Yankee Stadium's center field, DiMaggio, remained frosty -- for reasons known only to Joe.

Mickey Mantle's Restaurant opened on Central Park South in 1988. It was loaded with baseball memorabilia, and the chairs were designed to look like seats at the old Stadium, with every one having the number 7 on them. Mickey visited every time he came to New York, although radio bully Don Imus liked to joke that, "Your meal is free if you can guess which table Mickey is under." Mickey insisted that the prices be kept low, because he wanted the place to be affordable for families. I ate there once, and, to be honest, the food was not up to the level of the decor. Due to rising rent, the restaurant closed in 2012. A new Mickey Mantle's Steakhouse is open across from the new Oklahoma City ballpark, Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. Appropriately, the Steakhouse's address is 7 South Mickey Mantle Drive.

In 1988, Mickey left Merlyn and their house in a suburban section of Dallas, and bought a house in the suburbs of Atlanta, near the home of Greer Johnson, his new girlfriend and agent. But he never divorced Merlyn.

Died: August 13, 1995, at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, from cancer, the result of his 45 years of hard drinking. Late in 1993, he'd been told by a doctor that his next drink could be his last, and he checked into the Betty Ford Center. He seemed to be in recovery. But his liver was weakened and stricken with cancer. He received a liver transplant on June 8, 1995 -- 26 years to the day after his Day at The Stadium -- and began to speak out on behalf of sobriety and organ donation. But the cancer had already spread to his lungs, and he never had a chance. He was 63.

On the day of his death, the Yankees were scheduled to play the Cleveland Indians at home. The Yankees had black armbands sewn onto their left sleeves, and, before leaving for a roadtrip that night, would have black 7s sewn above them. Dave Winfield was playing for the Indians, and Andy Pettitte and Mariano Rivera were rookies on the Yankee roster. (Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada had both played for the Yankees by this point, but were not on the roster at the time.) The first batter of the game was the Indians' Kenny Lofton -- a center fielder wearing Number 7. He flew out to Bernie Williams -- in center field.

At his press conference after his transplant, Mickey had said, "You talk about a role model, this is a role model: Don't be like me." At his funeral in Dallas, broadcaster Bob Costas said, "In the last year of his life, Mickey Mantle, always so hard on himself, finally came to accept and appreciate the distinction between a role model and a hero. The first, he often was not. The second, he always will be. And, in the end, people got it."

But his death was still a blow. When Elvis Presley died in 1977, it was an inescapable sign that the Baby Boomers, now in their 20s, weren't kids anymore. When Mickey Mantle died in 1995, it was a new marker, for these people now in their 40s: Now, they were getting old.

Plaque Dedicated: June 8, 1969, Mickey Mantle Day. His retired Number 7 was presented to him by Ford, and his Plaque was presented to him by DiMaggio -- who had to be wondering, "Hey, what about me? If Mickey's getting one, then, obviously, they don't just do it for dead players. So why didn't I get one when I retired?" Before beginning his speech, Mickey told the crowd he had the honor of presenting Joe with his Plaque, and said, "It oughta hang just a little higher than mine." Joe seemed genuinely moved by the gesture, although he seemed to have some kind of problem with Mickey that never went away.

The Plaques were hung on the outfield wall the next Opening Day, April 12, 1970 -- and, sure enough, Joe's was one inch higher than Mickey's. With the other Plaques and the Monuments, they were moved to Monument Park in 1976.

After Mickey's death, his Plaque was removed, and replaced by a Monument that was dedicated on August 25, 1996. When Joe died in 1999, his Plaque was also replaced with a Monument. The original Plaques are now on display at the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center in Little Falls, New Jersey. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I can find of them, and the text isn't very legible, due to the glare of a flash bulb.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Elected in 1974, his first year of eligibility, by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

Other Honors: He was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame -- in 1964, while he was still playing. When Oklahoma City, the capital of his home State, opened a new ballpark for its Triple-A team, a statue of Mickey was placed outside, and the street was renamed Mickey Mantle Drive.

Teresa Brewer recorded "I Love Mickey" during his Triple Crown season of 1956, with Mickey also appearing on the record. In 1981, Terry Cashman recorded a tribute to all three New York center fielders of the 1950s: Mantle of the Yankees, Mays of the New York Giants and Duke Snider of the Brooklyn Dodgers: "Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey and the Duke)." New York City renamed a school for him in 2002, and the U.S. Postal Service released a stamp of him in 2006.

