The name Mano  was a household name,  the face of baseball.  He represented America to me and I wanted to be a baseball player. I wanted to replace Mickey Manel when he retired until we started taking our own batting averages. I remember figuring out that uh I’m I only bat 188. I better do something else in life.

 And this is the man that most represented the Yankees.  So, I’ve seen a lot of great sluggers. There is nobody in my mind who could do it in a ball game greater than Mickey Man.  Mickey Mantle levels on one for a homer to right field, scoring Maris ahead of him. It’s number 12 for Mantle in World Series play, breaking a previous tie with Duke Snder and putting him only three behind Babe Ruth, the greatest slugger of them all.

 Growing up in Commerce, Oklahoma,  one of the biggest things of coming to this country was you wanted to be an American. Mickey Manel was an American. If you look at some of the pictures of when dad would swing, I mean, you’d even see the neck.  So, Mickey Man, boy, did he work out.  It’s a scoreless game as Mickey Man triples with one out in the fourth inning.

And I remember him coming back and throwing his helmet down the runway and walking by and he found the the four spot where his bats were and he just took his hand.  Style is reminiscent of Dizzy Dean just keeps firing free and easy. Manel belts a powerful drive to left center. It sailed deep into the bleachers for an opposite field home run.

Phil Rudo once said about Mickey Manel, “I never saw anybody hit the ball so hard. When he swings the bat, you just have to stop and watch.” Ted Williams, the greatest hitter who ever lived, admitted, “If I could run like Manel, I would hit 400 every year.” But there was something nobody saw, something Manel hid every single morning.

 A truth that makes everything you think you know about him different. What you are about to hear will change how you see greatness. The stories his teammates tell  reveal a man far more remarkable than the legend. April 17th, 1951. A 19-year-old kid walks into Yankee Stadium for the first time. Joe Deaggio has just announced this will be his final season.

 The pressure is unthinkable. replace the greatest Yankee who ever lived. Casey Stangle watches this kid during spring training and says something nobody has ever said about a baseball player. He is faster  than any power hitter I have ever seen and stronger than any speedster I have ever seen.

 No one has ever had more of both speed and power at the same time. Then Stangle adds, “This kid does not make sense. He does too well. It is very hard to understand. He did not make sense because the physics should not allow it. 3.1 seconds from home plate to first base, the fastest  in baseball. 13 seconds to run around all four bases at the same time hitting balls over buildings.

 Frank Lane, the White Sox general manager, makes an offer. I would give the Yankees a quart of a million dollars for him and bury him in thousand bills as a signing bonus. in 1951. That is a fortune. But there was one person who thought Mickey would fail completely. Mid-season 1951, the Yankees send Mickey to AAA Kansas City.

 He is struggling, striking out repeatedly. He calls his father and says he cannot do this anymore. He wants to come home. Mut Mantel drives from Oklahoma to Kansas City. He walks into the hotel room and says words that will haunt Mickey forever. I thought I raised a ball player. You are nothing but a coward and a quitter. Then he starts packing Mickey’s bags.

Mickey later recalls, I expected him to say, “Hang in there,” or something like that. It took me an hour to talk him into giving me another chance. He goes 11 for 20 in his next games. The Yankees call him back. He never looks back. But why did Mut do this? Mickey explains. He foresaw the platooning that managers like Casey Stangle used years before it happened.

 He told me I had to be a switch hitter if I was going to play. The training began in childhood. My dad taught me to switch hit. He and my grandfather, who was left-handed, pitched to me every day after school in the backyard. I batted lefty against my dad and righty against my granddad. Then 1952, Mut Mantle dies of cancer at age 39.

Mickey has just finished his first full season. He is 21 years old, now the man of his family. That pain would drive Mickey to do something no one had ever done before. April 17th, 1953, exactly 2 years after his first game, Griffith Stadium, Washington, Mickey Mantel, 21 years old, steps up to bat against Chuck Stabs.

 Top of the fifth inning, Yogi Barra on first base. Stabs delivers a chest high fast ball. What happens next? Nobody has ever seen before. The ball clears the left field wall 460 ft from home plate. But it keeps rising. It crosses Fifth Street. It lands in the backyard of 434 Oakdale Street, 565 ft total.

 The first home run to ever leave Griffith Stadium. Joe Deaggio never did it. Babe Ruth never did it. Yankees publicity man Red Patterson runs out of the stadium. He finds 10-year-old Donald Dunaway holding the ball. Patterson pays him $1. Later sends five more and two autographed baseballs. This moment creates the term tape measure home run.

 Baseball is changed forever. But here is the detail that makes it impossible to believe. Ninth inning, same game. Mantle bunts. The bunt rolls all the way to center field for a single. The longest home run and the longest bunt in one game. Critics claim the home run was wind aided. A federal judge who attended the game testifies the flag was motionless.

 Even a judge has to validate what seems impossible. But every morning, Mickey hid a secret that made this even more remarkable. Every morning, the Yankees take the field for warm-ups. Every morning, Mickey Mantel arrives late. Nobody knows why. Eddie Ford, son of pitcher Whitey Ford, reveals the truth years later.

“When I was a kid, my dad would bring me to the ballpark. I asked him why Mickey was always late.” He shook his head and set me straight. “Mickey is not late,” he said. “He just does not want anyone to see him putting those bandages on his legs.” The revelation continues. Everyone knew Mickey had to wrap his knees completely, but he did not want anyone to see him do it.

