Remembering Mickey Mantle

'Mickey Mantle, Yankee Stadium is all yours'

Good morning, all and happy Monday!

If you follow sports and have a favorite team or teams, you tend to earmark time by certain events that impacted your team and your life. You knew where you were when the TD pass was thrown to win the Super Bowl; when the home run was struck to win the pennant; when and where the basket was sunk to send your team to the finals.

And so it was I knew exactly where I was 57 years ago, June 8, 1969. I was smack dab in the middle of my living room with my dad and brothers, watching the New York Yankees play the Chicago White Sox on Mickey Mantle Day. The Yankees were retiring Mantle’s uniform no. 7 and more than 60,000 fans jammed the real Yankee Stadium. (The subsequent renovation of that cathedral of baseball and its replacement next door are not the real Yankee Stadium.)

The retirement ceremony occurred in between games of a doubleheader. I remember the roar of the crowd. I remember Pat Summeral serving as the TV host of the ceremony, wondering why a football broadcaster was providing the soundtrack for such an august baseball moment. Little did I know, Summeral once hosted the Yankees pregame and postgame shows on radio, when the club’s games were broadcast on WCBS-AM and that he and Mantle were best buds.

I remember that my broadcast idol, Mel Allen, the “Voice of the Yankees,” who was unceremoniously dumped by the club after the 1964 season, was brought back to call Mantle from the dugout, as he had called Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Joe DiMaggio, when their numbers were retired.

I remember that Mel got the second longest and loudest ovation from the crowd after Mantle’s, even louder than DiMaggio’s. I can still recite word-for-word, Mel’s majestic introduction of Mickey. You fool Yankees, how could you fire such an iconic voice?

I remember the MC for that day, Yankee announcer Frank Messer, another favorite of mine who’s mentor I got to know while broadcasting games in Richmond, VA, saying as the ceremony concluded: “Mickey Mantle, Yankee Stadium is all yours.”

Thanks to You Tube, that historic, baseball day remains available for all to see.

I remember how the Yankees released a 45 RPM record of the ceremony, long before one could even imagine there would be a You Tube, and that I wore the record out, playing it over-and-over.

And I remember that a friend, who was at the event, was kind enough to give me a souvenir pennant the Yankees distributed to fans who attended the doubleheader that day. I proudly hung it on my bedroom wall.

Do not ask me what I had for dinner last night, but I can tell you where I was 57 years ago today. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Have a marvelous Monday and thank you for subscribing to the newsletter!

DAN