In 1999, he was named to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. The same year, The Sporting News named him Number 17 on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players -- a bit low, especially considering that he wasn't even the highest-ranked Oklahoman, with Johnny Bench placed at Number 16.

Depictions: Mickey played himself along with Roger Maris in the films Safe at Home (1962) and That Touch of Mink (1963). Yogi Berra was also in the latter film. Billy Crystal showed an unidentified actor from the back only in his 1992 film Mr. Saturday Night, as a guest on the eponymous character's variety show. In 2000, Crystal made 61*, about the 1961 home run record chase by Mickey and Roger. Mickey was played by Thomas Jane.

Crystal also paid tribute to Mickey in City Slickers, talking about his first live game as a boy, in which Mickey hit a home run. For Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries, Crystal told the story again, and said his first game was one in which Mickey hit the facade in 1956. Mickey was also interviewed for Burns' miniseries.

Although Mickey briefly appeared as a character in the 2007 miniseries The Bronx Is Burning, about the 1977 Yankees, the actor who played him was not identified in the credits.

Quote of Note: "Baseball has been very good to me, and playing 18 years in Yankee Stadium for you folks is the greatest thing that could ever happen to a ballplayer."

Jacob Ruppert: The Man Who Made the Yankees

Name: Jacob Ruppert Jr. (no middle name)

Date of Birth: August 5, 1867

Place of Birth: New York, New York (Manhattan) 

Grew Up In: Same

Nationality: German, spoke fluent English but with a German accent all his life

Position: Team Owner

Batted: Not applicable

Threw: Not applicable

Nickname(s): Jake, The Colonel

Family: Father Jacob Sr. founded the Ruppert brewery, and lived long enough to see his son buy the Yankees. Mother Anna lived long enough to see them with their 1st World Series. Never married. No known children.

Before He Was a Yankee: Graduated from Columbia University, as would Lou Gehrig. Served in the New York National Guard, although his eventual promotion to the rank of Colonel, while official (contrary to some sources), may have been because he was a friend of then-Governor David B. Hill. Due to his connections to Hill and his successor, Roswell P. Flower, was elected to Congress in 1898, as a Democrat defeating an incumbent Republican. Served 4 terms before deciding not to run for re-election in 1906.

Worked as an executive in his father's brewery, eventually taking charge and making it more profitable than his father ever did -- setting a template that shipbuilding executive George Steinbrenner may not have been aware of. Was President of the United States Brewers Association for 3 years. Also heavily invested in Florida real estate, as would his future manager, Miller Huggins. It was through Ruppert's holdings that St. Petersburg became the Yankees' longtime spring training home.

He was always a baseball fan. On several occasions, he offered to buy the New York Giants, but was always turned down. It wasn't personal: The Brush/Stoneham family simply wasn't interested in selling, at any price. In 1912, he was offered the chance to buy the Chicago Cubs, but decided Chicago was too far away. 

Acquired Yankees: Bought the Yankees as an equal owner with Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston in 1915. The price was $480,000 -- in 2015 money, about $11.2 million.

This appears to have been the photograph

upon which his Plaque was modeled.

"Til" Huston (and that's pronounced HEW-stin like the Texas city, not HUSS-tin) was an Army engineer, having risen to the rank of Captain in the Spanish-American War of 1898, and was nicknamed "Cap" for the rest of his life, even after he was promoted to Colonel in World War I -- a much more legitimate rank than Rupperts. From 1918 to 1923, they were known as "The Colonels."

They were truly the Odd Couple of baseball: Ruppert was a man of inherited wealth, came by his rank dubiously, was emotionally reserved, made sure he was always impeccably dressed, and would speak to the press, albeit in Jeteresque platitudes; Huston was a self-made man, earned his rank, wore his heart on his sleeve, was a sloppy dresser, and didn't talk to the press.

The Ruppert-Huston regime's first game as Yankee owners was on April 14, 1915, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, with President Woodrow Wilson throwing out the first ball. Walter Johnson pitched a shutout, and Jack Warhop couldn't stop the Washington Senators, who won 7-0.

