Mantle, the bull-necked blond switch-hitter, had one sensational triple-crown season, 1959, when he batted and also led the American League in home runs, 52, and rbi's, 130.

Mantle led off the Yankee eighth inning with the first of his 18 World Series home runs.

The early 1960s Yankees responded to Houk's leadership ; the 1961 team led by Roger Maris ( 61 home runs ), Mickey Mantle ( 54 homers ) and Whitey Ford ( 25 victories ) won 109 games and beat the Cincinnati Reds in five games in the World Series.

The opinion continues here that with a 162-game schedule, pitching spread thin through a 10-team league and a most inviting target in Los Angeles' Wrigley Field Jr., Mantle just might break the most glamorous record on the books, Babe Ruth's 60 homers of 1927.

Greenwade returned in 1949, after Mantle's high school graduation, to sign Mantle to a minor league contract.

Mantle finished with 54 while leading the league in runs scored and walks.

McLain had grown up idolizing New York Yankee center fielder, Mickey Mantle, who entered the game tied with Jimmie Foxx for third place in the major league career home runs list.

* Mickey Mantle, New York Yankees outfielder and first baseman ; played with the Class C " Joplin Miners " minor league baseball team in 1950

Using the “ Gray Ink Test ,” which awards points based on how often a player is among the league batting leaders, Crawford ranks as the ninth best hitter of all time, ahead of greats such as Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle, among others.

But he rebounded in 1958 with. 319, ending third in the league behind Williams (. 328 ) and Pete Runnels (. 322 ), and surpassing Al Kaline, Vic Power, Bob Cerv, Mantle, Rocky Colavito, Minnie Miñoso and Nellie Fox.

In addition to The Boys of Summer, recently optioned for a Broadway play, Kahn wrote books such as Good Enough to Dream, a chronicle of his year as the owner of a minor league baseball franchise ; The Era 1947-57, an examination of the decade during which the three New York clubs-the Dodgers, Yankees and Giants-dominated Major League Baseball ; and Memories of Summer, a look back at his youth and early career, plus extended pieces on New York baseball legends Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

All Mantle needs is eight more home runs in August and ten in September, and he will establish a new record.

Neither Mantle nor Maris, understandably, will predict 60 home runs for himself.

Each enjoys seeing the other hit home runs ( `` I hope Roger hits 80 '', Mantle says ), and each enjoys even more seeing himself hit home runs ( `` and I hope I hit 81 '' ).

During the game, Mantle hit three home runs.

Mantle hit. 255 that season with only 19 home runs.

Mantle also hit some of the longest home runs in Major League history.

Although he was a feared power hitter from either side of the plate, Mantle considered himself a better right-handed hitter even though he had more home runs from the left side of the plate: 372 left-handed, 164 right-handed.

Frequently, Betty dated Reggie Mantle early on in the titles ' runs and occasionally still, more often than not as a casual date when Veronica beat her to the punch to have Archie take her out.

The highest home run and RBI totals by a batting winner were achieved by Mickey Mantle and Lou Gehrig, respectively ; Mantle hit 52 home runs in 1956, and Gehrig batted in 165 runs in 1934, their only Triple Crown seasons.

The Yankees ' Mickey Mantle holds the record for most career World Series runs scored with 42 ( 1951 – 53, 1955 – 58, 1960 – 64 ).

His 306 career home runs place him ninth among center fielders, behind Willie Mays, Ken Griffey, Jr., Mickey Mantle, Duke Snider, Dale Murphy, Joe DiMaggio, Jim Edmonds, and Andruw Jones.

For instance, New York Yankees great Mickey Mantle always considered himself a better right-handed hitter, but hit more home runs left-handed.

( However, many of Mantle's left-handed home runs were struck at Yankee Stadium, a park notorious for being very friendly to left-handed power hitters due to the short right field porch, and Mantle batted left-handed much more often than right-handed, simply because there have always been more right-handed than left-handed pitchers.

He retired after the 1997 season with 504 home runs ; as of 2011, Mickey Mantle is the only switch-hitter who has hit more home runs ( 536 ).

In a memorable episode of The Munsters, entitled " Herman the Rookie " ( 4 / 8 / 65 ), Durocher believes Herman ( Fred Gwynne ) is the next Mickey Mantle when he sees the towering Munster hit long home runs.

This was his 14th home run of the month, tying Mickey Mantle for the Yankee record for home runs in July.

Mantle batted. 237 in 1968.

That was due to Mantle having batted left-handed much more often, as the large majority of pitchers are right-handed.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest second basemen of all time, during his career Gehringer, who batted left-handed and threw with his right, compiled a. 320 batting average and had seven seasons with more than 200 hits – a hit total never reached in a season by Ted Williams or Mickey Mantle and reached only once by Willie Mays.

Maxwell played 141 games for the Tigers in 1956 and finished among the American League leaders in most batting categories with a. 534 slugging percentage ( 3rd in the AL behind Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams ); a. 326 batted ( 4th in AL ); a. 414 on base percentage ( 4th in the AL ); 96 runs ( 4th in the AL ); 28 home runs ( 5th in the AL ); and 95 RBIs ( 5th in the AL ).

Willie's big day revived the running argument about the relative merits of Mays and Mickey Mantle.

With Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra both out of action due to injuries, the American League champs still mounted a 15-hit attack against a parade of eight Cincinnati pitchers, the most ever used by one team in a series game.

The two top talents of the time, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, have hit the ball harder and more successfully so far this early season than at any period in careers which, to be frank about it, never have quite reached expectations.

Mays and Mantle, both 10-year men at 30, have so much ability that, baseball men agree, they've never hit the heights.

Now, apparently happier under new managers, Mays and Mantle, the perfect players, are behaving as though they're going to pass those previous peaks.

Mantle, it's apparent, resented Casey Stengel's attempts to push and prod him into the perfection the veteran manager saw as a thrilling possibility.

Stengel inherited DiMaggio, Rizzuto, but he brought up Mantle from Class C to the majors, from Joplin to New York.

Inheriting a more mature Mantle, who now has seen the sights on and off Broadway, Ralph Houk quietly bestowed, no pun intended, the mantle of authority on Mickey.

And what leadership a proud Mantle has given so far.

When Mickey Charles Mantle, the New York Yankees' man of muscle, drives a home run 450 feet into the bleachers, his feat touches upon the sublime.

Their names are Mantle and Maris, their team is the Yankees, and their threat is real.

After 108 games in 1961, Mickey Mantle has 43, Roger Maris 41.

But one thing is for certain: There is no dissension between Mantle, the American League's Most Valuable Player in 1956 and 1957, and Maris, the MVP in 1960.

Mantle, Maris, and Bob Cerv, a utility outfielder, share an apartment in Jamaica, Long Island, not far from New York International Airport.

They divide up the household chores: Cerv does most of the cooking ( breakfast and sandwich snacks, with dinner out ), Mantle supplies the transportation ( a white 1961 Oldsmobile convertible ), and Maris drives the 25-minute course from the apartment house to Yankee Stadium.

Mantle, Maris, and Cerv probably share one major-league record already: Among them, they have fifteen children -- eight for Cerv, four for Mantle, and three for Maris.

As roommates, teammates, and home-run mates, Mantle, 29, who broke in with the Yankees ten years ago, and Maris, 26, who came to the Yankees from Kansas City two years ago, have strikingly similar backgrounds.

Both are 6 feet tall and weigh between 195 and 200 pounds, but Mantle, incredibly muscular ( he has a 17-1/2-inch neck ), looks bigger.

Mantle, more concerned with dress, buys his suits four at a time at Neiman-Marcus in Dallas and pays as much as $250 each.