I was just watching Mike and the Mad Dog over at Yogi's place on YES. The great Hank Bauer and Moose Skowron were guests. I wasn't old enough to see these guys play, but were they funny.
The love for Mantle came pouring out and the disdain for Casey was just as evident. They talked of DiMaggio and Monroe, Frank Robinson and Jim Palmer, Eddy Stanky and Paul Blair. Baseball was the true American pastime. Bauer holds the record of hitting in 17 consectutive World Series games. One he's still proud to embrace.
They were hard on steroids saying that Maris still held the record and as Skowron proclaimed..." Mantle was the best player I ever saw."
I was at Mickey Mantle day way back in 69' and it's a moment I'll never forget. When he drove around in that cart and waved to the over 60,000 fans cheering, we all felt that he waved at us individually. We knew his legs hurt so bad and he would be spared the constant taping that they endured. We were sad that his lifetime average dipped below .300, but we knew that the game had lost a true talent. Nobody has ever hit the ball farther than Mantle did. When you look up at the lights, try to envision a ball rocketing off the top of the right field facade. When Bonds hit his homer in the Stadium off of Ted Lilly, the announcers proclaimed the majesty in it. Yet it never came close to the magic spot that Mantle's ball careened off of.
It's almost ten years ago that he died. I'll try to get some audio of some interviews he did and post them on the site.
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