After feuding for most of the time since Huston came home from WWI, particularly over the hiring and then managing of Miller Huggins (Huston wanted someone else), Ruppert bought Huston out in 1922, for $1.5 million -- meaning that, in just 7 years, the value of the team had gone from less than half a million dollars to three million. The last function he attended as an official Yankees part-owner was the Stadium opener in 1923, since his engineering skill had much to do with the actual building, although it was Ruppert's moolah that funded it. When he died in 1938, no current member of the team had ever even met him.

Til Huston at the Yankee Stadium opener,

April 18, 1923.

Uniform Number(s) as a Yankee: None.

Yankee Achievements Include: Built the first Yankee Dynasty. Built the first Yankee Stadium. Made baseball a bigger business than ever. Won American League Pennants in 1921, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937, 1938. That's 10. His moves ultimately would add Pennants in 1939, 1941, 1942, 1943 and 1947, before a new regime's moves could be credited. Won World Series in 1923, 1927, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1937 and 1938. That's 7. Since all were won after he bought Huston out in 1922, this made him the most successful sole owner in baseball history -- until matched by George Steinbrenner in 2009.

Something you should know about him, if you don’t already: The story about him designing the Yankee uniforms with Pinstripes to make Babe Ruth look thinner is bogus. The Yankees first put pinstripes on their uniforms in 1912, before Ruppert bought the team, and before Ruth ever played pro ball. Besides, for most of the first half of his career, Ruth was actually in pretty good shape, so the "slimming pinstripes" were unnecessary.

Left Yankees: By dying. His last game as Yankee owner was on October 9, 1938, at Yankee Stadium, Game 4 of the World Series, the Yankees beating the Chicago Cubs 8-3 and completing a sweep.

After He Was a Yankee: Not applicable.

Died: January 13, 1939, at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, from the effects of phlebitis, at age 71. Buried in Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, Westchester County, New York -- the same cemetery as Lou Gehrig, and adjacent to the cemetery where Ruth is buried. When he died, his estate was worth about $6.4 million, despite having gone through the entire 14 years of Prohibition as a brewer -- about $110 million in today's money.

His estate, controlled by his brother George, now controlled the team, but George didn't want anything to do with it. He let team president and general manager Ed Barrow make all decisions, until George sold the team to the triumverate of Dan Topping, Del Webb and Larry MacPhail in 1945. The brewery, a victim of the phenomenal post-World War II growth of Budweiser, sold its assets to Rheingold, and went out of business in 1965. Ruppert Towers, a housing project, is now on the site.

Plaque Dedicated: April 19, 1940, an Opening Day. It refers to "this imposing edifice," meaning the original Yankee Stadium. The Colonel, of course, had nothing to do with the new one.

Baseball Hall of Fame: Elected by the Pre-Integration Era Committee in 2012, decades after he should have been, as the most influential team owner of the 20th Century.

Other Honors: The street on the 3rd base side of the old Stadium, separating it from the players', officials' and media's parking, and connecting 157th and 161st Streets, was named Ruppert Place. It was eliminated and replaced with a walkway in the building of the new Stadium. The site of the Ruppert Brewery, at 90th Street and 3rd Avenue, is now occupied by the Ruppert Yorkville Towers. The old Newark Bears ballpark was named Ruppert Stadium, and the new Bears (now on hiatus -- hopefully not fully defunct) named their mascot Ruppert. Kansas City's Municipal Stadium was also, for a time, named Ruppert Stadium.

Depictions: Played by Matt Briggs in the 1948 theatrical release The Babe Ruth Story, Donald Moffatt in the 1991 TV-movie Babe Ruth, and Bernard Kates in the 1992 theatrical release The Babe. He does not appear as a character in either of the movies about Lou Gehrig.

Quote of Note: "My idea of a perfect day? It's when the Yankees score eight runs in the first inning, and then slowly pull away."

Miller Huggins: Hall-of-Famer, Monument Parker

Name: Miller James Huggins

Date of Birth: March 27, 1879

Place of Birth: Cincinnati, Ohio

Grew Up In: Same

Nationality: Irish

Position: Manager

Batted: Switch-hitter

Threw: Righthanded

Nickname(s): Hug, the Mighty Mite, the Mite Manager, the Rabbit, Mr. Everywhere

Family: Never married, no known children.