 He did not want them to think it was an excuse. He was always hurt, and it really gave inspiration to the rest of the team. They knew how badly he was hurting, so they would not ask out of the lineup if they were hurt. Age 15, playing football, Mickey is kicked in the shin. He develops osteomiolitis, a bone infection. Five operations.

 Doctors almost amputate his leg. This is the fastest player in baseball. Ralph Hal, his manager, says, “If Mickey had good legs throughout his career, he would have been an unbelievable ball player.” Carl Yostreky adds, “If that guy were healthy, he would hit 80 home runs. He plays 150 games or more only four times in 18 seasons.

 Still hits 536 home runs. Still bats 298. Still the fastest player in baseball. Tom Tresh, his teammate, captures it perfectly. We never thought we could lose as long as Mickey was playing. The point was we had Mickey and the other team did not. But Mickey never wanted to be the star. He wanted  to be one of the guys. Mickey Mantel, Whitey Ford, and Billy Martin.

 Inseparable on and off the field. Mickey knows the truth about this friendship. If I had not met those two guys, Billy Martin and Whitey Ford, at the start of my career, I would have lasted another 5 years. He knows they are shortening his career, but he says, “I have no idea why I liked him so much. We never could figure it out.

” Me and Whitey Ford and Billy were all so different. That is why we got along so well. The stories reveal their bond. One night, they violate curfew at the Kenmore Hotel. Billy says, “There is a window up there that is open. Boost me up there and I will get in and come around and open the door for you. Mickey boosts Billy through the window.

 The door is chained. Billy cannot open it. He yells down, “I will see you tomorrow.” When Mickey receives a death threat in Boston, Billy offers, “Listen, why don’t you wear my number and I will wear yours?” Mickey says about Billy. The players knew that if Billy asked them to jump off a roof, he would jump off with them.

about Whitey Ford. Mickey is clear. If the World Series was on the line and I could pick one pitcher to pitch the game, I would choose Whitey Ford every time. But the relationship that surprised everyone was with his supposed rival. The 1950s and60s, the biggest debate in baseball, Mickey Manel versus Willie Mays, Yankees versus Giants.

 The media relentlessly pits them against each other. Gabe Paul, baseball executive, weighs in. I have to give Maize one edge, durability. Mickey is not sound and Willie is. Otherwise, if I had a chance to trade for either player, I would pick Mantle. Bill James, the statistician, analyzes their careers. Mantle was clearly a greater player in his peak years.

 Even if Maize is given every conceivable break on every unknown, defense, base running, clutch hitting, his performance still would not match Mantles. Billy Martin says bluntly, “When they say Maize hit a ball as far as Mickey, they are smoking something.” Gus Xernial offers the perfect summary. The best hitter I ever saw was Ted Williams.

 The most complete player, Joe Deaggio. The most exciting, Mickey Mantel. But here is what nobody knew. From Alan Barah’s book, Mickey and Willie, the truth emerges. They were close friends. Each was the only man who could truly understand the other’s experience. Both carrying impossible expectations. Both in the New York spotlight. Both from poor backgrounds.

When asked directly who was better, Mickey gives an answer he never gives about anyone else. If you want to know who was better, me or Willie Mays, you have to look at our career stats. And Willy’s bottom line was better. He deflects credit to Willie, the only time he ever directly compares himself  to another player.

 But there was one more relationship that showed Mickey’s true character. 1961, Mantle and Roger Maris both chase Babe Ruth’s 60 home runs. The media creates a narrative. They hate each other. Maris is not a true Yankee. Mickey should be the one to break the record. Mickey destroys this lie. A lot of people wrote that Roger and I did not like each other and that we did not get along.

 Nothing could be further from the truth. They roommed together. They were friends. Mickey watches the pressure destroy Maris. The strain on Roger was unbelievable. After I dropped out, the reporters only had one guy to go to. They surrounded him everywhere he went. He had big clumps of hair falling out. That he went ahead and did it was unbelievable.

When Maris hits his 61st home run on the final day of the season, Mickey says, “The greatest thing I ever saw was Roger Maris breaking Babe Ruth’s record.” Not jealousy, pure joy for his friend. Remember Phil Rudo? I never saw anybody hit the ball so hard. Remember Casey Stangle? This kid does not make sense.

Now you know why he did not make sense. He was the fastest power hitter who ever lived. Who played on one leg. Who hid his pain every morning. Who deflected credit to teammates. Who defended his rivals. Who remained humble when he could have been prideful. After the 1952 World Series, Jackie Robinson told 20-year-old Mantel, “You are going to be a great player, kid.

Robinson was right, but not in the way he thought. Mickey Mantel’s plaque in Monument Park does not say greatest power hitter. It does not say fastest player. It says a great teammate. That is what he wanted to be remembered for. His father called him a quitter at age 20.

 He spent his entire life proving he was not. He played through pain that would end other careers. He lifted  teammates instead of seeking the spotlight. He recognized others greatness instead of demanding recognition. Gus Xernial said Mickey was the most exciting. Not because of 565- ft home runs, because of what he did when nobody was watching, the bandages he wrapped in private, the encouragement he gave teammates, the credit he gave to others.

 That is the Mickey mantle players remember. Not just the tape measure home runs, but the man behind them. What surprised you most about Mickey’s story? Drop your thoughts in the comments below. If this changed how you see greatness, hit that like button. Know a baseball fan who needs to hear this? Share this video with them. Want to hear what players said about Willie Mays or Ted Williams? Check out the videos on screen and subscribe for more untold stories from baseball’s golden