Looking Back: Mickey Mantle Plays In The Dell
Plenty of future Hall of Famers displayed their talents that day on the once sacred plot of baseball real estate. New York manager Casey Stengel, who had been a manager since 1935, was entering his fifth year as the Yankee skipper. Just completing his second season in a major league uniform was 21-year old Mickey Mantle.
F. M. Williams of The Tennessean wrote about the game's results:
A weird seventh inning turned what might have been one of Sulphur Dell's greatest baseball games into a 9 to 1 route for the New York Yankees over the Nashville Vols yesterday afternoon.
A good week-day crowd, considering threatening weather, of 2,693 watched unbelievably as the Vols crowded the Yanks. 1 to 0 through six flawless innings, only to collapse completely in the next and let eight of the World Champions romp across the plate.
In the end, Manager Hugh Poland was all smiles, chiefly because of the way his righthander, Dick Adair, breezed through five innings against the best baseball players in the land.
Prior to the ball game Tennessee Governor Frank Clement presented Yankees pitching coach and Nashvillian Jim Turner a certificate proclaiming him a colonel. Also before the contest, Grand Ole Opery star Hank Snow autographed one of his songbooks for Mantle. In return, Mantle gave Snow an autographed baseball
In that "weird" seventh inning, Yogi Berra singled off the right field screen against Vols pitcher Pete Mallory with one out. Hank Bauer slapped a double to left field sending Berra to third base. Don Bollweg walked to load the bases.
Andy Carey hit a slow roller past Vols third baseman Bill Gardner, but shortstop Tom Korezowski fielded the ball and flipped it to second baseman Bob Boring. Boring touched second base and threw the ball past first baseman Gail Harris. But, instead of a force out at second, the umpire ruled Boring's foot was off the bag. Boring was charged with two errors on the same play.
Berra and Bauer had scored; Bollweg was on third while Carey stood on second base. Yankees pitcher Jim McDonald poked a slow ground ball to Gardner who missed a tag on Bollweg who was racing back to third. Gardner threw the ball 20 feet over Harris, allowing Bollweg and Carey to score.
Loren Babe (pinch hitting for shortstop Phil Rizzuto) walked and Jim Brideweser was hit by a pitch to force in a run. Bob Cerv (pinch hitting for Gene Woodling), singled to score two more men. Mantle followed with a double off the centerfield embankment, but was thrown out trying for a triple. Two more runs scored off his blast.
The Yankees first run came in the second inning when Bauer clubbed a solo home run. The Vols scored their lone run in the eighth inning when Bill Pavlick and Harris singled. Bob Lennon hit a shot past Yankees third baseman Carey for an error.
The Tennessean described an unusual scoring for a putout:
Even the oldest fan in the stand probably never saw a putout like the Vols pulled in the eighth inning. It went from catcher, to third, to short, to second to first. Bollweg swung at a third strike that Bob Pottenger (catcher) trapped.
When Bollweg walked towards the Yankees bench, Pottenger started throwing the ball around the infield. Bollweg suddenly broke for first but Buster Boguskie hurried a throw to Harris in time to get the Yankee.
The game was played in 2:12 while McDonald was the winning pitcher and Adair took the loss. Playing in center field, Mantle was 1-for-4 with two runs batted in; Rizzuto 0-for-3; Berra 1-for-4; Bauer 2-for-3 and Woodling 1-for-3.
Other notable names for the Yankees to appear that day were future Yankee manager Billy Martin (a third base replacement) and Johnny Mize (walked as pinch hitter). Former Nashville Vols pitcher Johnny Sain (1940-41) and Whitey Ford enjoyed the game form the bench.
Stengel's 1953 Yankees would again repeat as World Series champions defeating the Brooklyn Dodgers in four games to two. Ford led the team with an 18-6 record while Sain was second best at 14-7. Mantle batted .295 with 21 home runs and 92 runs driven in. Berra led the club in home runs (27) and RBIs (108) with a .296 average. Bauer led the team in batting average at .306.
Stengel led New York to ten pennants and seven World Series titles as the Yankees manager (1949-60). He was hired as the expansion club New York Mets manager in 1962 until a hip injury three years later forced the 75-year-old to retire. The "Old Professor" was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966 and died in 1975.
Mantle took over as the Yankees center field position with the retirement of the legendary Joe DiMaggio in 1952. The "Commerce Comet" from Oklahoma kept the position until in 1966. Mantle retired in 1968 after 18 seasons of major league baseball, all with New York. He batted .298 in 2,401 plate appearances with 536 home runs and 1,509 RBIs.
Mantle also participated in 12 World Series (seven championships) playing in 65 games. He holds WS records for most home runs (18), RBIs (40), runs (42), extra base hits (26) and total bases (126). In his first year of eligibility Mantle was enshrined into the Hall of Fame in 1974. Mantle passed away in 1995.
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This will be the last "Looking Back" story for 2010.