Before He Was a Yankee: Captain of the baseball team at the University of Cincinnati, where he also attended law school. One of his professors told him, "You can become a pleader or a player, not both. Try baseball: You seem to like it better." That professor was a Cincinnati native named William Howard Taft, who went on to game the only man to be both President of the United States and a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (in his case, Chief Justice).

Passed the bar exam, but never practiced law. Played 2nd base for his hometown Cincinnati Reds from 1904 to 1909. Played for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1910 to 1916. Was player-manager from 1913 to 1916, and manager only in 1917.

Was considered an excellent fielder, able to cover lots of ground quickly despite his small stature, hence "the Rabbit" and "Mr. Everywhere." Was a decent, sometimes good, hitter: Batted .304 in 1912, led the National League in games played in 1907, plate appearances in 1910, walks 4 times, and on-base percentage in 1913 with .432. Career OPS+ was 107, meaning he was 7 percent better at producing runs than the average player of his time. But Cardinal general manager Branch Rickey chose not to retain him as manager for the 1918 season.

Acquired By Yankees: Hired by co-owner Jacob Ruppert for the 1918 season. The other co-owner, Til Huston, was in Europe with the U.S. Army, and didn't want Huggins -- he wanted to hire Wilbert Robinson, a friend, away from the Brooklyn Dodgers. Huggins had been recommended to Ruppert by American League President Ban Johnson. Ruppert was skeptical at first, but met Huggins and was thoroughly impressed with him. Huggins had to be talked into taking the job by J.G. Taylor Spink, publisher of The Sporting News. (It was published in St. Louis, and Huggins had met him there.)

His first game as Yankee manager was on April 15, 1918, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, with President Woodrow Wilson throwing out the ceremonial first ball, and the Yankees beat the Washington Senators 6-3. 

Uniform Number(s) as a Yankee: None. Last managed in 1929, the 1st season in which the Yankees wore numbers, but did not wear one himself.

Yankee Achievements Include: Got the Yankees into a Pennant race in 1920, their 1st in 10 years. Got them their 1st Pennant in 1921 and their 1st World Series win in 1923. Won 6 AL Pennants: 1921, 1922, 1923, 1926, 1927 and 1928. Won 3 World Series: 1923, 1927 and 1928.

Something you should know about him, if you don’t already: The story that Babe Ruth dangled him off the back of a moving train is baloney. It never happened. Indeed, Ruth fully respected him, saying, "He was the only man who knew how to keep me in line."

Everyone in baseball respected him, even men who towered over his 5-foot-5-inch, 140-pound frame. Even rival manager John McGraw of the New York Giants (not a whole lot taller) admired Huggins, perhaps seeing a kindred spirit: A fellow Irish Catholic who had made it big in baseball and in big bad New York, a short infielder (although McGraw got fat in his managing years) who used great intelligence to become a great manager (although Huggins wasn't the type to bait umpires, intimidate his players, or spew profanities).

Left Yankees: It wasn't his choice, although Huston wanted to fire him, but Ruppert finally had enough, and bought Huston out in 1922. Huggins left the Yankees in the worst way. In the club's 113-season history, he is their only manager to die in office. His last game before checking into the hospital was on September 19, 1929, a 7-0 loss the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium.

After He Was a Yankee: Not applicable. 

Died: September 25, 1929, at Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in New York. He had left the team 5 days earlier, admitted with a case of erysipelas, a skin rash caused by a strep infection. By the 1940s, it could be treated by antibiotics, and is rarely fatal now. But in 1929, there was little chance to save him. He was only 50, but always seemed to look much older than he was. A unique honor was granted to his memory: All of the AL's games the next day were postponed. He was buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.

Monument Dedicated: May 30, 1932 (Memorial Day).

Baseball Hall of Fame: Elected by the Committee On Veterans in 1964.

Other Honors: The Yankees opened a spring training facility at St. Petersburg, Florida in 1925, named Crescent Lake Park. In 1930, they renamed it Miller Huggins Field. When they left, moving across the State to Fort Lauderdale (and back across to Tampa in 1996), and the Mets took it over in 1962, they renamed it Huggins-Stengel Field, adding Casey Stengel's name. They remained there until 1987, moving across the State to Port St. Lucie. The field is still there, but no professional team uses it now, and the stands are long-gone.

