TODAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY

May 22, 1963 -- At Yankee Stadium, New York blows a 7 - 0 lead and allows Kansas City to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Mickey Mantle, leading off the 11th, is fooled by Bill Fischer on a slow curve, then cannons a 2 - 2 pitch that almost clears the RF roof. "The hardest ball I ever hit," Mantle later comments, a ball that, by some accounts, is still rising when it strikes a foot below the top. It is conservatively estimated by Dr. James McDonald, a physicist who studies long-ball trajectories, that the ball would have traveled 620 feet if it had not struck the façade. "That was the only homer I ever hit that the bat actually bent in my hands," Mantle tells Dale Long, from whom he borrowed the bat.

Mantle will give an interview discussing this Homerun below.

The greatest switch-hitter in history, Mickey Mantle combined power and speed unlike any other man before him in baseball history. He followed Joe DiMaggio in the procession of Yankee center fielders and heroes. He overcame injuries to play more than 2,000 games and hit 536 home runs. He played in twelve World Series, won three Most Valuable Player awards, and captured the Triple crown in 1956.

The Ultimate Autograph Show
Mantle once joked that once he died, if he got to heaven, God wouldn't let him in because of the wild life he had led. But as he turned to leave, God would say, 'Before you go, would you sign six dozen baseballs?'

Post-Season Notes
Mantle holds career records for most home runs, runs scored, and RBI in World Series play. He was a World Series champion seven times.

Feats: On May 13, 1955, Mantle hit three homers in one game for the first time in his career. He hit all three into the center field bleachers at Yankee Stadium, each of them "a titanic blast," according to the New York Times. Mantle hit his first two homers left-handed and the last one right-handed, to become the first batter to hit homers from each side of the plate in American League history. Ironically, Mantle hit the homers with borrowed bats. His first two homers were hit with a bat discarded by teammate Enos Slaughter, and his last homer was hit with a Bill Skowron model.

Notes
Through the Freedom of Information Act, you can download a 29-page FBI report on the hate mail Mantle received while he was a player. Much of it has to do with his playing while others went to war in Korea.

Injuries and Explanation for Missed Playing Time
Mantle played and partied like there was no tomorrow, believing he would fail to escape the fate of the men in his family who rarely lived to see 40. He was friend and teammate to Whitey Ford and Billy Martin, often getting into off-the-field troubles. An entire generation of New York baseball fans grew up idolizing the blond-haired, muscular center fielder. In the city the debate raged as to who was better – Willie (Mays), Mickey, or the Duke (Snider). Few argued that any player was more talented than Mantle. He battled injuries throughout his career: chronic bone infections, broken foot, shoulder separations, knee problems, torn hamstrings. Despite the setbacks, he played more than 140 games twelve times and led his league in major batting categories on on twenty-five occasions.

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Interview vault includes:

40+ highlights and interviews, and hundreds of games he broadcasted

May 22, 1933, in a 3-0 win behind Lefty Gomez over Cleveland, Joe Sewell of the New York Yankees strikes out for the first time on the season. Sewell, the 34 year old future hall of farmer, playing in his final season, will strike out only three more times in 524 at-bats.

May 22, 1937 — Facing Wes Ferrell in Boston, Hank Greenberg hits a long centerfield home run out of Fenway Park. It exits to the right of the flag pole and is called the longest home run ever hit at Fenway. Gee Walker has three hits to run his hitting streak to 26 straight games, but the Red Sox counter with 14 hits of their own to win, 11 – 9. Walker’s streak will end on the 24th after 27 games.

May 22, 1946 — Josh Gibson’s historic home run helps the defending Negro National League Champion Homestead Grays prevail against the New York Black Yankees. Gibson, reports the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, “hit one of the longest home runs ever poled at Forbes Field when he thrilled the crowd of 5,000 by driving one 450 feet over the left-center wall.” This estimate is almost certainly understated, and perhaps by quite a bit.

May 22, 1957 — The Red Sox set an American League record by smashing four home runs in the 6th inning in an 11 – 0 win over Cleveland. Gene Mauch, Ted Williams, Dick Gernert and Frank Malzone do the honors. All of these come on the first 16 pitches from Cal McLish. Williams had set the record with Jimmie Foxx, Joe Cronin and Jim Tabor in 1940.

May 22, 1958 — Ted Williams hits his 16th career grand slam to provide the Red Sox with the margin in an 8 – 5 win over the A’s. Ted’s 4th-inning blast, off Jack Urban, ties him with Babe Ruth for second place on the career slam list.

May 22, 1963 — At Yankee Stadium, New York blows a 7 – 0 lead and allows Kansas City to tie the game and send it into extra innings. Mickey Mantle, leading off the 11th, is fooled by Bill Fischer on a slow curve, then cannons a 2 – 2 pitch that almost clears the RF roof. “The hardest ball I ever hit,” Mantle later comments, a ball that, by some accounts, is still rising when it strikes a foot below the top. It is conservatively estimated by Dr. James McDonald, a physicist who studies long-ball trajectories, that the ball would have traveled 620 feet if it had not struck the façade. “That was the only homer I ever hit that the bat actually bent in my hands,” Mantle tells Dale Long, from whom he borrowed the bat.

May 22 , 1965 — The Astrodome appears on national television for the first time. Viewers of ABC’s Game Of The Week watch Willie Mays blast a mammoth shot into the center field tunnel as the Giants pummels the Astros, 10-1. Chris Schenkel and Leo Durocher are the announcers. In the untelevised nightcap of the day-night twinbill, Nellie Fox drives home Rusty Staub in the eighth for a 3-2 Houston victory. Joe Gaines homers.

May 22, 1969, Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron is lifted for a pinch-hitter for the first time in his major league career. Mike Lum, batting for Aaron in the seventh, hits a pinch-hit double in the Braves’ 15-3 blowout of the New York Mets. Aaron had come to bat 9,015 times in his career before being removed for a pinch-hitter.

May 22, 1985 Pete Rose becomes the all-time leader in the National League for runs scored when he crosses the plate for the 2,108th time in his career. The Reds’ player-manager surpasses Hank Aaron when he tallies a run in the sixth inning of a 7-4 loss to Chicago at Wrigley Field.

On May 22, 1988 — At Dodger Stadium Pedro Guerrero throws his bat at David Cone after being hit by a pitch in the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 5 – 2 loss to the New York Mets. He will be suspended for four games by National League president Bart Giamatti.

May 22, 1990. Yankee Stadium. Primetime Deion Sanders squares off at home with Carlton Fisk after putting a dollar sign in batters box.

May 22, 1999, may well be the reason the Los Angeles Dodgers would one day hire Mark McGwire as their hitting coach. McGwire sent the ball thrown by then-rookie Jamie Arnold in the eighth inning 483 feet to left-center field for his second homer of the night. The ball bounced off the top of the Left Field Pavilion and even prompted Vin Scully to proclaim, “Woah!”

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TRIVIA

TRIVIA: Who was named Baseball America Freshman of the Year and the next year Baseball America College Player of the Year?

Hint: #1 He hit the first of almost three hundred major league home runs off Roger Clemens.

Hint: #2 He is the only player to hit two grand slams in a single game AND hit grand slams in each game of a doubleheader.

IF you think you know the answer and bonus points for how many respond with details and if you are right I will give you a shut out! No Googling!

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 ANSWER TO TODAY’S TRIVIA