Mantle began his Yankees career with their Class-D Independence team as a shortstop. He struggled mightily and had thoughts with his father about quitting baseball. Mantle was convince to continue his career in baseball and finished the season hitting .311. He was promoted the following season to Class-C in which he won the Western Association batting title. He hit .383 with 26 home runs and 136 runs batted in. A remarkable season for someone who a year earlier wanted to end his baseball career. With all this offensive power, Mantle needed to change positions because he was a weak defensive shortstop. Mantle was invited to the Yankees instructional spring league in 1951 and impressed Yankees management. He was promoted to the big leagues as a right fielder.
Mantle made quick impressions on his manager and teammates. Manager Casey Stengal said that "he has more natural power from both sides of the plate than anybody I ever saw." Mickey's teammate Bill Dickey called Mantle "the greatest prospect [he's] seen in [his] time." Mantle struggled once in the bigs and got sent down. Again he contemplated quitting but his father told him otherwise. Mantle immediately broke out of his struggles and hit .311 with 23 home runs. After 40 games in the minors, he was called up again and hit .267 with the Yankees. He also appeared in two World Series games that year.
Mantle replaced Joe Dimaggio in 1952 as the Yankees Center Fielder. Mantle's career rocketed in 1952 and did not slow down. 1956 was Mantle's best year as a ball player as he won the Triple Crown by leading the league in batting average (.353), home runs (52), and runs batted in (130). He won his first of three Most Valuable Player awards and won the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. The next season, Mantle again won the MVP award and batted a career-high .365.
Mickey signed a $75,000 contract with the Yankees, making him the highest paid active player. That contract today would be worth $583,296.
1961 was a golden year. Mickey Mantle and his teammate Roger Maris went back and forth, shot for shot for the single season home run record. They both tried to break Babe Ruth's record. Nearing the end of the season, Mantle got injured and finished with 54 home runs. Maris on the other hand hit 61 home runs and broke Babe Ruth's record.
Mickey's career started to decline in 1965 because of injures and alcoholism. Mantle announced his retirement on March 1, 1969 ending his amazing career. Mantle's livers started to wither away and in 1995 one of the greatest, not only Yankee, but Major League Baseball player ever. Number 7 was remembered by the Yankees as they had a game the day he died. The Yanks payed Mantle a tribute by playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" on the organ as that was Mantle's favorite song.
Mickey Mantle's career was really just spectacular. He ended his career with 20 American League All-Star appearances, three MVP awards, one gold glove, a triple crown, and a seven time World Series Champion. Mantle will forever be known as one of the greatest Yankees ever. That is certainly saying something with Babe Ruth, Joe Dimaggio, and Lou Gehrig all playing for the Bronx Bombers. In 1998, "The Sporting News" placed Mantle at 17th on its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players". That same year, he was one of 100 nominees for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team, and was chosen by fan balloting as one of the team's outfielders. ESPN's SportsCentury series that ran in 1999 ranked him No. 37 on its "50 Greatest Athletes" series. Sportscaster Bob Costas described him as "a fragile hero to whom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defied logic." Costas added: "In the last year of his life, Mickey Mantle, always so hard on himself, finally came to accept and appreciate the distinction between a role model and a hero. The first, he often was not. The second, he always will be. And, in the end, people got it."
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