Depictions: Played by: Ernie Adams in The Pride of the Yankees, Fred Lightner in The Babe Ruth Story, Bruce Weitz in the 1991 NBC-TV film Babe Ruth, and Joe Ragno in the 1992 theatrical release The Babe. 

Quote of Note: "Luck? I never believed in it. A good team makes its own breaks."

Welcome to Monument Blog

Welcome to Monument Blog. This is Uncle Mike of Uncle Mike's Musings.

This isn't a traditional blog that will be updated as often as I can. Rather, it's a salute to the people honored in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium.

It will include pictures of these people, pictures of their Plaques or Monuments, and information about them that I think is noteworthy, but not necessarily included on their Plaques or Monuments.

Enjoy.

First, a brief history. The Yankees were not the first team to put things honoring past figures from their team on the field:

* The New York Giants put a monument in deep center field of the Polo Grounds, memorializing Eddie Grant, a 3rd baseman who was the 1st Major League Baseball player killed in World War I. They put it there on Memorial Day, May 29, 1921, and it remained there until the Giants left after the 1957 season. Supposedly, in fear that it would be stolen by fans, the plaque was removed from its marble slab before the game. When the Mets debuted at the Polo Grounds in 1962, the slab was still there, but the plaque was not.

No one knows for sure where the plaque is today. The Giants never found it among their possessions when they arrived in San Francisco. Someone in New Jersey claimed to have found it in 1997, but it was proven to be a fake.

Someone decided that the San Francisco Giants were under "The Curse of Captain Eddie," saying they would never win a World Series in San Francisco until they replaced the plaque, even though Grant never played for the West Coast edition of the team. In 2006, the Giants made a replica of the monument, and placed it on the concourse at AT&T Park. Since then, the Giants have won 3 World Series, ending the Curse (assuming it existed).

* Not long after the Grant monument was dedicated, the Cleveland Indians dedicated a plaque to Ray Chapman, their shortstop who was killed in 1920, the only MLB player who can definitively be proven to have died as the result of an on-field incident.

Oddly, it was at the Polo Grounds, against the Yankees, who shared it with the Giants from 1913 to 1922. Yankee pitcher Carl Mays had a submarine delivery (think Kent Tekulve or Dan Quisenberry), and he was a rotten guy, so people wanted to believe he hit Chapman on purpose. He spent the last 51 years of his life insisting that he hadn't, a statement backed up by the fact that the ball hit Chapman's head and rebounded back to him, leading him to throw the ball to 1st base, thinking Chapman had hit it -- every eyewitness account, including the newspaper reporters', confirms this. Some witnesses even said Chapman leaned into the pitch to the point where his head was over the plate, although more said that he simply froze, and didn't see the ball as it was late on a gray day (August 16, 1920).

The Indians put the plaque up on the field at League Park, and later moved it to Cleveland Municipal Stadium. For some reason now forgotten, it was taken down, and forgotten, until someone asked around about it, and no one could find it. Until they moved to Jacobs (now Progressive) Field in 1994, when a crate was found, and no one knew what was in it, but they figured it must be important, so they moved it to the new park -- and didn't open it!

Until 2007, when someone got curious, and there it was, heavily oxidized so that the text was illegible. It was cleaned up, and, that season, the Indians established their own version of "Monument Park" in center field, naming it Heritage Park. The Chapman plaque is its centerpiece.

(In 1909, Philadelphia Athletics catcher Doc Powers died from an injury sustained in a game, but it appears that he had actually aggravated an existing injury, so Chapman is usually counted as the only on-field fatality. As far as I know, the A's never dedicated anything to his memory.)

* The Pittsburgh Pirates installed a monument in deep center field at Forbes Field in 1932. It was named the Dreyfuss Monument. Team owner Barney Dreyfuss was grooming his son Samuel to be the next owner, but he died in 1931, just 35 years old. (Pneumonia -- no antibiotics in those days.) Heartbroken, Barney died a year later. His widow, Florence, inherited the team, and convinced William Benswanger, who married daughter Florence Dreyfuss, to take control of the team. He installed the monment, inscribing the names of both his father-in-law and his brother-in-law. It was moved to Three Rivers Stadium in 1970 and PNC Park in 2001.

