Mickey Mantle “the Mick” was the centerfielder for the New York Yankees from 1951 to 1968. He batted from both sides of the plate and could run from the batter’s box to first base within 3.1 seconds when batting left.

Mantle played his first Major League game on April 17, 1951, against the Boston Red Sox where he picked up his first hit and first RBI. The Yankees faced off against the New York Giants in the 1951 World Series where in the second game, Mantle tripped on an exposed pipe going for a fly ball causing him to tear his ACL, an injury that would affect him for the rest of his career.

After the 1951 World Series, Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from Major League Baseball which prompted the Yankees to move Mantle to center field where he stayed for the next fourteen seasons. Mantle won his first MVP in 1956 after having a .353 batting average with 130 RBI and 52 home runs which made him win the triple crown. Mantle won his second consecutive MVP in 1957 after batting .365 and having 34 home runs.

In 1961 Mantle and his teammate Roger Maris were racing to break Babe Ruth’s single season home run record. Nicknamed the “M&M Boys”, they were considered one of the greatest duos in baseball history and were very good friends. Mantle’s season was cut short due to pulling his forearm muscle and an abscessed hip from a flu shot and finished the season with 54 home runs. Maris broke the record on October 1, 1961.

Mantle won his third MVP in 1962 finishing the season with a .321 batting average. Mantle had a good season in 1964 but fell short of the MVP coming in second place behind Baltimore Orioles third baseman, Brooks Robinson. In 1965 the Houston Astros opened their new stadium, The Astrodome, where they played an exhibition game against the New York Yankees where Mantle hit the stadium’s first home run. 

In 1969, Mickey Mantle announced his retirement from Major League Baseball, Mantle was 37 years old. On June 8, 1969, the Yankees held Mickey Mantle Day at Yankee stadium where they retired Mantle’s number 7. Mantle was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974, where he received 88.2% of the vote on his first ballot. Mantle lived until 1995 when he died of cirrhosis of the liver.