Word: mickey
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Mantle game, a ground ball or a pop-up was an out; a line drive off the side of the house was a double, off the roof a triple, over the roof a homer. The daily drills often lasted five hours. Recalling it without rancor, Mickey says: "I'm probably the only kid who ever made his old man proud of him by breaking a window...
...time he was ten, Mickey was catching in peewee baseball, in Oklahoma's Gabby Street league. One day Mutt Mantle caught his son batting righty against a righthander. He sent Mickey home with an ultimatum: "Don't you ever put on that baseball uniform again until you switch-hit like I taught you." Mickey has not failed to switch since...
Respected Advice. At Commerce High School Mickey was a three-letter man: basketball, football (against his father's wishes) and, of course, baseball. During a football scrimmage one day, Sophomore Back Mantle got a kick on the left shin. He limped home from practice and his mother soaked the leg. By the next morning Mickey's whole lower leg was swollen and an ugly blue. Mutt took him to Oklahoma City, where the doctors made a diagnosis of osteomyelitis...
...shin kick had caused a blood clot next to the bone. The clot became infected and inflamed, spreading the bad infection into the bone. There was talk of amputation. Penicillin and diathermy saved the leg, but while such infections can be curbed, they are sometimes impossible to cure. Mickey, who must guard against flare-ups of the infection, has had his share of poison-pen letters demanding to know why he is not fighting in Korea. On medical advice, Mickey's draft board has rejected him three times...
...Mickey was playing shortstop for the Baxter Springs Whiz Kids in the Ban Johnson League. He was big enough to deserve at least a perfunctory glance from the baseball scouts. But nobody seemed interested in glancing Mickey's way. The Whiz Kids' manager, Barney Barnett, tried to get the St. Louis Cardinals interested. They did not answer Barnett's letter. As they will long remember, ivory hunters for the Chicago White Sox and Boston Red Sox also passed up the chance to give Mickey Charles Mantle a farmclub tryout...