* Since the Yankees established Monument Park, most teams have created team halls of fame, and some have some sort of display somewhere in the stadium. Notably, in 2010, the 2nd season of Citi Field, the Mets put a New York Mets Hall of Fame in a room to the 1st base side of the home plate rotunda (itself a museum honoring Jackie Robinson).

In 1978, the Philadelphia Phillies established the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame, every year honoring a Phillies great and an A's great, hanging them on a wall on the lower level concourse at Veterans Stadium, until 2003, when they moved out and headed into Citizens Bank Park. The A's plaques have been moved twice, and are now at Spike's Trophies store in Northeast Philly, while the Phils add a new legend from their own team every year to the Wall in center field's Ashburn Alley.

*

The Yankees placed a Monument to Miller Huggins, who had died in office as Yankee manager in 1929, in front of the flagpole, in play in deep center field at the original Yankee Stadium, in 1932. When Lou Gehrig died in 1941, and when Babe Ruth died in 1948, Monuments to them were placed flanking Huggins' Monument.

Film exists of Bobby Murcer chasing a long fly ball into deepest center field, and squeezing between the Huggins and Ruth Monuments to go get it. Legend also tells of Mickey Mantle, unable to chase down a long fly, running for it, all the way to the Monuments, and manager Casey Stengel yelling, "Huggins, Gehrig, Ruth, somebody, throw that ball back here!

Plaques were placed on the center field wall in memory of team owner Jacob Ruppert and general manager Ed Barrow. Later, a Plaque was added to commemorate the Mass delivered at The Stadium by Pope Paul VI, and Plaques were added for living ex-Yankees for the 1st time for Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.

This photo shows Mantle standing next to the Monuments. The Barrow Plaque is up, but I don't see the Plaque for the Papal Mass, so it's got to be between 1954 and 1965.

At the time, the Yankees permitted fans to leave the game by walking out onto the outfield grass (not the infield), and walk out to see the Monuments and Plaques, before leaving the Stadium via a gate in right-center field.

When Yankee Stadium was renovated in 1973, '74, '75 and '76, Monument Park was created. But it was set out of play, where fans couldn't see it. In 1985, the left and center field fences were brought in, making it accessible to fans. The fence was brought in further in 1988, creating the outfield distances that would remain for the rest of The Stadium's use, and have been kept at the new Stadium.

When the new Stadium was built in time for the 2009 season, a new Monument Park was created, and the established Monuments and Plaques were moved across 161st Street.

The new Monument Park has a lot more space than the old one, but it's almost hidden, to the point where someone gave it the nickname "Monument Cave."

Currently enshrined in the park, as of this past Saturday, June 20, 2015, are:

* 24 men inducted primarily as players. Some, but not all, with their uniform numbers retired.
* 1 player (Mariano Rivera) with his uniform number retired, but not yet with a Plaque.
* 5 men inducted primarily as managers, 1 of whom also played for the Yankees.
* 2 men inducted as owners.
* 1 man inducted as a general manager.
* 1 man inducted as a broadcaster, although some of the players have also broadcast for the Yankees.
* 1 man inducted as a public-address announcer.
* 3 Plaques in honor of visits by Popes who delivered Mass at the old Stadium.
* A Plaque in honor of Nelson Mandela's 1990 civil rights rally.
* A Plaque in honor of Jackie Robinson's reintegration of the game.
* A Plaque in honor of the victims and rescue workers of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
* And a Plaque explaining the origin of the Yankee "Interlocking NY" logo.

That's 42 separate notations. Some teams have more in their team halls of fame, although the Yankees have far and away the most retired numbers.

In my next entry, I'll begin listing the honorees, in the chronological order of their honoring -- not necessarily in the chronological order of their service with to the Yankees. In other words, Miller Huggins (became manager in 1918, Monument dedicated in 1932) comes before Jacob Ruppert (became owner in 1915, Plaque dedicated in 1940).

When I've exhausted the list, I'll post Baseball Hall of Fame plaques of men with connections to the Yankees, but not in Monument Park, and explain whether I think they should be added.

When that runs out, I'll tell of others whom I think should be be honored, or could be, but aren't yet.