This Day in Yankees history: Happy birthday, Mickey Mantle

Welcome to the relaunched This Day in Yankees History. As the offseason has begun much sooner than anyone has ever hoped for, the Pinstripe Alley team has decided to continue the revived program in its new format. These daily posts will highlight two or three key moments in Yankees history on a given date, as well as recognize players born on the day. Hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane with us!

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This Day in Yankees History

60 Years Ago

Ralph Houk, who briefly served as acting manager during the season while Casey Stengel was hospitalized, is named the Yankees manager, replacing Stengel.

20 Years Ago

The Yankees lose Game 1 of the 1996 World Series to the Atlanta Braves by the score 12-1. Future Yankee outfielder Andruw Jones becomes the youngest player to homer in the World Series when, as a nineteen-year-old, he homered off of Andy Pettitte in the second inning and Brian Boehringer in the third. Despite the rough start to the series, however, it was simply the beginning of many good things.

16 Years Ago

We’re not going to talk about this one.

11 Years Ago

Alex Rodriguez continues his hot postseason by extending his RBI streak to eight games with a two-run home run off Jason Bulger, as the Yankees crush the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim by the score 10-1.

3 Years Ago

Fresh off three straight victories at Yankee Stadium to take a 3-2 lead in the ALCS, the Yankees return to Houston and find much different results. In addition to the offense being shut down by Justin Verlander, the Astros offense, which had scored only five runs in three games on the road, miraculously woke up and scored seven runs off Luis Severino and David Robertson.

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Birthdays

Happy 89th birthday to Yankees legend Mickey Mantle. One of the great players of all time, Mantle played for 18 seasons (all with the Yankees), hitting 536 home runs (18th all time) with a 172 Adjusted OPS+ (7th all time). He took home an immense amount of hardware, winning seven World Series championships, three MVP Awards, the 1956 batting title, and the 1962 Gold Glove Award, in addition to being named to the All-Star team on 16 occasions. Throughout his career, he never had a below-average season at the plate, with his worst OPS+ (117) coming in his rookie year. Truly, the retired number is deserved. Mantle passed away on August 13, 1995, at the age of 63, after a battle with cancer.

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We thank Baseball-Reference, Nationalpastime.com, and FanGraphs for providing background information for these posts.